It's National Indian Pudding Day! Here's Why You Should Celebrate
Turns out, Nov. 13 is National Indian Pudding Day. It snuck up on you again, didn't it?
You can't be blamed.
Indian pudding is virtually unknown outside of New England, and even there it's tricky to find. But this enduring New England dessert may actually deserve a day of its own.
The origins of this food holiday are obscure — "I don't know who the National Indian Pudding Day lobby is," says food historian Kathleen Wall, who works at Plimoth Plantation, the Colonial living-history museum in Plymouth, Mass. The holiday, she notes, has "never been petitioned at the White House."
But the dish itself, says Wall, is unquestionably all-American. The "Indian" in Indian pudding, Wall explains, refers to Native American cornmeal. The original pudding was likely just cornmeal, milk and molasses, steamed or boiled for a very long time. She calls it one of the country's first truly American recipes.
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