This corn gratin recipe from Jacques Pépin is a perfect summer side dish.
I’ve never been a big fan of The Food Network. It has a few great shows (Chopped, Barefoot Contessa, Good Eats) but most of the cooking shows don’t interest me. On the other hand, I adore PBS. For the longest time I had no idea PBS even had cooking shows. I associated it with Sesame Street and… I’m not sure what else. But it actually has a tremendous amount of food programming, both old and new.
You can watch Éric Ripert, José Andrés, Ming Tsai, the experts from America’s Test Kitchen and my favorite: archive shows from Julia Child and Jacques Pépin. Aside from the fact that they’re both adorable, I love watching their classic French technique. It’s how I was trained in culinary school yet I tend to shy away from French cuisine (probably because of over-saturation). But I could watch them for hours. And it’s usually after I watch them that I find myself returning to the classics.
The recipe I’m offering today is from Jacques Pépin. This corn gratin is more like a souffle and it’s a light, perfect summer side dish. You can watch him make it here:
Doesn’t that anchovy spread look good? And the lamb burgers? I always want to make everything he makes. And I want to hang out with him. He seems like a really cool dude.
Corn Gratin
Ingredients
- 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 ears corn
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup half & half
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
- Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and butter a 1 quart gratin dish.
- Remove corn from the husks and add to a food processor.
- Pulse a few times and then add eggs, flour, half & half, salt and pepper. Puree until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the buttered gratin dish.
- Grate fresh Parmesan generously over the top of the dish.
- Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Notes
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Recipe Troubleshooting
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Christina @ Sweet Pea's Kitchen says
Corn Gratin? Where has this been my whole life?! I can’t wait to give it a try! :)
Brenda says
I am on my way to buy corn! You had me at gratin :)
Sandra says
My daughter and I were looking for new corn recipes and this one is right on time.
shelly (cookies and cups) says
I need to make this. Pretty much right now.
Hermione Hairpie says
Love Jacques but this recipe isn’t that great I’m sorry to say. The dish looks and feels like scrambled eggs when all is said and done. It’s weird how much it resembles them, seriously, you’ll think you were having breakfast. I probably won’t make it again but at least it was easy to make and used few ingredients. Jacques is good that way fortunately.
Now if you want a sure fire Jacques hit you’ve got to try the mustard crusted chicken by him. So simple yet so dee-lish!!!
Savory Simple says
I’m very sorry you didn’t like it, Hermione Hairpie. I found it to be very light just like a corn souffle and nothing like scrambled eggs. By the way, you have an amazing name and email address.
DeniseQ says
Probably a silly question, but since it’s winter do you think this would be good with butternut squash? There’s plenty of fresh squash now but not much fresh corn. Love your blog!
Jennifer Farley says
Thanks! I honestly have no idea if it will work but it sounds good :)
David says
In the video Jack uses 3 eggs, not two.
My grandmother handed down a recipe for Corn Souffle which is almost identical to this gratin except a little less corn and you beat the egg whites separately and fold in the base. Also there is a lot more butter! I think this is a wonderful alternative and I don’t have to feel guilty about the butter!
roglco72 . says
He overlooked the best part; scrapping the cobs to remove the tasty corn milk.
Shawn says
Three eggs people! He used three. So so easy to make I leave out the cheese.
Jeffrey Drummond says
Hello, my corn souffle turned out very watery. Do you know how I can avoid that next time?