Hasty pudding is a simple, cheap, and filling dish made by cooking cracked cereal grains in milk or water. It was a common breakfast for the poor in the 17th and 18th centuries. It can be made with different grains and sweeteners, and can be cooked slowly or quickly. In some regions, it can cool into a thick slab that can be cut into wedges and fried.
Hasty pudding is a dish prepared by cooking cracked cereal grains in milk or water until they form a thick mass, like oatmeal or porridge. It’s simple and cheap to make, and very filling too. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, hasty pudding was a common breakfast for the poor, because it was easy to make and would fuel the body until lunchtime. In modern usage, the term “pudding rush” is mostly associated with a specific type of pudding made in the American colonies, using corn and water.
Depending on the cook or the nation, hasty pudding can be prepared in different ways. In colonial America, it was often made with ground corn, because it was plentiful and cheap. In Britain, hasty pudding was made with oats or other grains. In both cases, the grain would be broken in a mill before being cooked and salted during cooking. Typically, a large batch of hasty pudding is made in a thick kettle or skillet.
Despite the name, hasty pudding is designed to be cooked slowly. In a home with a wood stove, a pot of hasty pudding might be left on the stove overnight to cook slowly until morning, as long as it was stirred periodically. Many recipes for a regular stovetop also called for long, slow cooking, which would break the grains into a mush. When cooked quickly, hasty pudding has a chewier texture. Stirring is key, however the pudding is made hastily, to prevent it from turning to cement as a mass glued to the bottom of the pot.
Traditionally, a sweetener such as honey, maple syrup, molasses, or sugar is mixed into hurried pudding. The dish is served hot and if it is not cooked with milk, the milk or cream could be laid out on the table to be used as a side dish. A container of sweetener can also be arranged, in case the hasty pudding isn’t seasoned to taste. Other ingredients like nuts and dried fruits can be added, if diners are feeling exotic.
In some regions, hasty pudding may cool into a thick slab, like polenta. Rushed pudding can be cut into wedges and wrapped, or the wedges can be fried for extra flavor. This hasty pudding treat was most common in colonial America.
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