Green Corn Cakes

It's nearly the end of August (already!) and that means it's corn season.  I am very fond of corn...very, so when I saw this recipe from The Ladies' Indispensable Assistant of 1852 (New York), I knew I wanted to try it.
I had no idea what to expect of these,and they turned out to be an amazing surprise!  They were absolutely delicious.  As I was cooking them, I realized that these green corn cakes remind me very much of potato pancakes, both in the way the looked and in their finished consistency (of course these tasted of corn, not potato).



The Original Recipe





To start, we need to understand that "green" corn is simply fresh, ripe corn as opposed to dried corn.  Green corn should not be interpreted to mean underripe, inedible corn.


Obviously, the number of ears of corn required will depend upon the size of the corn available to you.  I used approximately 5 years of good, large fresh corn.




A period teacup translates to about 6 oz in modern measurements, so 3/4 of a cup.    Half a teacup of melted butter is 3 oz. which I converted to 3 Tablespoons.  The rest of the ingredients are straight forward - 3 T of milk, 1 t of salt, 1/2 t pepper, 1 egg.


At first I thought I should simply cut the corn from the cob, but decided to take the directions literally.  I used the large holes on my box grater and grated all the ears, measuring the resultant pulp and liquid.  Creamed corn still has too bulky a texture - this came out almost pureed.


Grated corn



From there, I followed the directions exactly.   I used a serving spoon as my measure to drop them into the hot butter.   Instead of 8 minutes cooking time, these took approximately 4 min in my cast iron frying pan  set to medium heat.





Green Corn Cakes


fresh ears of corn, 5 or more, enough to make 2 c of grated pulp

3 T milk

3/4 c flour

3 T butter, melted

1 egg

1 t salt

1/2 t pepper

butter to fry in (I used 1/4 of a pound, or one stick)


Directions:

Grate the corn on the large holes of a box grater, catching all the pulp and liquid until you have 2 cups worth.   Put the corn pulp into a mixing bowl

Stir in 3 T of milk, the flour, 3 T of melted butter, the egg, salt, and pepper.  Stir until well mixed.

In a large frying pan melt the extra butter.  Add the corn batter by large spoonfuls (think of small pancakes).  Do not crowd the pan.  Flip over to brown the other side.     Mine were done in approximately 4-5 minutes.  Remove to a plate. 

Makes approximately 12 cakes.














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