As the weather turns colder at this time of year, my mind wanders to thoughts of puddings past.
Pudding looms large in the history of my hometown of Hawley. The first recorded event in the town’s history was a pudding contest around 1780. Actually, the contest should probably be called a semi-recorded event; we have more myth than fact about it.
Legend has it that two of the town’s best cooks vied to see who could produce Hawley’s largest pudding. The winner, Abigail Baker, prepared her pudding in a “five-pail kettle,” which sounds appropriately vast.
She was ever after called Hawley’s “Pudding Head,” and the area of town in which she lived is known to this day as Pudding Hollow.
The choice of puddings made sense. Puddings dominated 18th-century menus. In an era when fires had to be lit for hours in order to cook properly, slow-cooked foods like puddings proved easy to prepare.
According to a delightful 1960 Gourmet magazine article titled “Pudding Time,” puddings — even sweet ones — were served first during early-American dinners, rather than as after-meal desserts. This practice led to a colloquial expression, “I came in pudding time,” meaning, “I came early.”
Mrs. Baker lived around the corner from my current home. The house in which she lived when she won the pudding contest was replaced by a lovely brick structure during her lifetime. That structure still stands and is known as Pudding Hollow Farm.
She is buried just down the road from her home, in the Pudding Hollow Cemetery.
I was so inspired by the practicality and generosity of rewarding the cook who could make the most food (rather than the best food) that I titled my first book “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook.”
Along with the Sons & Daughters of Hawley, I also launched a revival of Hawley’s pudding contest in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, we changed its frequency from once every year to once every five years.
It is due to be revived in 2024. I’m not sure whether it will actually go forward in two years. I love the pudding contest, but it is also a huge amount of work. Still, I love to think about the ways in which it has helped Hawleyites build community and celebrate culinary history.
I also love many of the puddings that have been entered in the contest over the years. Although I have a strong sweet tooth, I tend to appreciate the savory puddings that have been entered most of all … perhaps because their flavors stand out more strongly than those of the sweet puddings.
I may be alone in this preference. To date, no savory pudding has taken first place in the revived contest. First prizes have gone to chocolate pudding cake, to a coconut cream custard, to a pumpkin gingerbread pudding, and most recently to a Scottish-style spiced steam pudding. (Alcohol was involved in that last concoction.)
Nevertheless, I treasure remembered tastes of carrot pudding, potato pudding, and a huge variety of corn puddings. My favorite pudding ever was a savory dish devised by the late Nancy Argeris of Hawley. Nancy’s family was Greek, and she made a spectacular Greek eggplant pudding.
In memory of Nancy — and of all the puddings we have enjoyed here in Hawley over the centuries — I have made her pudding once more this year. It has a lot of steps, but no difficult ones. It’s vegetarian and gluten free. And it smells divine as it cooks. When you eat it, you’re always in pudding time.
Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants
kosher salt for sprinkling
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (more or less), divided
1 large white onion, finely diced (I used a sweet onion as that’s what I had in the house)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 large eggs
1-1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 teaspoon fresh (I tend to use a bit more)
Instructions:
Peel the eggplants and cut them into 1/2-inch rounds. Place the eggplant slices in a colander, sprinkling salt on each layer as they go in. Let them sit with the salt for 45 minutes. This helps remove any bitterness from the seeds.
Half an hour into this process, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
When the eggplant slices are through sitting, rinse and dry them thoroughly. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet, and place the slices on it, turning them so that both sides of eggplant have been oiled. Bake until the pieces soften, about 30 minutes.
In a small sauté pan, sauté the onion and garlic in a little more oil over medium heat until the onion becomes translucent. Let the vegetables cool for a few minutes; then, in a medium bowl whisk together the eggs. Stir in the crumbled feta, the oregano, and the onion mixture.
Oil a 2- to 3-quart baking dish and put a layer of eggplant at the bottom. Pour about 1/3 of the egg mixture on top. Repeat the layers, ending with the egg mixture.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the mixture sets. (Avoid overcooking the pudding. It doesn’t have to be brown.)
Serves 6 to 8.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning author and singer. Her new book is “Pot Luck: Random Acts of Cooking.” Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.