Why call a Baltimore corn pudding Southern? The label spoke to migrants who had fled plantations where landlords chose the crop, usually cotton, and sold tenants food on credit. A family corn patch was one of the few things a sharecropper controlled. In the Jim Crow south, caste polices included food. Migration changed the map, not the hierarchy. Southern cooks and entrepreneurs built profitable eateries on those same lower caste dishes. Does cooking a dish from home preserve a memory or claim a right?
[Side Bar]
Scraping the cob draws out the sweet milk that sets this pudding, a taste of the South for cooks and their children.
Southern Corn Pudding
Ingredients
1 dozen ears corn
2 cups scalded milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 eggs
Directions
Cut thin slices from the tops of the kernels with a sharp knife. Scrape the ears with the dull edge. Melt the butter and add the flour and seasonings. Combine with the milk and corn. Add the beaten eggs last, pour into a buttered baking dish, and bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes.
Afro-American (Baltimore), October 1, 1932, 15.