Puddings have undergone a fascinating evolution over the centuries and originally, they were eaten as meat-based dishes common in medieval times, with ingredients like milk, sugar, and fish or meat. As for vanilla, and in puddings that is an entire tale that needs an elaborate telling. If you want the authentic pudding, your best bet is sourcing a vanilla bean that can be used by dropping in the milk and removing it later. This pudding also makes for a great happy birthday surprise.
Where did pudding come from?
As per culinary historians, pudding is said to have originated as an evolution of an Arab rice and almond pudding-like dish. The oldest known recipe dates to the early 13th century, a translation likely based on a 12th-century or earlier manuscript.
This dish called blancmange (meaning "white dish" in Old French), was enjoyed by Europe's wealthy during the Middle Ages. It appears frequently in recipe collections across the Continent from that time, referred to as one of "the few truly international dishes of medieval and early modern Europe." The prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer's famous Canterbury Tales (not the Oscar Wilde one with the ghost) and an early 15th-century cookbook by chefs of Richard II mention it.
Originally a white stew, the key blancmange ingredients were milk or almond milk, sugar, and shredded capon or fish. By the 17th century, the meat was dropped, evolving into a cream and egg dessert pudding (and later incorporating gelatin). Gelatin, back then, was made by boiling bones which gave rise to this jiggly edible compound, until powdered gelatin was invented in 1682.
In the 19th century, arrowroot and cornstarch were added, developing into the modern blancmange, known as vanilla pudding or cornstarch pudding in the U.S. The concept of cooking it with sugar for dessert dates back to 1845 and inventor Peter Cooper. After all this hoopla, the modern version we know of is much like the custard, and eggless.
But that too isn’t all that new, because allergies still existed back in the day and in fact, a chemist called Alfred Bird invented the first egg-free custard powder in 1837, using flavored cornstarch. His wife had an egg allergy, necessitating this invention. Fast forward to the 1900s, a company called My-T-Fine produced the United States’ earliest packaged pudding in 1918, though it still required stovetop cooking. Instant pudding mixes soon after were seen popping up in the mid-1940s.
As for vanilla, that is another story altogether and dates back to the Totonac people in Mexico, who were behind its cultivation. Veracruz in modern-day Mexico still grows the vanilla spice in record numbers. However, seafarers, or rather colonizers were behind making the spice global, namely, the Spanish who invaded the Aztecs, who in turn had overpowered the Totonacs. However, vanilla is hard to pollinate given how only one pollinator, a certain kind of bee pollinates the vanilla. After years of struggle to grow vanilla away from its home, a slave off an island close to Madagascar found that hand pollination worked for the climber orchid.
Ingredients
Instructions
6. Serve chilled, topped with whipped cream and cookies.