The southern U.S. side dish made from corn and served at Thanksgiving is corn pudding.
Corn pudding is a creamy preparation of corn, water or milk, and thickening ingredients such as eggs, flour, or cornmeal. Recipes vary widely: some are sweet, while others are savory and seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, or herbs.
The dish is especially associated with rural communities in the Southern United States and Appalachia. It may be made with fresh, frozen, or canned corn, although older recipes often used immature “green corn”—corn that had not fully dried, rather than corn that was literally green.
Corn pudding is easy to confuse with cornbread, creamed corn, spoonbread, and grits. Cornbread is a baked bread, grits are a porridge made from ground corn, and creamed corn usually keeps a looser vegetable texture. Corn pudding sits between a casserole and a custard-like pudding, which explains its soft, spoonable consistency.