When a recipe is SO old, with each cook that makes it, they add their version to the mix and the world ends up with 1000 versions of a dish from a 1000 different chefs! I grew up on the wild prairies of Minnesota with Grandparents who lived in the 1890's. Store bought food was scarce so you used what you could grow or barter. This dish originated in the early 1600's from what was available: molasses, milk, and cornmeal. White sugar and eggs were expensive luxuries that didn't exist for most people and weren't added to the original recipe until many decades later, when both eggs and white sugar became common and inexpensive to waste on an inexpensive dish. This is a dense and soft cornmeal mush pudding, that bakes in a very slow oven and IS NOT STIRRED! I've never seen another recipe that used as much cornmeal, which is why this one is so tasty. Many reviewers of other recipes complain that you can't taste any corn flavour. If you don't like molasses, maple syrup can be used and that would make it a New England Indian Pudding. This is great on a cold Winter day with a cold glass of buttermilk or steaming cup of coffee and is equally good the next morning, served for breakfast with a nice side of bacon or ham. Enjoy!