It seems that Nov. 13 is National Indian Pudding Day, arguably one of the most important days in American history. Outside of New England, it is almost unheard of, and understandably so. The holiday itself is so obscure that according to food historian Kathleen Wall, “[it] has never been petitioned at the White House.”

Kathleen Wall, who works at Plymouth Plantation, the Colonial living-history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, explains that the infamous dish is one of the nation’s first truly American recipes. The dish is a compilation of the foods due to the introduction of colonial influence on the continent, mixed with the pre-existing food stuffs. The “Indian” in Indian pudding refers to the Native American cornmeal, and like a normal pudding recipe, is finished with molasses from the Caribbean, and the milk and process of steaming and boiling from England.

Wall explains, “You have Indian corn, which you have to come over here to have — it’s not in England at at all. The milk from the cows that are brought over here by the European settlers. There’s the molasses that comes with the trade with the Caribbean,” Wall says. “And so it is, to my mind, a New England dish. It is not an English dish, or a Colonial dish; it belongs to all of New England.”

Of course, it looks nothing like the pudding that most Americans are used to, but once you have a bite, it’s hard to find any other way to describe it then interesting. 

“We like people to try it and eat it, because most of the people like it,” says Wayside innkeeper Steve Pickford. “It’s sweet, it’s sugary, it’s good. But, it looks like crap.”

Admittedly, the appearance doesn’t dazzle — the finished product looks similar to flan, very shiny and brown. But it is delicious and comforting.

Wall says that she expects that soon, humble dishes like Indian pudding may see another heyday.

“I think New England cooking is on an upswing,” she says. “That’s just [from] looking at cooking magazines and seeing what they’re trying to trend. And if they can put bacon and a cupcake on it, I think, like, we’re set.”

Possibly one could even go crazy a pickle it, and we might see another post about the first Nation Pickled Bacon Indian Pudding Cupcake day right around the corner.