The World Table

An interactive culinary compendium: recipes, lexicon and study

Illinois · Side

Illinois Corn Pudding

  • Easy
  • 70 min
  • roughly 2 of 4 for cost
  • Vegetarian

rich · warm-spiced Leads with richness that coats and comforts, warm spice humming through the middle.

Ingredients

  • 6 ears corn, kernels and scraped milk
  • 4 eggs
  • 500ml milk
  • 120ml cream
  • 55g butter, melted
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper
  • Nutmeg

The skills inside

The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · dairy · egg

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

  1. Cut the kernels from the cobs, then scrape the cobs hard for the starchy milk.
  2. Whisk the eggs, milk, cream, melted butter, flour, sugar, salt, and pepper.
  3. Stir in the corn and scrapings and pour into a buttered dish.
  4. Grate nutmeg over the top.
  5. Bake at 175C for 45-55 min until set at the edges with a slight wobble at the center. 55 min

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

The wobble & the skewer: testing a bake 135 recipes

  • Tested at the true centre and the thickest point, not at the convenient edge: the edge is done long before the answer is.
  • The skewer comes out as the recipe describes, clean and dry or carrying the stated moist crumb, and it does the same on a second test in a different spot.
  • The wobble is read in motion: nudged, the centre moves as one set mass with a faint tremble, rather than a liquid ripple travelling across the surface.
  • The other signs agree with the test: risen and just shrinking from the sides, the top set and dry to a light touch with no wet gloss on it.
  • Pressed lightly at the middle it springs back and leaves no lasting dent.

Where it goes wrong It was judged on the clock and on how the edges looked, so a centre still liquid went to the rack and sank as it cooled, a dense wet seam under a perfectly browned top.

At the Table

The Pour
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Also Right
Vermentino or dry Chenin
From the Taps
Saison
Zero-Proof
Sparkling water with citrus & herbs

The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.

Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.

Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Illinois Corn Pudding Search YouTube: J. Kenji López-Alt on Illinois Corn Pudding A YouTube search for J. Kenji López-Alt and this dish. No affiliation.