Corn Loaf
1 3/4 cups milk, part cream if desired 1 cup granola 3/4 cup canned corn, or fresh, cooked corn, cut from cob 2 eggs, beaten 1 1/2 teaspoons salt Soak granola in milk fifteen minutes, add remaining ingredients. Put into oiled bread tin, and bake till set. Serve with cream sauce or egg sauce. Zwieback crumbs or cracker crumbs may be used instead of the granola, but they do not give so good a flavor. One-half cup of chopped pine nuts makes a palatable addition to this loaf, making Corn and Pine Nut Loaf.
A simple baked custard loaf of the sort that filled the main-dish slot in vegetarian cookery a century ago. The one word that will mislead a modern cook is granola.
- Granola is not modern granolaIn this period "granola" usually meant the Battle Creek health-food product: baked whole grains (wheat, and commonly oats and cornmeal too) ground into a dry, unsweetened crumb. Modern granola is sweetened and full of oats, nuts and dried fruit, and will make a sticky sweet loaf. Use plain dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs, or the zwieback or cracker crumbs the recipe itself offers as substitutes.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given at all. Bake at 350F. An egg-set loaf this wet turns watery and curdled if pushed hotter.
- "Bake till set"Expect 45 to 55 minutes in a standard 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf tin. It is done when the centre no longer trembles and a knife inserted there comes out clean. A pan of hot water on the shelf below, or the tin set in a water bath, gives a smoother texture.
- CornCanned corn should be drained before it is measured, or the extra liquid will keep the custard from setting. Frozen corn, thawed and patted dry, works in place of both options.
- SaltA teaspoon and a half in this small a quantity is assertive by current taste, particularly with canned corn that is already salted. A teaspoon is closer to modern seasoning.
- Turning it outOil the tin generously and let the loaf stand ten minutes before unmoulding, or slice it straight from the tin. Custard loaves are fragile hot and firm up considerably as they cool.
- Yield and servingFour modest servings as a main dish. The cream sauce or egg sauce is not optional in spirit: the loaf is mild and slightly dry on its own, and the sauce is what makes it a meal.
- Pine nut variationToast the half cup of chopped pine nuts lightly before adding them. Untoasted they read as merely soft, and pine nuts are far dearer now than they were when this was written.