I grew up with the Little House on the Prairie and couldn’t wait to share it with my own daughter. We have been listening to the series on audiobook and thoroughly enjoying them! In fact, my daughter dressed up today as Mary Ingalls for World Book Day.
What struck me with the first novel (Little House in the Big Woods) was how much of the story was dominated by food. Getting enough of it, preserving it, cooking it and enjoying it! So, from one humble kitchen to another, here’s a sweet recipe for Book Day. I’ve adapted it slightly from the original recipe because the polenta needed a lot of maple syrup to counterbalance the saltiness. I also found that the pudding was done long before the 1 hour cooking time recommended (about 30-40 mins).
“But for supper Grandma made hasty pudding.She stood by the stove, sifting the yellow corn meal from her fingers into a kettle of boiling, salted water. she stirred the water all the time with a big wooden spoon, and sifted the meal until the kettle was full of thick, yell, bubbling mass. Then she set it on the back of the stove where it would cook slowly….
Then Uncle George came with a smaller bucket of syrup, and everybody ate the hot hasty pudding with maple syrup for supper.”
— Little House in the Big Woods
Recipe
- 1 litre water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 150g cornmeal (polenta), coarsely ground
- maple syrup
- cream or almond milk (optional)
Bring the water to a boil in the kettle, and stir in salt. Put the meal in a bowl so you can gather it up easily in your hand. Proceed to stir the water with a spoon in one hand and sprinkling in the cornmeal with the other hand.
When all the cornmeal has been stirred in, reduce the heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to prevent burning and to test thickness. The pudding is done when it looks like cooked oatmeal.
Serve in bowls with syrup.
Results
With a generous helping of maple syrup and cream (almond milk would be equally tasty), this was a satisfying sweet pudding. However, I’m not sure that I liked it quite as much as Laura Ingalls Wilder did when she was a child.