November 13 Is the Day We Celebrate America’s Oldest Dessert

The United States is known around the world for having some incredible restaurants. While mostly in the major cities, we’ve all found that hole-in-the-wall that may not be on some major list, but it hits the spot perfectly.

What we’re not known for, but nonetheless, has its own day, is the oldest dessert in the United States.

It should come as no surprise that it started in New England—the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to be exact—and that November 13th is its day.

It’s called Indian pudding, and you can still find it on the menu in a few places or make your own.

If you’ve had it before, you know it’s a gooey, bubbling concoction that’s a runny, hot mess where you just add vanilla ice cream and dig in. The Take Out website hit it on the head when it described it as the most delicious, comforting, quintessentially New England food you can eat.

According to the Take Out, there is no official first recipe for Indian pudding. It dates back to early English settlements in New England on Cape Cod in 1620, quickly expanding to include Boston and eventually New England, where it’s more easily found than the rest of the country.

But hey, if you want to try it you can make it.

The Take Out says it most likely started as a hasty pudding or porridge made with flour, milk, and sugar, eventually using cornmeal when flour was hard to come by.

Soon, it was made with molasses because of easy access to the sweet syrup, and though not super well known anymore, there is a National Indian Pudding Day on November 13th.

If you want a recipe to make your own, click here and New England Today has one.