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Green Corn Souffle
Score lengthwise and cut from the cob enough tender green corn to make 1 cupful of pulp. Add to this 1 cupful of rich cream or milk with 1 tablespoonful of butter. Season well with salt and white pepper. Add the beaten yolks of 3 eggs, and cook in a double boiler until creamy, stirring all the while. Let the mixture cool and stir in lightly the stiffly beaten whites of 4 eggs, turn into a buttered dish and bake twenty minutes in a rather hot oven.
A custard-based corn souffle that leans on the cob itself for body. The hinge is the double boiler: the yolk mixture must thicken to a loose custard without ever scrambling, then cool before the whites go in.
- "Green corn" means fresh sweet cornIn this period green corn is simply corn picked young and milky, before the kernels set starchy. Look for ears whose kernels release a cloudy liquid when pressed with a thumbnail.
- Scoring and scrapingRun a knife tip down the centre of each row to split the kernels, then scrape the cob with the back of the blade. This gives pulp and milk rather than whole kernels, which is what makes the souffle smooth. Depending on the size of the ears, roughly three to six will yield about a cup.
- Frozen cornThawed frozen kernels can stand in, but they hold no cob milk. Pulse them briefly in a food processor and add a tablespoon of extra cream to compensate.
- "Rather hot oven"Take this as somewhere around 400F. A hotter oven risks setting the outside before the centre has risen.
- The egg count is deliberateThe egg count -- Three yolks, four whites, as written. The extra white presumably adds lift, so do not be tempted to even the numbers up; save the spare yolk for something else.
- Custard stageIn the double boiler, keep the water below a simmer and stop as soon as the mixture coats the spoon, around 170-175F. Once it looks grainy the eggs have curdled and no amount of beating brings it back.
- Cool before foldingA warm base deflates the whites on contact. Cool the custard to at least room temperature, beat the whites to firm but not dry peaks, and fold in two additions with a spatula.
- Dish and yieldA buttered dish of about a quart and a half suits the volume; fill it no more than three-quarters. Twenty minutes in the oven above gives a puffed top with a slightly creamy centre. Serves four as a side, and it should go to the table straight from the oven.