The Game-Changing Ingredient You Should Add To Creamy Corn Pudding
Buckle your seatbelt for creamy corn pudding nirvana. Tasting Table recipe developer Kate Shungu will be your guide.
You might have dug into a steaming tureen of the dish before, but it's unlikely that you've ever tried a Creamy Corn Pudding like this one. This bad boy (aka "Puddin' Corn" or "Hoppy Glop," per New York Times' bestselling southern gothic novelist Susan Wittig Albert) is a real crowd pleaser. Plus, it's made from an unbelievably simple combination of corn, milk, butter, and cornmeal. The dish's origins trace back to the Colonial Era, says Food Network, from a culinary fusion of Native American corn and English custard pudding. Over the years, corn pudding evolved into the dish we enjoy today on the farming homesteads of America's Deep South, where fields of corn and freshly-laid eggs were readily available around the clock, via Good Housekeeping's "Great American Classics Cookbook." Now, corn pudding is even easier to make at home using Shungu's recipe, which features a game-changing secret ingredient for extra creaminess.
This creamy corn pudding stars ricotta cheese
The secret to an ultra-creamy corn pudding? Ricotta cheese. "It makes for the creamiest corn pudding," says Kate Shungu. Ricotta cheese is a simple combination of milk and salt, with a hint of lemon. Here's why it works for your dish.
As Shungu explains, corn pudding could also be described as a casserole: The dish is a combination of wet and dry ingredients typically baked in a casserole dish. This recipe features cheddar cheese, butter, cornmeal, milk, scallions, and — of course – corn. Shungu says you can use frozen kernels (no need to even dethaw) or 10 ears of fresh corn on the cob. But, the addition of ricotta cheese adds a moist textural component, as well as a sweet-savory mascarpone-like flavor and mouthfeel (per MasterClass), which transforms your corn pudding into an even creamier bite. The dish is commonly paired with fried chicken but, for extra southern flair, try this Country-fried variety — even pair it with a dish of buttermilk biscuits. If you're still hungry, Shungu shares more "Vintage Recipes" via her Instagram account @giftofhospitality.