Cornmeal Chess Pudding
A Southern custard pie's filling, rebuilt as a dutch oven pudding with no crust and no fresh eggs.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 3.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 119
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 400 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Sugar | 1 1/2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 3/4 cup | reconstitutes to about 2 cups of milk |
| Powdered whole egg | 6 tbsp | stands in for the yolks; no cooler needed |
| All-purpose flour | 3 tbsp | |
| White cornmeal | 3 tbsp | fine grind, not coarse polenta |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Butter | 1/2 cup | or ghee, which keeps warm without a cooler |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | in a small dropper bottle |
Method
- Melt the butter in the dutch oven over low coals, then pour it into a cup and set it aside. The film left behind is your grease.
- Off the heat, whisk the dry mix into 400 ml of water, a splash at a time, until there are no lumps. Powdered egg clumps if you dump the water in all at once.
- Whisk in the melted butter and the vanilla. Pour it back into the pot.
- Set the pot on a thin bed of coals and put more coals on the lid, roughly twice as many on top as underneath. You want gentle heat, not a boil.
- Bake 30 to 40 minutes. It is done when the edges are set and the center still moves as one piece when you nudge the pot.
- Pull the coals off the lid and let it stand 15 minutes. It firms up as it cools.
Chess pie is a pantry custard: sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and a spoon each of flour and cornmeal. The cornmeal is the part that matters. It sets into a slightly grainy top layer that separates from the custard underneath, which is what keeps a pie made of sugar from tasting like nothing but sugar.
The crust is gone here, along with the fresh eggs and milk. Powdered whole egg and milk powder rehydrate into the same custard base, and the dutch oven does the work an oven would. Coals go mostly on the lid so the bottom does not scorch before the middle sets. Six servings out of one pot; it will not slice, so bring bowls.
Packing
Sugar, milk powder, egg powder, flour, cornmeal, and salt all go into one bag at home. Butter travels in a screw-top jar; ghee if the days are hot.
Variations
- A handful of crushed graham crackers pressed into the buttered pot before you pour gives you a crust of sorts.
- Swap the vanilla for a spoonful of instant coffee dissolved into the water.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/chess-pie