Making Aunt Gert’s Indian Pudding
by Joanne Corey
Her recipe calls for butter the size of an egg,
conjuring the image of scooping butter
from the crock in the creamery,
rather than slicing a few tablespoons
from a stick of Land O’ Lakes.
Simple and frugal,
no spices required,
that expense unnecessary
through the wonder of molasses,
slow-baked and intensified.
Summer corn stored as meal
and fresh milk from the cows
meld to warm us
in the November chill,
honoring our New England roots.
AUTHOR’S PHOTO CAPTION: My hands holding a serving of Indian pudding, warm, with ice cream, August 2015. (I made a batch in the heat of August in order to take this photo to submit.)
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Indian pudding is neither related to India nor descended from the First Nations of the Americas. It is a New England variant of British hasty pudding using maize or “Indian corn” rather than wheat flour and slow-baked rather than prepared over direct heat. As native New Englanders, my husband and I grew up with Indian pudding as a traditional fall or winter dessert. In my husband’s family, Great-Aunt Gert always made it for the family’s Thanksgiving dinner. We are passing the tradition on to our daughters. An earlier draft of this poem appeared on my blog in November of 2013. I have since written two more Indian pudding poems and committed to posting an Indian pudding poem on my blog each November 13th, which is National Indian Pudding Day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joanne Corey lives and writes in Vestal, New York, where she is active with the Binghamton Poetry Project and Sappho’s Circle. Her 2015 publications include the spring anthology of the Binghamton Poetry Project, Candles of Hope anthology (GWL Publishing, U.K.), the “All About My Name” and “My Perfect Vacation” poetry series from Silver Birch Press, and Wilderness House Literary Review fall quarterly. She invites you to visit her eclectic blog at topofjcsmind.wordpress.com.
The only thing wrong with this poem is the recipe wasn’t included. Indian pudding is something I must now demand. Thanks for spoiling my diet.
Great write.
Thanks! I’m not sure I’m at liberty to divulge the family recipe, as it comes from my husband’s side. I’ll check…
As desserts go, it isn’t as unhealthy as some!
I have the recipe up on my blog now: https://topofjcsmind.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/indian-pudding-recipe/. Enjoy!
[…] I am very pleased to announce that I have another poem published today! The blog of Silver Birch Press has published “Making Aunt Gert’s Indian Pudding” as part of their “My Sweet Word” series. You can find it here: https://silverbirchpress.wordpress.com/2015/10/12/making-aunt-gerts-indian-pudding-poem-by-joanne-co… […]
Fantastic Joanne! (Count me along with those wishing for the recipe.)
Thanks, Pat. Just click on the link to Top of JC’s Mind above for the recipe!
[…] I posted about my poem “Making Aunt Gert’s Indian Pudding” which precipitated several requests for the recipe. So, here it is, with various notes, because I […]
[…] prompts. I had a poem accepted in five series this year: All About My Name My Perfect Vacation My Sweet Word When I Hear That Song Me, During the Holidays All but one of these were written for SBP. You can […]