08/30/2026
⚓ LOST MARITIME RECIPE: 1790s MOLASSES CORNMEAL PUDDING 🍎
Here’s a recipe with some real history behind it!
A handwritten version of this old cornmeal pudding survives in the Almon Scrapbook, now held by the Nova Scotia Archives. The manuscript is dated somewhere between 1780 and 1800 and is associated with Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Back then, cornmeal was often called “Indian meal.” The old recipe combined it with boiling water, molasses and salt, then placed the mixture in a cloth pudding bag and boiled it for six hours! Suet, dried apples or huckleberries could also be added. The recipe is connected to instructions published by Count Rumford in 1796.
Thankfully, we can make something very similar today without keeping a pot boiling for six hours. 😂
🍎 Modern Molasses Cornmeal Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup cornmeal
2 cups boiling water
⅓ cup molasses
¼ tsp salt
½ cup chopped dried apples
2 tbsp butter
½ tsp cinnamon, optional
Directions:
Gradually stir the cornmeal into the boiling water until smooth.
Stir in the molasses, salt, dried apples, butter and cinnamon.
Pour into a well-buttered heatproof pudding dish and cover.
Place the dish in a larger pot with gently simmering water and steam for approximately 2 hours, adding more hot water to the pot as necessary.
Serve warm with cream, butter or an extra drizzle of molasses.
The original version was considerably larger—it called for 3 pounds of cornmeal, 5 pints of boiling water and molasses, with room left in the pudding bag so it could swell while boiling. Dried apples or huckleberries were optional additions.
More than two centuries later, it’s a little taste of the food that once appeared on Maritime tables. ❤️
