Hasty pudding is an old colonial dish that seems impossibly remote to our daily experience. After all, you never see it on a menu, it's not in current cookbooks, it's never mentioned on cooking shows, kitchen stores don't sell the latest gadget for making hasty pudding....
But they do! Hasty Pudding is just polenta. Hasty pudding is nothing more than cornmeal and salt cooked in boiling water.
In Colonial times, Hasty Pudding was popular because it was easy, nutritious, and a welcome change from those two ubiquitous staples of the day: Brown Bread and Beans. It was served both fresh and soft, and cooled into a loaf that would be sliced and cooked up in a skillet in butter or bacon fat, and served with maple syrup, molasses, or preserves, or served as a savory with fish or meat.