I've learned to be skeptical when it comes to salt in recipes. This one - from the "The Old Farmer's Almanac Colonial Cookbook" (64 pages, stapled) - calls for a quart of milk and...1 tsp. salt. I thought "you've got to be kidding." I cut it to 1/2 tsp. and I'm very glad. Maybe it should be even less. I think there should be less than 1/2 cup molasses as well. Next time, we'll see.

Btw, in a certain large hardcover Amish/Mennonite cookbook, the brownie pudding - under some other name - also called for 1 tsp. salt. I doubt many would prefer it that way. It wasn't for a huge pudding, after all.

So here's the modified list for the first dish:

1 quart milk
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Heavy cream (for serving with)


I grated my own nutmeg.

It called for a baking pan of 8" x 10", which I didn't have, so I used a larger one instead. (I cut the baking time from 2 hours to 90 minutes.) One also has to cook it in a double boiler for 25 minutes first.


Lenona.

Lenona.