ANSWER: Cracker pudding actually appears to have origins as a Pennsylvania Dutch dish and quite a few of the recipes Sun Spots located are titled “Amish” cracker pudding. The crackers — recipes call for crushed saltines — actually act as the thickening agent for the pudding. However, this is an old recipe and the saltine crackers you purchase in the store today are not the same as they were back in the 1800s when this recipe was popular.

Back in the day, crackers were heartier and stored in barrels for voyages because they would keep for a long time in dry storage. Country stores sold them right from the barrel, often with wedges of sharp cheddar cheese from those giant cheese wheels. People would top the crackers with cheese as a snack or lunch while they sat in the store and chatted with townsfolk.

For a more authentic cracker pudding, seek out a high-quality, old-fashioned cracker like Vermont Common Cracker, which you can find in many supermarkets or online. Here’s a couple of recipes Sun Spots found. The first one is courtesy of the “New England Country Store Cookbook” by Peter W. Smith, which claims this particular recipe is more than 100 years old.

Common Cracker Pudding

Ingredients:

3 pints of whole milk

1 pint of common cracker crumbs

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup of seedless raisins

1 tablespoon of softened butter

1 teaspoon of table salt

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Preparation:

Soak all the cracker crumbs in two cups of milk. Now, mix together all the ingredients, except the raisins, and turn into a well-greased casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for a half hour, then stir in the raisins and pour in the extra milk around the edges (not in the middle). Continue baking for two and a half hours or until cooked throughout.

Sun Spots found the second recipe in “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” by Tinky Weisblat. It’s a bit more complicated but sounds delicious. Sun Spots hopes you will enjoy these recipes and if any readers have additional suggestions, please share them with us.

Grandmother Parker’s Cracker Pudding

Ingredients:

About 15 New England common crackers

Softened sweet butter as needed

About 30 seeded muscat (jumbo) raisins

Enough milk to cover the crackers and raisins (about 4 cups)

2 eggs, beaten

1 and 1/2 to 2 cups sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)

1/2 teaspoon mace

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:

Split the crackers in half and spread each half with butter. Put 1 muscat raisin on each half cracker and arrange the crackers loosely on the bottom of a 3-quart casserole dish (you might need to layer). Cover  crackers with milk and a weighted plate. Allow them to soak overnight in a cool place. The next day, preheat the oven to 300 degrees, drain off the milk and combine it with the remaining ingredients. Cover the crackers with the liquid and bake it for 1 and 1/2 hours. Serve hot with lots of whipped cream.

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