Count Rumford, Hasty Pudding / Indian Pudding / Boil Potatoes

[ Count Rumford, Hasty Pudding / Indian Pudding / Boil Potatoes ]

Date: Not dated, written between 1780-1800. | 1780/01/01 to 1800/01/01

Publication Format
Manuscript

Type
Food

Ingredients
water
salt
Indian meal
corn meal
molasses
suet
apples
huckleberries
potatoes

Places
Halifax
Nova Scotia

Source: Almon Scrapbook
Institution: Nova Scotia Archives | Source Origin: Almon Family Fonds | Reference: MG1 Vol. 14 / Microfilm Reel 14,894

Description

A recipe for hasty pudding made from cornmeal, followed by instructions for a similar "Indian pudding" sweetened with molasses and directions for boiling potatoes, p. 120.


Images
Transcription

Count Rumford, Hasty-Pudding
2 Pints of water, [td.] gr. of salt^disolvedboiled in the
Water, ½ lb of Indian meal. Stirred in by little &
little till it is enough, which may be known by
a wooden spoon standing on end in it.
____
    From the same Sr. WmPepperels Housekeeper Indian Pudding
3lb of Indian Meal (sifted) put into a large bowl, pour 5 pints of
boiling water & stir well-together, add 3 qts. of lb mollasses
& 1 oz of salt, there being all well mixed, pour into a bag thoroughly
cover in boiling water, leaving an empty space about the 6th.

_________________________
Part of its contents, for room to swell: Put
it into boiling water, a boil without in-
-termission 6 hours. 1lb of suet may be
added. Or 1 lb. of of dried apples. or huckle-
berries.
___
Same. Boil Potatoes.
Take them off the some size, wash clean, put
into cold,^waternot sufficient to cover them; if large,
as soon as they begin to boil, repeatedly throw in
cold water till they are done, which will take from
½ an hour to 1 ¼ according to their size, during

Annotations
The second of these recipes, for Indian Pudding, is found in Benjamin Rumford's Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical, vol. 1 (1796), pp. 264-265. Rumford was the Loyalist Benjamin Thompson of Woburn, Massachusetts and Concord, New Hampshire who was titled by the Holy Roman Empire for his scientific achievements.
A frequently used term for corn meal.
This may be Sir William Pepperel known for his role in the Battle of Louisbourg or his Loyalist grandson, Sir William Pepperel Sparhawk; his wife died of smallpox and was buried in Halifax as he was enroute to England. Given the London address of Rumford's note, and the date of publication of the essays, the latter seems more likely.
A footnote in Rumford's essays indicates that the recipe is the work of "the Housekeeper of my friend and countryman, Sir William Pepperel, Bart. of Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square" (264).