# Preparing/Cooking whole kernal corn



## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

I know I just posted about corn flakes, and this is another corn thread, but this is a slightly different topic: How do I cook dried, whole kernal corn?

I'm a little intimidated by the "recipe" I saw on one site: 3 parts water to 1 part corn, bring to boil, then soak for 3 hours, then bring to boil again and simmer 3 hours.

That seems like a lot of work in the type of world in which I envision needing to eat the stuff. Is it really that much work to eat dried, whole kernal corn? It would be nice to have variety, but wheat is looking pretty good if it takes that much work to make corn.


----------



## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

Just read on another site that you only have to boil it 50 minutes, and then you are done. That is similar to wheat berries. Anyone have any personal experience with this stuff?


----------



## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Are you talking about dried field corn, or are you talking about dehydrated sweet corn? If your talking about dehydrated sweet corn,take one cup of corn and add two cups of boiling water, simmer 50 min. or until corn is tender. One cup of dehydrated makes about two cups reconstituted


----------



## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

camo2460 said:


> Are you talking about dried field corn, or are you talking about dehydrated sweet corn?


Good question. I don't know. I was going to buy a 50 pound bag of dried corn...is that field corn? I'm not sure what field corn is. What is the difference between dried field corn and dyhydrated sweet corn?


----------



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

When I was a kid, we experimented with just about every way of preparing dried corn and finally came to the conclusion that if you aren't going to make meal from it or at least crack it - Hominy is about the only alternative.


Not trying to be a wet blanket but even a cheap grinder(around $30.00 at Gibsons) will work, you dont have to buy an expensive grain mill.


----------



## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Dehydrated sweet corn is the corn that you grow in your garden or buy at the market. It is the removed from the cob and placed in the dehydrator and dehydrated at about 120 degrees for 8-12 hrs. Field corn is what is left in the field to dry on the cob and is typically used as fodder for animals. It is usually a lower grade/kind of corn. Can humans consume it? yes but I think you would have better results with dehydrated sweet corn.


----------



## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Just to clarify a bit, field corn includes mainly flint and dent corn and is the type of corn used to make corn meal, cornflakes, tortilla, grits etc. it functions as a grain.
Sweet corn is used as a vegetable, it has never been used as a staple but it can be preserved by dehydrating and other means however it is not well suited to making the above or other common corn dishes.

The confusing part is that with many varieties of field corn grown on a commercial scale today are intended solely for industrial processing. It is not unique to corn, there are varieties of "feed wheat" and "feed barley" as well. If you are buying corn intended for human consumption it should be fine and has been relied on by MANY people as a staple for millennia.

A pressure cooker would shorten your cooking times.

Of course a way to grind or crack grains makes things a lot simpler, as if you haven't thought of that


----------



## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

So, what does that picture in the first post look like to you? I'm guessing it is field corn??? Or can you tell by looking at it.

Does dehydrated sweet corn have a good shelf life?


----------



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Ya Know, pressur cooking whole corn kernels is something we never tried, dont know why though - my mom pressured just about everything else at one time or another.

I'm going to have to try that one of these days, just curious as to how it would come out.



cowboyhermit said:


> Just to clarify a bit, field corn includes mainly flint and dent corn and is the type of corn used to make corn meal, cornflakes, tortilla, grits etc. it functions as a grain.
> Sweet corn is used as a vegetable, it has never been used as a staple but it can be preserved by dehydrating and other means however it is not well suited to making the above or other common corn dishes.
> 
> The confusing part is that with many varieties of field corn grown on a commercial scale today are intended solely for industrial processing. It is not unique to corn, there are varieties of "feed wheat" and "feed barley" as well. If you are buying corn intended for human consumption it should be fine and has been relied on by MANY people as a staple for millennia.
> ...


----------



## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

What about parched corn? My brother come up with a Civil War cook book and I made him some parched corn one night. He didn't know what it was. I just put a little oil in a skillet and put it over heat. The corn was similar to "corn nuts" like you buy at the store, but not big kernels like that. But, it was crunchy and easily chewable. Really not as hard as the corn nuts. Pretty quick process, it kinda pops but doesn't do like popcorn. I guess the heat just cracks it a little. I could see where you could bust that up with some rocks and use it in another dish.


----------



## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Tacitus, that looks like field corn to me for sure. Sweet corn kernels are mostly water so they shrivel up quite a bit. The kernels of sweet corn are not usually completely mature when eaten otherwise they would look like the seeds for planting.

Davarm, we use a lot of dried goods (beans, peas, lentils) and the pressure cooker sure speeds things up. And yet in practice I hardly use it anymore usually just have a big pot simmering away and/or soaking overnight.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say that hominy, like Davarm mentioned is a great way to prepare it, especially from a nutritional standpoint.

Up in the area of Canada I am in field corn has never been a major crop, we have always grown some but nothing like further south. Probably 1% of our province is planted into corn. So I am no expert on field corn but have read about it quite a bit and it was/is an impressive plant.
I hope to give painted mountain corn a shot one of these days, looks like a good plant.http://www.seedweneed.com/index-1.html


----------



## kappydell (Nov 27, 2011)

The stuff in the photo looks like dried field corn of the dent corn variety. Sweet corn dehydrates and stores very nicely, and is one of the best vegetables when re-hydrated. The down side - it is slow to re-hydrate compared to some other things (like green beans for example). Parched corn is from sweet corn. The field corn is generally used as corn meal, but you cam make many, many things from corn meal - from corn bread to 'sawmill gravy'. Mush is delicious, and fried mush is excellent as well. Polenta is nothing more than corn mush from Italy. Field corn is one of those things you either love or hate to eat; there does not seem to be much middle ground. And once ground, it does not store very well long-term, so if you do like corn meal and intend to store corn, store it in whole kernels and grind as needed.


----------



## Saffer (Aug 3, 2012)

I'm not familiar with all the names you guys have for the various types of corn, but here in South Africa I grew up having boiled whole dried corn as a snack. It's the corn that is harvested at the end of the season. Here's how I still do it today: Cover the corn with cold water and soak overnight. Bring to the boil ensuring there's enough water, and simmer for about 3 hours, or until the kernels start to crack open. You can test one from time to time, it should be soft all the way through. Drain the water, add salt to taste and let cool. Take a hand full and enjoy! Some may not like the roughage caused by the skin, I like it. Oh, of course the kernels must be removed from the cob first!


----------



## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

cowboyhermit said:


> Tacitus, that looks like field corn to me for sure. Sweet corn kernels are mostly water so they shrivel up quite a bit. The kernels of sweet corn are not usually completely mature when eaten otherwise they would look like the seeds for planting.
> 
> Davarm, we use a lot of dried goods (beans, peas, lentils) and the pressure cooker sure speeds things up. And yet in practice I hardly use it anymore usually just have a big pot simmering away and/or soaking overnight.
> 
> ...


Just curious, what are your main crops?

Here in Indiana, we either rotate soybeans one year then corn the next.

Or a 3 year thing is to plant soybeans, then in the fall after harvesting the beans, plant winter wheat. Then the wheat is harvested in summer, straw is baled, and late soybeans are planted again. Then corn the following year.

I've never done anything with field corn except sell it or grind it for feed. This is interesting. I'm gonna try some of these ideas.


----------



## helicopter5472 (Feb 25, 2013)

First using those words "pressure cooker" may bring more attention to you than you bargained for  How about popcorn as sold in bulk. You can pop it, but can it be used like above by soaking it. What if any uses, can this type of corn be used for?


----------



## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Thanks CH for the clarification. I grew up in a little village in N.W. Ohio called Howard farms, there were large tracts of land there planted in corn, which was flint or dent, I just could'nt remember the names. When it was harvested it was put into silos for feed or taken to the docks on the Maumee river and shipped out.


----------



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

helicopter5472 said:


> First using those words "pressure cooker" may bring more attention to you than you bargained for  How about popcorn as sold in bulk. You can pop it, but can it be used like above by soaking it. What if any uses, can this type of corn be used for?


If using words like "Pressure Cooker" draws unwanted attention, this site is going to be crawling with it.lol


----------



## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

jeff47041, We grow really good high protein wheat up here(Alberta/Saskatchewan), that is the historical main crop. Barley is probably second (malting and feed), then oats (milling or feed). Canola has taken up a huge amount of acres recently because the money has been very good. Flax used to be popular, not so much anymore.
We produce way more lentils than any other country. We grow a lot of chickpeas and field peas as well.

Mostly crops that can't take the heat, kinda like me


----------



## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

We grew some field corn last year. It wasn't really all that good to eat. It had been engineered to be tough to handle all the handling it gets. Didn't taste all that good. The kernels had a tough skin on them, had to boil it a long time. Now, if I was starving, I would be happy to have it. Some stalks got over twelve feet tall. I have been wanting to grow some Bloody Butcher corn. We usually plant the first week of February, but that didn't work out so good this year. Too many cool nights.


----------



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I'm always game to try new things so I'm going to try this that you and a few others say is good. Maybe we just didn't cook it long enough when I was a kid...



Saffer said:


> I'm not familiar with all the names you guys have for the various types of corn, but here in South Africa I grew up having boiled whole dried corn as a snack. It's the corn that is harvested at the end of the season. Here's how I still do it today: Cover the corn with cold water and soak overnight. Bring to the boil ensuring there's enough water, and simmer for about 3 hours, or until the kernels start to crack open. You can test one from time to time, it should be soft all the way through. Drain the water, add salt to taste and let cool. Take a hand full and enjoy! Some may not like the roughage caused by the skin, I like it. Oh, of course the kernels must be removed from the cob first!


----------



## Ezmerelda (Oct 17, 2010)

Tacitus said:


> So, what does that picture in the first post look like to you? I'm guessing it is field corn??? Or can you tell by looking at it.
> 
> Does dehydrated sweet corn have a good shelf life?


If those kernels are about the size of a pinky nail (it's impossible to tell without something in the pic for scale), then it looks like sweet corn to me, especially the shape...

Dent corn, at least in these parts, is much larger - more like a thumb nail and is more of a square shape, rather than rounded. Also, the Dent corn I get here at the local feed store has a distinct coloration in the center (I'm guessing it corresponds with the bran in wheat?). :dunno:


----------



## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I ground a pound of corn last night for cornbread and decided to give the parched corn a try, came out pretty good.

I put a little oil in a cast iron pan and worked it like I was making pop corn(some of it even popped), when the kernels turned a golden brown color I turned off the heat and poured it onto a plate to cool.

Like VUnder said, it is crunchy and easily chewable, good food item to have on your list of SHTF supplies.



VUnder said:


> What about parched corn? My brother come up with a Civil War cook book and I made him some parched corn one night. He didn't know what it was. I just put a little oil in a skillet and put it over heat. The corn was similar to "corn nuts" like you buy at the store, but not big kernels like that. But, it was crunchy and easily chewable. Really not as hard as the corn nuts. Pretty quick process, it kinda pops but doesn't do like popcorn. I guess the heat just cracks it a little. I could see where you could bust that up with some rocks and use it in another dish.


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*Parched corn, a how to video*



VUnder said:


> What about parched corn? My brother come up with a Civil War cook book and I made him some parched corn one night. He didn't know what it was. I just put a little oil in a skillet and put it over heat. The corn was similar to "corn nuts" like you buy at the store, but not big kernels like that. But, it was crunchy and easily chewable. Really not as hard as the corn nuts. Pretty quick process, it kinda pops but doesn't do like popcorn. I guess the heat just cracks it a little. I could see where you could bust that up with some rocks and use it in another dish.







His method of parched corn is fairly easy. He uses a hot air popcorn popper, a coffee grinder, and hot water on the stove.


----------



## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

cowboyhermit said:


> jeff47041, We grow really good high protein wheat up here(Alberta/Saskatchewan), that is the historical main crop. Barley is probably second (malting and feed), then oats (milling or feed). Canola has taken up a huge amount of acres recently because the money has been very good. Flax used to be popular, not so much anymore.
> We produce way more lentils than any other country. We grow a lot of chickpeas and field peas as well.
> 
> Mostly crops that can't take the heat, kinda like me


We live in such different climates yet our crops are so similar, high protein wheat, oats, barley, triticale, canola, and lupins. We plant in autumn and harvest in early summer.


----------



## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Fall rye and winter wheat are pretty common (though we kind of plant them in the summer and fall respectively cause in "winter" nobody is planting nothing ) but everything else pretty much is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. In general we are dealing with a whopping 100-125 frost free days (slightly different than most places I would think) Our long days do make up for it a bit, today we will have almost 17 hours of "daylight" sunrise is officially about 5AM and sunset at 10


----------



## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

I just noticed that I can buy one of these for $100. It is a Metate y Mano or a Metate y Metlapil. Basically, it is what the Aztecs and Central Americans used to grind corn before they switched to electric grinders. I bet it is really fun to use!


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*Fun, and hard work!*



Tacitus said:


> I just noticed that I can buy one of these for $100. It is a Metate y Mano or a Metate y Metlapil. Basically, it is what the Aztecs and Central Americans used to grind corn before they switched to electric grinders. I bet it is really fun to use!


I will get out my stone, photograph it, and post a picture. I think the price on this is a little high, and in Latino families, a metate that is passed down in the family is an heirloom. People I know have told me they have abuelita's metate.


----------



## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

I tried cooking some parched corn this morning. Metal pan, on electric stove. I heated a little oil, then added a layer of dried whole corn, stirring periodically. Some of them started popping, but I think I had the heat a little too high, as I burned some kernals but others didn't expand very well.

Next time I will try lower steady heat. Also, maybe I will try it with a lid. (I hate electric stoves. My pan was old and not perfectly flat, so it didn't sit well on the burner.)

I also saw on one of the video sites that you can make parched peas. I think I will have to order some whole peas. I had been storing split peas, but whole peas might be another option.


----------



## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*What else to do with that corn?*

When I first got serious about preparedness, about 5 years ago when the banking crisis happened, one of the items I wondered about storing was corn. The LDS storehouse does not have corn. Many places do not. In my search at that time, I went to a feed supply store and bought some cracked corn and some wheat meant for feed. It was a start and better than nothing. The wheat needed to be cleaned (winnowed). So after a while I found a suggestion for storing popcorn which could be ground as well as popped.

In the bigger picture of our world, it seems that corn, like wheat is not seen as a common food, although it is common in Latino countries and cuisines. We have derivatives of corn in cornflakes, and we buy cornmeal, we find corn in corndogs. And from people I have met who are allergic to corn, it seems that corn syrup or other things corn have long been additives in our processed foods.

Now that I am into preparedness, and I am trying to go back to basics, having just corn has been an interesting prep to have. With wheat, there is lots of knowledge about grinding it to make flour. With corn, we know we can make corn flour. But beyond the meal or flour with corn, we can nixtamalize it. This is the process of soaking dried corn in lime which makes it more nutrionally available for humans.

I like the idea of taking something that is seemingly as common as corn, and using it to add interest and variety in the potential of my food preps. Pickling lime? This is an easy potential prep to find in the canning section of almost every grocery store, and probably never goes bad, unless it gets wet. And then we can make corn tortillas, corn chips, tamales, and posole from our preps.

How to do that?

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/make-masa-nixtamalize-your-corn.aspx#axzz2X4545dxU

*Uncommon Corn*

About 1,500 B.C., cooks in coastal Guatemala figured out that cooking dried corn in alkali water removed the kernels' skins and produced a softer dough than unprocessed ground corn.

More recently, food scientists have found that this process, called nixtamalization, increases the bioavailability of both protein and niacin, and radically reduces the toxins often found in moldy corn. The resulting dough, called masa, is the basis for corn tortillas, chips, tamales and other specialty corn foods. Whole corn that has been nixtamalized is called hominy or posole, while the ground form is called masa.

Whether ground or whole, nixtamalized corn "has a taste and aroma like no other food on Earth-a delicately nutty quality combined with something almost chalky and mineral-like," says Zarela Martinez, owner of Zarela restaurant in New York City and author of The Food and Life of Oaxaca . She shared the following recipe for nixtamalizing your own corn:

Nixtamalized Corn

2 pounds clean, dried flour-corn kernels (about 1 quart)
1/4 cup pickling lime (food-grade calcium hydroxide)
3 quarts water

Rinse the corn in a colander and set aside. In a large, stainless steel (nonreactive) pot, dissolve the lime in the water. Immediately wash off any lime that gets on your hands. Add the corn and discard any floating kernels. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, cool the pot and let it sit, uncovered, for 4 hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator. Pour the corn into a colander in the sink. With the cold water running, rub the kernels between your hands to rub away the softened hulls (they will have a gelatinous texture). Rinse thoroughly (some old recipes say to wash between 4 and 11 times). Drain well. Use the whole, moist kernels in soups or stews. Or, grind them through a food mill able to handle moist kernels to make masa, to which you can add enough water to make a slightly sticky dough for making tamales or, using a tortilla press, tortillas. Promptly refrigerate any unused masa, and use it within 3 days.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/make-masa-nixtamalize-your-corn.aspx#ixzz2X45PsTGn


----------

