Homemade is Better—Creamed Corn

This feels appropriate for this time of year, and because of the YouTube video that seems to be blowing up!  I love that video, and the music video that was done about it.  I honestly can say I made this recipe before the video even aired back in early August.  Tariq isn’t wrong about corn though.  “It has the juice” is such a great way to describe corn, or “a big lump with knobs”.  Too funny! This is only one of a few songs about corn that I can think of that aren’t country.  “Rain is a Good Thing” by Luke Bryant is a personal favorite for country songs, and I say that although country is not music I enjoy as much.  There are maybe four or five artists that sing country I like, but that’s a different article.

This week, should you be celebrating thanksgiving or not, make yourself a dish of creamed corn.  It’s easy to do, you do not need a lot of ingredients, just some time and corn!  I used the “knobs” of the corn also known as the kernels, but frozen corn is fine as well.  Now, let’s get to the elephant in the room.  Yes, you can buy creamed corn—if you hate yourself and don’t want to taste the best creamed corn you’ve ever had—or maybe you’ve only tried creamed corn and decided you don’t like it.  Well friend, do yourself a favor and make this recipe.  If you still hate creamed corn after trying this recipe, then I cannot fix you.

What is different about this dish versus store bought is the fact that you can pronounce all these ingredients.  I’m not going to give you a list of chemicals that you’re going to need to source from the depths of the black market so that people will think this dish “tastes like the real thing”.  I believe that food should taste like the thing it is.  Corn should taste like corn, after all, “it has the juice”.

So here is my recipe for creamed corn.

Creamed Corn

Ingredients

1 tbsp bacon fat (or butter)
2 cooked corn cobs (or 2 cups of frozen)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:
  • Warm up a non-stick skillet over medium high heat.
  • Add the corn and bacon fat, or butter.
  • Cook to warm up the corn, then add the salt and pepper.
  • Toss the corn and spices a little to mix them in.
  • Taste your corn to see if you need more salt.
  • Add the sugar for sweetness, you can also use maple syrup if you want.
  • Add the cream and turn the heat up to high.
  • Cook the cream until it starts to reduce and thicken.
  • Taste the creamed corn a few times until your satisfied with the texture. You’re going for a thicker sauce, not a warm cream so give it at least 5 minutes to thicken.  Make sure you are stirring regularly so you do not burn the cream.
  • Transfer to a plate and enjoy!