Maybe it’s just me, but after thawing a bag of frozen corn and puréeing it, I now think that corn is pudding (in and of itself). It tastes similar to rice pudding to me. I guess it follows that if corn syrup is so sweet, then corn can qualify as a dessert too. One definition of pudding says it is “a type of dessert that has a texture similar to custard or mousse but using some kind of starch as the thickening agent”. Perhaps the starchiness of corn makes it a natural pudding when puréed. Looking at the package, it was golden sweet corn, and this was the only ingredient. Also, it says to fully cook that for food safety (maybe fresh corn is better for pudding then).
Well now I feel dirty! Yet for the sake of comparison I don’t think they put a warning on frozen fruit to cook it, or who does? I’d say restaurants put frozen peas in salad bars too, so frozen corn is probably not much more of a food safety issue (or would be less so than a whole salad bar). It didn’t seem to bother me anyway. I’ll have to see if I can find any dirt on that topic, to be sure. Sure as sh…! Listeria in frozen vegetables has occurred with corn, and cooking is the precaution for that (which is the 3rd leading cause of death from food poisoning). I guess frozen fruit isn’t the safest thing to eat either (unless you’re baking a pie). Yeah, but this would be a corny way to die. I’m not actually in the high risk group for getting sick, but my rinsing it could have helped, in the process of thawing with hot water. They say to rinse fresh fruits and vegetables to avoid listeriosis, at least (melons in particular should be scrubbed before cut), and refrigeration does not prevent the growth of this pathogen. Acidic fruits are unlikely to be problematic, as it minimizes growth. People who eat processed meat are worse off though, they can’t rinse it away, and more have died as a result (the worst outbreak ever was just last year). Learn something new everyday… the other day I learned that conrmeal was a hot cereal too. They say not to eat flours or “meals” (such as oatmeal) raw or undercooked either, because there has been e-coli or norovirus contaminating them, and half of all foodborune illnesses occur from produce or plant food (I didn’t see a warning on the label, but there were cooking instructions). By the way, another definition of a dingleberry, in manufacturing, is any residual irregularity following processing. So I’m just going to presume that dingleberries are an unlisted ingredient on packaged or uwashed food, so to speak.
Ooh, is that for dessert? Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. Never thought pudding was to die for, but then I almost oudid myself.