Corn

[spiceplace]

Corn - that tall hard-to-grow-in-many-different-types-of-soil plant that has large ears holding many kernels (seeds) that we enjoy chomping on!!

Also known as maize, corn is a cereal grass related to wheat, rice, oats, and barley.

Mexican Indians, 10,000 years ago would gather corn from wild plants as a food source. It only took them 5,000 years to learn to grow it themselves. What they grew was multi-colored corn - known as Indian corn.

Although used for livestock and in industrial products such as ceramics, explosives, construction materials, metal molds, paints, paper goods, textiles, industrial alcohols, and ethanol - corn is still a number one as a food source for people and food products for people, making it our #1 food crop. Each corn kernel contains four major components: starch, protein, oil, and fiber. These kernel components are processed to create thousands of different products for all sorts of uses.

Corn is a major component in many food items like cereals, peanut butter, snack foods and soft drinks and Baby Food Baking Products Beer & Ale Canned Vegetables Chewing Gum Confectionery Powdered Sugar Pancake & Waffle Mixes Flours Mustard Puddings and Custards Salad Dressing Soups Pet Foods Sauces & Gravies - all made from the starch of the corn kernels.

Late corn is coming out soon in many areas - and the corn fields will be turned into corn mazes for Halloween and the dried corn stalks will be used to decorate for the fall of the year.

As for me, I simply love freshly picked and steamed corn on the cob, with a little butter of course.

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Nowadays we call the multi-colored corn "Indian Corn." But it wasn't that way in colonial days.

Back then, all grains were colloquially called "corn." So when the settlers were introduced to maize by the Natives, they called it "Indian Corn" to differentiate it from wheat, rye, etc.

There are still echoes of that in such recipes as Rye & Injun, a bread that uses both rye flour and cornmeal. Here's one version:

Rye 'N Injun Bread

1 cup boiling water
2 envelopes yeast
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups rye flour
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
5 tbls butter
1 tsp salt
1 cup yellow cornmeal

Combine boiling water, pumpkin, molassas, butter and salt and stir in cornmeal. Let mixture stand.

Proof yeast in 1/3 cup lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar for 10 minutes. Add to pumpkin mixture, stir in rye and all purpose flours, and combine well.

Turn mixture out on surface sprinkled with 1/2 cup flour and knead it well, adding more flour if necessary, for 10 minutes. Put dough in greased bowl and let rise until double in bulk. Punch down, halve dough, and form each half into a ball.

Put each ball in a greased 8-inch loaf tin and let rise until double in pulk. Cut a cross in the top of each loaf and bake in a hot (375F) oven for 15 minutes. Lower heat to 325F and bake an addtional 45 minutes to one hour, until loaves are brown and sound hollw.

Alternative: Shape into balls about the size of handballs. Flatten into patties. Let rise until doubled, and bake.

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Corn Pudding

1/4 cup butter
1 3/4 cups milk, heated
1/4 cup flour
3 cups corn kernels scraped from cobs; half whole half chopped
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, beaten until frothy
2 tbls sugar
2 tsp nutmeg

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour, salt, nutmeg & sugar. Cook until bubbly. Slowly add milk and cook until thick. Temper eggs and stir them in.

Pour into well buttered 2 quart casserole and bake in a water bath at 350F for 45 minutes.

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Three Sisters Soup

Corn was one of the tripods of Native American agriculture known as the Three Sacred Sisters. Corn was interplanted with beans and squash in a synergistic relationship that actually increased yields. Here is a soup that uses all three sisters:

1/2 lb dried baby limas
2 lb pumpkin, peeled and cubed (or 2 cups puree)
5 cups vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped fine
1 large leek, sliced
2 cups corn kernels
1 cup light cream
1/4 tsp white pepper
Chopped chives

Cook beans.

Put the pumpkin, stock, onion, and leek in a kettle. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer until pumpkin is soft.

Puree vegetable mixture in blender or food processor, or mash by hand. Return to kettle.

Add corn and beans, bring to boil, redcuce heat, and simmer five minutes. Add cream, salt and pepper. When very hot, but not boiling, serve. Sprinkle with chives.

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Leftover Polenta

I won't tread on Mama's turf and teach you how to make polenta. But here's a way to use any that's left over.

Pour the mush into a lightly greased pan. Let it set overnight. Unmold, cut into squares, and fry until browned on both sides. Serve with sauce of your choice; or cover with sauteed mushrooms.

You can, btw, use grits the same way. Fried grits was a mainstay breakfast in the Appalachians.

 

[Jafo232]

Here is how I basically cook sweet corn on the grill.

Shuck each ear of corn, and tear out a sheet of foil for each one, enough to roll the ear a few times.

Place ear on top of foil, add salt, pepper and two pats of butter on top of the ear. Roll the foil over the ear once until the butter is on the bottom. Press down to mush the butter on to the ear. Roll the rest of the way up making sure to close the corners.

Roast on your grill on medium heat for about 10 -15 minutes. Done.

 

[aeiou]

I love to get fresh corn on the cob from our local vegetable stands. The corn tastes better than store bought and also supports our local economy (i.e. local farmers).

I have also cooked the corn on the grill the way you described. I also have not shucked the ears and placed them on the grill away from the hot coals. This method works well since the natural husk prevents the corn from drying out while cooking.

When not grilling I place the corn in briskly boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Make sure not to cook any longer else you will have mushy water logged corn on the cob. I like to use real butter and a little salt on my corn on the cob.

I have also used Old Bay Butter on my corn on the cob...absolutely delicious.

 

[chubbyalaskagriz]

I just recently moved back home after living in Alaska for 13 years. Many things grow very well in fertile Alaskan gardens but two things that are NOT among them are tomatos and corn. Being raised in the rich farm country of central Illinois, I grew up on July tomatoes and August sweet corn, and count the two among the world's finest delicasies! Once every Spring I would travel home to Illinois and send out invitations to several folks to attend a feast of Alaskan foods- salmon, halibut, king crab, and game meats such as moose & caribou... These gatherings were always popular and fun. The only hitch to being an invited guest was this: Every person who came had to promise to express mail me a shoebox filled with either ears of sweet corn still wrapped in their leaves and silk- or green tomatos- fresh from the garden. In remote far-flung regions of Alaska when it was chilly and rainy in late summer I was the envy of all around me- for I was feasting on Illinois vine-ripened tomatoes and succulent sweet corn!

 

[KYHeirloomer]

One of the things Chubby is leaving out is why those (and many other) crops grow so well in Illinois.

In his part of the world, farmers have about 15 feet of black dirt. Even now, after a century and a half of working the prairie, the loam is rich and deep. Add a little water, a little sunshine, and, voila!

They used to say, about that region, that if you planted a nail at night, by morning you'd harvest a spike.

And lord, do I miss that soil. Didn't appreciate what I had until moving to Kentucky and trying to grow a garden in a backyard made of pure clay. So pure you can, literally, dig it up and throw it on a potter's wheel. Only other place I know like that is Georgia.

 

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Yep KYH is absolutely correct on the red clay of Georgia, but for some reason my garden is thriving (all except squash they are just blooming like crazy and then the small fruits rot and fall off, I have a few zucc. but no yellow it may be the carpet I used as a ground cover) but red clay is so hard to dig by hand Shew-wee it will tucker one out!

The other place in the USA that has delightful rich dark LOAM is near the Everglades in Florida they grow alot of sugar cane in the area, and oh my is the soil just black as tar, I wish I had dump truck loads of it to make a garden!

And back to the subject of corn.... I love sweet corn from the field so much I eat it raw, and rarely have enought to cook if I am the one doing the picking! A-H-H it is heavenly fresh on the cob straight off the stalk!!!

 

[KYHeirloomer]

Cathy, small squash that rot like that usually are sign of poor pollination..

What happens is the overy (the squash, m'dear) remains unfertilized, and so, with no reason to grow, doesn't.

If you lack pollinators in your area, than hand-pollinating is the solution. Pick a male flower, remove the blossoms, and rub it against the female reproductive organs. Using several males for each female improves the odds, BTW.

 

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

Thanks for the tip I do have many bees now working the area, and before they showed up I used q-tips to help pollination. The one problem with that is I am kind of ignorant as to which flower would be male and which female! So I just q-tip away and hope it helps, now that we have so many little bees and other insects visiting maybe the problem will aleviate itself. I hope so

 

[KYHeirloomer]

It's easy to tell them apart, Cathy.

Look at the base of the flower, where it attaches to the vine. Females will have a small, round bulge (looks like a miniature squash). That's actually the ovary, and will, if pollinated, grow into a squash.

The males only have longish, thin stems connecting the flower to the vine.

All cucurbits follow this same differentiation. So, whether you're growing squash, melons, or cucumbers, if you're having pollination problems that's how to tell them apart.

BTW, it's also a general trend with cucurbits that the first couple of weeks of flowering only males are produced. I've never heard an explanation for this---or, at least, not one that made sense. But it's an observable fact.

 

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

You are right!!! The majority of my blossoms have been and are males, I know exactly what you are speaking of now that you explained it to me! Thanks a mil KYH - you might have just put me back into the squash! I appreciate that!

And since it has been (up to now) such a sparse harvest I went Sat. and purchased more squash seed for our fall crop. I am a very determined gal, and I will have a big harvest sooner or later! I love squash!!! I wish folks would throw some in my car!!!

Thank goodness we did better with our chicks than our squash, out of 12 biddies, we wound up with nine hens!!! I think that is pretty good odds!