"The Canon," Part I: corn pudding

There is a tendency in cultures, not just American, but all that I know anything about, to attempt to "codify" things, and to perhaps "systematize" some aspect of that culture, be it literature, design, architecture, music, and so forth. And it is all encompassing. For example, as a classical music fan, I am more than familiar with attempts to create a classical music "canon." Recently, my friend Charlie provided enlightening commentary on attempts to codify jazz.

I guess this all goes to some deep rooted need to find order in what we do, and to establish a 'right' way to do things. Cooking has not escaped this tendency, to some extent. Happily, and at the same time, frustratingly, it has very much escaped it. Looking simply at American cooking, for example, think of "classic" or "canonical" dishes: chili. Apple pie. Meat loaf. Pizza (ok, that's pushing it). Hamburgers. Everyone "knows" how these dishes are supposed to be made. And if you speak to six people about the right way to make them, you will get six different answers.

I need to make clear that this is a different issue from the knottier one of how a dish becomes part of the canon. For example, Americans, by and large, say their favorite pie is cherry pie. You would get arguments from southerners, who swear by peach. Yet, we are "as american as apple pie." How did apple pie get into the canon, while cherry pie, or my favorite grape pie, did not? Vanilla is America's favorite flavor. BUT... chocolate cake is in the canon, yellow cake is not. At least for some of us, this is a very stimulating topic, one that has no clear answers, and which inspires serious discussion amongst serious cooks and serious eaters.

Today, I set out to make an American classic, corn pudding. I'm not sure if corn pudding is canonical. People don't speak of it in the same reverent terms as the items above, or some others, like barbecued ribs, and so forth. On the other hand, EVERYONE knows what corn pudding is. For some people, Thanksgiving without corn pudding is not Thanksgiving. It's just sort of "there."

Now that we are at the height of corn season, I thought it was time to make it, especially since Guy loves it. When I asked him to recall it, however, he remembered "custard and corn,' and not much else. In researching it, I found, literally, hundreds of recipes. Some were loaded with cheese. Some were loaded with fresh herbs. Others called for smoked ham. Still others, for shellfish, like crab. All well and good, but one of the characteristics of "canonical " or "classic'' dishes, in my opinion, is their simplicity. ( I will not generalize this to other cuisines. Looking at the canonical dishes of French cooking, like coq au vin, or cassoulet, one hardly comes away with a sense of simplicity).

As I researched the recipes, a few things did become apparent, however. All contain a dairy element, and eggs. The dairy elements vary widely: whole milk, skim milk, light cream, half and half, heavy cream, etc. The number of eggs varied from 1 to 8. And all contain corn. BUT.... what TYPE of corn? Almost universally, these recipes called for frozen corn, that was thawed. When they DID call for fresh corn, it was always chopped, or processed, before baking.

I surmised that the issue with the corn was simple: raw corn has that somewhat chewy kernel to it. When it bakes, this dries out and becomes very , perhaps too, chewy. Freezing and thawing corn in fact breaks down that tissue. So, too, does pureeing or chopping fresh corn. But I wanted the texture of whole corn, and I wanted it fresh. Why use frozen corn, or freeze it and thaw it, when the fresh was available? My solution was to cook fresh corn, off the cob. That worked to soften the corn, and still maintain its integrity.

Onto dairy. There was no question that low fat milks were not going to be used. This dish precedes the creation of these milk products, almost all of which I find revoltingy bad. I combined it, in equal quantities, with heavy cream. All heavy cream would have made a dish way too rich to eat (think panna cotta). I also used a half of a stick of unsalted butter, that I had melted.

Finally, there was the issue of eggs. You need eggs to set up a custard. As I said, the number of them varied, from 1 to 8. As a general rule, the more fat you have in a baked product, the fewer eggs you need. I used three large ones.

The custard, made as described below, was certainly thick, unctious and smelled wonderfully of corn. The top crust was slightly browned, and even for a "heathen" like myself , as my friend Jeff called me (I don't care for corn), this was quite appetizing.

I should point out that children pick corn as their favorite vegetable, almost 2 to 1. This is easy enough to make for your kids. Make it now, while the "corn is as high as an elephant's eye" Freeze some, and make it for Thanksgiving dinner too. Or just make it if it's one of those dishes that means "comfort" to you.

Preheat your oven to 350. Shuck eight ears of corn, and slice the kernels off, rubbing the cob with the back of your knife to get all the juices. You should have about three cups. Get this into a pot of cold, salted water, bring it to the boil, and cook for about ten minutes. While that is happening, mix half a cup of heavy cream and half a cup of milk. You can use a whole cup of milk, and if you do, I would add two additional eggs to the recipe.

Combine the cream/milk mixture with three large eggs, and beat this . Then add a half a stick of melted butter, and a pinch of salt. Drain the corn, and add it right to this mixture.

Butter a 9x9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish, pour the stuff into it, and bake for an hour or so. You'll need to check. When it's ready, the edges will be bubbling, the top will be a bit golden brown, and the custard will be slightly jiggly in the center. Turn off the oven, and let it cool there.

What you get with this recipe is a very solid , corn filled custard. It is definitely CORN custard, not custard flavored with corn.

Cookbooks refer to this as a side dish, but I prefer to treat it as a vegetarian entree. Serve larger portions, together with "something green," and you have a wonderful, summer dinner.

If you have children, have them help you with this. Taking kernels of corn off the cob is probably a bit dangerous, and frustrating for the very young (it sure is for ME), but the rest of it is SO easy, they will love the dish, and it's important to get your children cooking sooner rather than later.

'Tis the season. Make some corn pudding.