Corn

The Story of Corn

On the paved road to Teotitlan del Camino, about 29 miles southeast of Tehuacán in the valley of Mexico, stands a small, unpretentious museum with corn as its major exhibit. The display starts with a tiny corn cob, no larger than a cigarette stub. That tiny specimen is more than 5000 years old, but the corn story probably goes back 7000 years. By the time Columbus reached the New World, corn supported civilizations, played a key role in many religious beliefs, and was the object of adulation as an Earth Goddess. Corn is like no other grain, and it is still almost miraculous in its adaptability and versatility. At the present time corn is second only to wheat in worldwide production and it is the most prolific crop in history.

 One grass, teosinte, is believed to have been the parent stock from which the plant was created, but the plant is so changed from any ancestral form that it can never revert to its wild state. Microbiological research seems to confirm teosinte as its origin, but ongoing scientific investigations continue to be a source of interest to archeologists, botanists and geneticists. One famous ethnobotanist says "Corn is probably the most remarkable plant-breeding accomplishment of all time."

In the New World it became adapted to every region and every need. Plant-breeders raised overflowing crops of flint corn, sweet corn, dent corn, popcorn and corn for grinding. The silk from one variety was fertilized with the pollen of another type to create hundreds of races or varieties adapted to a wide range of geography. In rain forests (with 100 or more inches of annual precipitation) and in areas which received no more than five inches of rain per year, it still supported populations that developed traditions, systems of government and religious beliefs. The plant was worshipped as "The Sacred Mother", the giver of life.

 The Taino Indians called the plant mahez, the botanical name is Zea mays, and only in America does "corn" specifically refer to the plant as we know it. “Corn” elsewhere is a generic term that denotes the prevalent grain of any country. In England it means wheat, in Scotland or Ireland it means oats. Throughout most of the world and in almost every language the plant is called maize. We shall continue to call it corn because we are accustomed to American usage.

  In addition to corn, the native Americans planted beans and squash on mounds they called milpahs. In the Yucatan you can still find milpah agriculture where the tall corn stalk supports the climbing beans and the spiny growth of squash keeps weeds down and discourages animal predation. The plants were called the "The Three Sisters of Life." Modern food scientists agree that these are life-enhancing plants. They sustain life by providing the twenty amino acids needed for complete protein synthesis. Some time ago I came across a recipe reputed to be of ancient origin – I forget where I saw it, but it now resides in my box of recipe cards. It contains spices not native to the American continents, but spices were exchanged early in the history of food in the New World.

The Three Sisters Casserole

·        1 cup dried pinto or kidney beans

·        1/8th teaspoon chili powder

·        1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder

·        1 teaspoon cumin

·        1 clove garlic, minced

·        1 cup diced onion

·        2/3 cup diced squash

·        3 cups of fresh corn cut from cob

·        1 cup red and green bell peppers, diced

·        1 pinch salt

Soak the beans overnight, drain the water, rinse and add 3-1/2 cups fresh water together with the chili and cayenne peppers. Bring beans to a boil and simmer for one hour. In another pan sauté the garlic, onion, peppers, cumin and another pinch of cayenne, until onions are soft. Add the squash and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add corn and cook for another ten minutes. Season with salt and mix corn casserole and beans together. Garnish with strips of scallion.

The paleo-Indians had never seen a horse, cow or sheep before the god-like Spanish conquistadores, fitted out with steel armor and weapons, arrived on horseback. They were dismayed when sacred corn was fed to the Spaniards' beasts, but Spanish tradition exalted the powerful animals that constituted food, wealth, and bravery. Men who pitted their strength against the power of the bull were glorified and no food was too sacred for El Toro.

In the 16th century, when the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power seized control of the eastern Mediterranean, it thrust its naval power as far as the Danube valley and the Turks almost reached Vienna before fierce fighting held them from taking the city. The Viennese and most of Eastern Europe were exhausted and famine-ridden after the long siege.

The Turks were wheat-eaters, disdainful of the corn that had been taken from Spanish and Portuguese galleons as spoils of war. The Hungarians and Romanians, defeated and hungry, embraced the new food. They called it by the Portuguese name milho grosso, because they believed it to be a native grain of Portugal. Mamaliga, cornmeal pudding, became the national dish of the Romanian people.

Mamaliga (Cornmeal Pudding)

·        4 cups water

·        1 teaspoon salt

·        2 cups yellow cornmeal

·        3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Bring water to a boil, gradually stir in cornmeal, reduce heat to medium, but continue stirring until mixture thickens - about three minutes. Stir in butter, turn heat down to low. Cover and let simmer for another 20 minutes. The pudding is done when it no longer sticks to side of pan when stirred.

Lightly grease a wooden cutting board and spoon the cooked mamaliga onto the surface. Let it rest for about a minute, then with a knife or the back of spoon dipped in cold water, mold the mamaliga into an oval mound. To slice it in the Romanian style, cut a piece of thread about 20 inches long, stretch the thread tightly between your hands, and pull down through the mounded pudding, cutting off slices - or be untraditional - just use a knife!

Serve hot with grated cheese, or dip in Parmesan cheese and fry in butter or margarine until browned on both sides.

Turkish ships brought corn to conquered Italian and north African ports. In the 16th century corn gruel became an African staple. The Italians made a cornmeal pudding called “polenta” that is still almost as popular as pasta.

Basic Polenta

·        6 cups water

·        1 teaspoon salt

·        2 cups polenta flour or coarse-ground yellow cornmeal

·        3 or 4 tablespoons of butter or margarine

In a large pot or double boiler, bring the salted water to a boil. To avoid lumps add cornmeal very, very slowly and stir constantly for five or ten minutes. Then let simmer slowly for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Or put over hot, but not boiling, water in double boiler and let cook until cornmeal separates from the sides of the pan easily.

Cubes of Fontina cheese and a sprinkling of Parmesan make this a rich savory accompaniment to a meal. Cooled, sliced and fried or grilled, it is a good side dish. It can be cubed and added to soup or served with gravy.

In Verona polenta is served with a delicious sausage gravy:

Polenta with Sausage Gravy

·        1 pound Italian sausage or sausage links

·        2 tablespoons water

·        1 small onion chopped

·        1 clove garlic minced

·        1 medium can stewed tomatoes

·        1 medium can tomato purée

Place sausage in large saucepan with 2 tablespoons water. Prick sausage and let brown in its own fat. Drain fat and just leave the pan somewhat oily. Add onion, garlic, and salt, if desired, or add minced jalapeño pepper instead of salt. Brown mixture, stir and add the tomatoes and tomato purée. Simmer for about 1-1/2 hours. Pour the sauce over freshly cooked polenta and arrange sausage around the platter. Or fry cooled sliced polenta and cover with sauce, and sausage.

Corn became a basic grain for Europeans and Africans who could not afford expensive wheat products. In southern parts of the United States, corn was food for sharecroppers and tenant farmers. It was always cheaper than grain starches. A short growing season made it economical and it did not need to be threshed, winnowed or flailed. It could be readily milled into versatile cornmeal. But wherever it became a diet staple of a country, a dreadful disease attacked the corn-eaters. This disease became epidemic in Africa, Spain, Egypt and France and attacked southern sharecroppers in the USA. It caused ugly skin lesions, violent gastric upsets, mental confusion and dreadful neurological derangements. An Italian doctor named the disease "pellagra" (bad skin), but it was popularly called "mealies" from the original Portuguese name milho grosso. The cause of the disease was not identified for hundreds of years and in Europe the popularity of corn waned.

 In the 1920s, the vitamin niacin was identified. and pellagra was found to be a vitamin-deficiency disease. Corn is high in protein, but, unlike other grains, lacks both niacin and the amino acid tryptophan which the body uses to synthesizes vitamins. Pellagra, today no longer a medical threat except in isolated areas where vitamin-enriched cornmeal is not available, has left many Europeans with a feeling that corn is primarily hog and cattle feed. In Africa cornmeal mush, still called mealies, is eaten with greens, and is a basic food. Corn in its many guises has worldwide distribution but fresh sweet corn is an American delicacy. Le Drugstore near L'Etoile in Paris advertises fresh sweet corn flown in from the USA at the height of its summer season, and we met some Frenchmen who had driven from Brittany to Paris to savor this rare treat. We sent them seed for their garden when we returned to the States.

How is it that pellagra did not decimate the pre-Columbian Americans? It is a story of primitive technology working with Nature. Cornmeal for tortillas and other dishes is made by grinding corn kernels into "masa." To soften the kernels, destroy the hulls, and make grinding easier, Indian women soaked the corn overnight in water to which they added wood ash. They ground the corn with manos (pestles) in stone metates. Not until the twentieth century did food scientists discover that wood ash contains alkali that chemically changes corn into a form that releases niacin and makes protein available to the body. Mechanical milling and grinding eliminated the need to soften the corn by soaking it in wood ash, thus causing a niacin deficiency disease, the dreaded pellagra.

Corn with hulls too thick to grind and too tough to chew is still soaked in lime, lye or wood ash, alkalis that eat away the hulls without damaging the pulp. Kernels removed from treated cobs are dried and made into hominy, a word that comes from “uskatahomen” in the Algonquian language. Grits are ground hominy kernels.

The wood ash that American Indians added to corn before grinding bleached the corn and added the subtle flavor of cedar, juniper or hickory woods. A pinch of wood ash is still added to many native American dishes, more as a ritual observance than as a flavor enhancer, but the habit persists and the ritual is cherished.

 Corn's major requirement for growth is water. Nevertheless the Hopi people have been growing high-yield blue corn in the southwest desert for two hundred years. Blue corn is a low-growing plant that wastes no water or energy on elaborate foliage. Agronomists are now studying the growing technique to see whether blue corn can be adapted to other arid soils. It may save people in Ethiopia and the Sudan from periodic famine and starvation.

Blue corn is known as “masa harina” among the Hopi people. It is held in high esteem for its healthful attributes. Blue corn flour is now a health food store item, it is sold as a mix for pancakes, tortillas and other cornmeal treats.

Blue Corn Tortillas

·        1 quart boiling water

·        1 tablespoon butter or other fat

·        4 cups blue corn flour (Masa harina)

Add boiling water to corn and fat, stir and mix until all the corn is moistened. Grease a flat grill or frying pan. Moisten hands and make flat patties about 6 inches in diameter. Fry, turn and stack when cooked through. Makes 12 tortillas.

Grains and legumes combined make complex non-animal proteins. Native people introduced succotash, a combination of beans and corn, to the early colonists and this helped them survive.

Succotash was once a restaurant staple, the vegetable that came out of a can in hash houses and truck stops. Now succotash made with fresh sweet corn and beans is embellished with chili peppers, tomatoes, herbs, bits of broccoli or cauliflower and it has become a prestigious dish.

Corn reached Asia some time between 1520 and 1560 at a time when hungry peasants were ready to revolt. Portuguese seamen rounded the horn of Africa and reached China with seed corn in time to save the Chinese dynasty from revolution. Corn still constitutes about 25% of China's grain harvest and cornstarch gives Chinese sauces a velvety texture. But fresh corn is not as prestigious as rice or wheat, and corn is not a major ingredient in Chinese cooking except for "baby corn," tiny, soft ears grown for the luxury market. This stir-fry recipe can be made with cooked corn kernels of fresh sweet corn.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Corn

·        1 whole chicken breast - cut into 1/4 inch cubes

·        1/2 teaspoon salt

·        1 tablespoon cornstarch

·        1 egg white

·        2 tablespoons vegetable oil

·        1/4 pound snow peas

·        1/4 pound canned bamboo shoots, diced (optional)

·        1 cup baby corn or corn kernels from freshly cooked sweet corn

·        1 cup button mushrooms or 1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms

Sauce

·        1 tablespoon light soy sauce

·        1/2 cup chicken stock

·        1/2 teaspoon sugar

·        2 tablespoons sherry or white wine

·        1 tablespoon cornstarch blended with 3 tablespoons water

·        Salt and pepper to taste

Rub chicken lightly with salt, dust with cornstarch and coat with egg white. Heat oil in wok or fry-pan. When oil is hot but not smoking, stir-fry chicken for about 30 seconds. Add snow peas, bamboo shoots, corn and mushrooms and stir-fry over medium heat for another minute. Combine sauce ingredients and add to chicken. Stir and turn together for about 1 minute until boiling and thickened.

In the United States less than 1% of the corn crop is eaten as fresh sweet corn. Animal feed, corn syrup, cornmeal, soft drinks, additives, paper and plastics products, even soaps and insecticides have corn as the essential ingredient.

Corn on the cob, a summer delight, is sweet as sugar when it is fresh but the sugar quickly turns to starch after harvesting. Florida geneticists have now bred a sweet corn called "Supersweet" which converts sugar to starch more slowly and can be shipped to distant markets. But freshly picked corn is a special treat.

Corn cobs with green, tight husks are usually freshest. They should be kept in refrigerated bins in the store and refrigerated with the husks intact at home. Corn with husks removed, or partially removed, should be refrigerated in a perforated plastic bag. The natural conversion of sugar into starch can be slowed by parboiling shucked ears for two minutes before refrigeration or freezing. When ready to serve, drop the parboiled corn into boiling unsalted water, cover, turn off the heat and let steam for five minutes. A pinch of sugar in the water enhances the taste, but do not add salt because it toughens the corn. Cooking time for fresh corn varies - five minutes in boiling water is usually all it takes.

To microwave corn, wrap individual ears in wax paper and microwave on high for 3 to 5 minutes. Or stack ears in a microwavable dish with 3 tablespoons of water and microwave on high for 5 to 7 minutes.

To roast corn, pull back the husk and remove the silk, then replace the husk, tie the ends with cotton string or strip of husk, and soak in enough water to cover for 10 minutes. Bury corn in coals of a barbecue or place on top of a grill and turn occasionally for 15 minutes.

 Corn comes in white, yellow and "butter and egg" varieties which are mixed yellow and white. All are rich in vitamin C, but the yellow also has beta carotene, the precursor of vitamin A, a valuable food resource.

Leftover corn combined with meat or vegetables is hearty, satisfying food. Appetizers, soups, side dishes entrees are all made more cheerful with sweet chewy kernels of corn.

Corn and Tomato Casserole

·        6 ears of fresh corn

·        1 medium onion, chopped

·        1 medium green pepper, chopped

·        2  tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine

·        4 medium tomatoes, sliced

·        1 teaspoon salt (or less)

·        1/2 teaspoon pepper

·        1 cup soft breadcrumbs

·        2  tablespoons melted butter

Cut corn kernels from cob with sharp knife - not too close to the cob. Combine corn, onion and green pepper. Sauté in 2 tablespoons of butter for five minutes. Spoon half the corn mixture into a 2-quart casserole, top with half the tomatoes. Sprinkle half of the salt and pepper. Repeat the layers. Combine breadcrumbs with 2 tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle evenly over casserole. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

Here is a soup that can be served as a main course. If you cannot use the entire quantity right away, add as many shrimps as you think you will eat at one sitting, and if some soup is left over you can just add more fresh shrimp to make a good encore.

Corn and Shrimp Soup

·        3  tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine - or if you like, 1/4 cup bacon drippings

·        2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

·        1 cup chopped celery

·        1 cup chopped green pepper

·        1 cup chopped onion

·        1 clove minced garlic

·        2 teaspoons salt

·        1/2 teaspoon pepper

·        1 teaspoon dried thyme

·        1 can (16 ounce) whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped, or an equivalent quantity of fresh tomatoes

·        1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

·        3 cups corn kernels about 6 ears

·        2 pounds fresh medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut in half, or 1-pound package of frozen shrimp

Place butter or bacon drippings along with flour in your largest Dutch oven. Cook over medium heat until roux is browning, then add celery, green pepper, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and thyme. Stir the vegetables into the roux and cook, uncovered, until softened, about ten minutes. (Roux is a mixture of flour and butter browned together, the basic ingredients for gravy or thickener for soups or stew.)

Add tomatoes, tomato paste, water and corn. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered, 45 minutes. Stir in shrimp, simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. This will make almost a gallon of delicious soup.

Curried Corn Soup

·        2 cups corn kernels (about 4 ears of cooked corn)

·        1 tablespoon unsalted butter

·        1 cup finely chopped onion

·        1 tablespoon curry powder

·        2 tablespoons flour

·        1 large apple, peeled and coarsely chopped or grated

·        4 cups unsalted chicken broth

·        1 bay leaf

·        1 cup plain yogurt

Sauté onion and garlic in butter. Stir in curry powder and flour. Add apple, chicken broth and bay leaf. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove bay leaf, pour soup into food processor or blender and process until smooth. Reheat and add corn, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in yogurt.

Corn and Zucchini Casserole - serves 4

·        3 cups of fresh corn kernels cut from cob - about 6 ears

·        3 medium zucchini

·        1 onion thinly sliced

·        1 clove garlic, minced

·        1 tomato, peeled, seeded

·        2 tablespoons vegetable oil

·        1 tablespoon unsalted butter

·        1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

·        Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil and sauté zucchini, onion and garlic for ten minutes or until tender. Add tomatoes, corn, salt and pepper, stir, and let simmer for five minutes. Spoon the vegetables into a buttered baking dish, then sprinkle with cheese and dot with butter. Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted. This is a good vegetarian main dish.

Corn and Cheese Custard

·        1 tablespoon butter

·        1 onion, chopped

·        1 sweet red pepper, chopped

·        3 cups cooked fresh sweet corn - about 6 ears

·        2 teaspoons fresh parsley, minced

·        1-1/2 cups milk

·        2 eggs

·        1-1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

·        Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté onion and pepper in butter until soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add corn, parsley, salt and pepper. Turn into a 2-quart casserole.

Beat eggs, milk and cheese together and pour over the vegetables. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 50 minutes or until custard is firm. Serves 4 as a luncheon entree.

Corn and Spinach Pudding

·        1 package chopped spinach, cooked and squeezed dry

·        3 cups cooked corn kernels (6 ears)

·        1 tablespoon butter

·        1 onion chopped

·        2/3 cup boiled ham, chopped

·        2 eggs

·        3/4 cup milk

·        salt and pepper to taste

Place spinach and corn in a bowl, set aside. Melt butter in skillet and sauté onion, add ham and sauté for 5 minutes more and combine with spinach and corn. Mix well, then turn the mixture into a 2-quart casserole or soufflé dish.

All material on this site is copyright 2003-2005 by Vicki Oppenheimer and Milpah Press. For information on the availability of the printed version of The Taste Makers, please write to us.

This page was last updated on 24-Nov-2005.