Tapioca Pudding
A complete Ellis Island meal (clockwise from top left): Tapioca Pudding, coffee, Beef and Barley Soup, and white bread
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1880
Scarcity of food was one of the main reasons that Europeans immigrated to America, and there was always a free meal to be had on their first stop on Ellis Island. The quality of the food and of the dining room varied a lot throughout the years, but this dinner (midday meal) menu from January 20, 1920 seems like it was during the better times:
English Beef Soup with Barley, Lamb Stew with Vegetables, Bread and butter substitute, Tapioca Pudding, Coffee
This pudding is a lot firmer than modern versions, and isn’t as sweet. There’s no sugar in the pudding itself, and I highly recommend that you serve it with the brown sugar and cream as suggested in the historical recipe.
“Cold Tapioca Pudding
Soak a cupful of tapioca over night in a quart of cold water. In the morning drain off all the water. Put the tapioca and a quart and a half a pint of milk in the double boiler. After cooking forty-five minutes, add a teaspoonful of salt. Stir well, and cook fifteen minutes longer. Wet a mould or bowl in cold water. Turn the pudding into this, and set away to cool. Serve with sugar and cream. This pudding is also nice hot.”
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (130 g) tapioca pearls
- 1 quart (1 L) cold water
- 5 cups (1.2 L) whole milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Brown sugar, for serving
- Cream, for serving
Instructions:
- Combine the tapioca pearls and the cold water in a large bowl. Let it soak overnight, or at least 6 hours.
- The next morning, drain off the water. Set up a double boiler and pour the milk into the top pot. Add the drained tapioca pearls to the milk. Bring a couple of inches of water to a boil in the bottom pot. Set the pot with the milk and tapioca pearls on top and let it cook for about 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, stir in the salt. The pudding should have started to get thick by now. Cook it for another 15 minutes, then immediately take it off the heat and pour it into a bowl or other mold. Let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.
- Once the pudding has set up, scoop it into a dish and serve it forth with Beef and Barley Soup for an Ellis Island meal.