Un Pudding de Mais
Prenez 5 épis maïs que vous faites bouillir, râpez mettez-les dans un bol, ajoutez une cuillerée de sucre, une pincée de sel, une grande cuillerée de crème, 4 jaunes d'œuf, battez 4 blancs d'œuf en neige, mélangez le tout bien ensemble et versez dans un plat beurré, mettez au four une demi-heure assez chaud comme pour faire du soufflet.
A light, soufflé-style corn pudding built on fresh grated corn and whipped whites — summer’s sweet corn turned airy.
- Use the corn’s milkBoil 5 ears, then grate the kernels so you catch the starchy “milk”; that liquid plus the pulp is the body of the pudding. Modern shortcut: about 2½–3 cups fresh corn.
- The lightening4 yolks go into the batter; 4 whites are beaten to stiff neige and folded in last, so it rises like a soufflé.
- Season gentlyJust 1 Tbsp sugar, a pinch of salt, and a big spoonful (about 2 Tbsp) of cream — the corn should taste of itself.
- Real oven heatAssez chaud comme pour un soufflet means a moderate-to-hot 375°F; bake about 30 minutes.
- Serve at onceGrease the dish well and don’t open the oven early, or the puff will fall before it reaches the table.
Corn pudding descends directly from Native American foodways: Indigenous cooks across the Americas prepared fresh green corn scraped from the cob long before European contact, and colonists learned the technique from them. Grating or scraping the ear to release its starchy “milk” is the old, essential trick — it thickens the dish with little or no flour. The Creole refinement here is French method laid over an American ingredient: beaten egg whites turn a homely corn-belt staple into a soufflé, a neat emblem of how Louisiana cooking married two traditions.
From page 110 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
