Home › Soups › Cream of Corn Soup
Cream of Corn Soup
1 Can Corn 1 Quart Milk 1 Slice Onion Bit of Mace 1 Heaping Teaspoon Cornstarch 1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper 3 Tablespoons Butter 1 Cup Cream Yolks of 2 Eggs Mash the corn to a pulp and put in a double boiler. Add the milk, onion and mace. Rub the butter and cornstarch to a paste, adding the pepper and stir into the first mixture. When thoroughly cooked, strain and add the cream and eggs.
A straightforward velvet-textured corn soup, thickened with cornstarch and finished with yolks and cream. The only real technique is the finish: the eggs go in off the heat and must never boil.
- The hinge: the egg finishOnce the yolks go in, the soup cannot be allowed to boil or it will curdle into threads. Whisk a ladle of the hot strained soup into the beaten yolks and cream first, then return the mixture to the pan over low heat and bring it to about 160F, stirring constantly. It will thicken slightly and stop there.
- The can of cornCanned corn of this era came in several sizes, so the quantity is approximate; anywhere from about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of kernels suits the quart of milk. A modern 15 oz can drained is close enough; fresh kernels cut from a few ears work at least as well. Mash or pulse them, but do not puree to a smooth cream if you want the strainer to do its job.
- MaceA "bit of mace" means a piece of blade mace, the dried outer covering of the nutmeg seed, added whole and removed with the onion at straining. If you only have ground mace, use a scant 1/8 teaspoon, as it will stay in the soup after straining.
- Double boilerUsed here because scalded milk catches and scorches easily on a direct flame. A heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat with regular stirring does the same work faster; cook only until the mixture has thickened and tastes of corn, as the recipe's "thoroughly cooked" implies.
- SaltThe recipe calls for pepper but no salt. Season at the end, after straining, and taste again after the cream goes in.
- The strainPressing the mixture through a fine sieve is what makes this a cream soup rather than a chowder. Work it with the back of a ladle to push the corn pulp through and leave the hulls behind; expect to discard a few tablespoons of skins.
- Butter and cornstarchA heaping teaspoon of cornstarch to a quart of milk gives a light body, not a gravy. Rubbing it into the butter cold, as directed, keeps it from lumping when it hits the hot milk.
- YieldAbout 1 1/2 quarts, or six first-course servings. It does not reheat gracefully once the yolks are in, so serve it the day it is made and warm leftovers gently, well below a simmer.
Cream of corn soup is often said to have been a fixture of American middle-class menus from the 1880s onward, and it owes its place in a book like this one to canned corn. Commercial canning of sweet corn expanded rapidly in the decades after the Civil War, and by 1900 a can of corn was reputedly among the cheaper reliable vegetables on a pantry shelf, available in February as readily as August. The finish here is older than the can, though: thickening a strained soup with egg yolks and cream is the classic French liaison, and its appearance in a plain American household book shows how thoroughly that technique had filtered down from professional kitchens by the turn of the century.