Baked Indian Pudding

Durgin Park is a well know restaurant in Boston. It’s been there forever, and the food is good old New England fare. Whenever we go, I always get their Indian Pudding. Here is the story behind it, and their recipe.

Durgin Park’s Indian pudding is the best there is. Dark brown with substantial gravity, it smells like roasted corn and tastes like the first
Thanksgiving. The long cooking time is necessary to soften the corn and for the flavors to meld. Although some restaurants add raisins or other
flavorings, the only traditional way to doll it up is with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting fast atop each hot serving. Tommy Ryan loves telling the
story about the time he was eating in New Hampshire-just a regular customer, unknown to the staff. He asked the waitress if they had any Indian pudding for dessert. “Well, we do,” she said reluctantly, but then she bent close and clued him into a secret: “Sir, if you want really good Indian pudding, I suggest you go to Durgin-Park.”

Just to keep the record straight: this is not a Native American dish adapted by the colonist cooks. Its name comes from the fact that early
settlers considered virtually anything made with corn to be Indian nature.

1 1/2 plus 1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup black molasses
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. In a bowl mix 1 1/2 cups of the milk with the molasses, sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, egg and cornmeal. Pour the mixture into a stone crock that has been well greased and bake until it boils. Heat and stir in the remaining 1 1/2 cups milk. Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees F and bake for 5 to 7 hours. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Makes 4 to 6 servings