Parched corn

[tenngun]

Next Townsend vid is on using parched corn in cooking looking forward to it.

 

[Billnpatti]

Yep, 'tain't the same thing. Well, that makes two times I have been wrong this year. :wink: I guess I'm loosing my touch. Oh well, I am getting a bit long in the tooth and I guess it comes with the territory. :haha:

 

[George]

Many, maybe the majority of references I've collected about parched corn describe it as being ground into meal after parching.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

Many, maybe the majority of references I've collected about parched corn describe it as being ground into meal after parching.

Spence

Seeing as how we don't "parch" corn meal these days.....It makes me wonder if parching didn't serve a purpose that we accomplish some other way today... :hmm:

 

[George]

In the day, parched corn was most often described as travel food, and it was frequently eaten without further preparation. So, parching was all the cooking it got, and that was done before the journey, so it wouldn't require being done on the journey.

It didn't serve the same purpose as Corn Nuts before the TV. :wink:

It's mentioned very early in the history of this country, at Jamestown in the first decade of the 1600s, done by the Powhatans in Virginia.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

Thanks Spence....I was looking at it from a totally different and wrong perspective...

 

[Black Hand]

In the day, parched corn was most often described as travel food, and it was frequently eaten without further preparation.

Parched meal was also eaten as a ration and sometimes mixed with Maple sugar.

 

[George]

Yes, sugar is frequently mentioned, including in the very early writings.

Spence

 

[tenngun]

Many, maybe the majority of references I've collected about parched corn describe it as being ground into meal after parching.

Spence

Seeing as how we don't "parch" corn meal these days.....It makes me wonder if parching didn't serve a purpose that we accomplish some other way today... :hmm:

It becomes pretty brittle after patching. Could be that you threw a handful in a bag gave it a few smacks with hawk and you have corn meal. Left whole in the bag not as likely to go weevely. :idunno: not parched harder to make meal?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Most if not all of the sources that I have found from the time period and from the beginning of the 20th century, seem to agree that corn meal was from ground dried corn, and parching then grinding gave the user rockahominy aka coal flour.

I've tried chewing just the dried corn, and NOPE not happening. But after parching it's quite chewable. Further, parching is a method of long term preservation as it kills off the bug eggs that otherwise would hatch and attack the corn.

I bought 50 lbs. of unmilled corn from a stone ground cornmeal company, thinking I could store it and parch and pound as much as I needed when needed. Well I parched about 10 pounds and stored that. No worries, and it lasted several years, but as Spring arrived the rest of the corn turned into a huge bag of corn dust and weevils.

OH and weevils can and do eat their way through the fiber sacking that holds the corn. Odd looking little devils..., that's how I figured out there was a problem..., the tiny weevils started showing up in large numbers in my basement.


LD

 

[Billnpatti]

The little boogers can be controlled with bay leaves or cloves. Just make up some sachets of cloves by putting about a teaspoon of whole cloves into a small square of cloth and tying it up with string. You can place the sachets into your grain as well as placing a few around on your pantry shelves. When using bay leaves, you can just place the leaves into your grain, no sachet needed. You can also scatter a few leaves around on your pantry shelves. A friend of mine was a Mormon and he stored a lot of whole grains in his house. It seemed to be something having to do with their religion because it is common among Mormons to do so. He had some sort of chemical that he would place in his grains. I don't remember just what it was but it was something common but not what I would use. I think it may have been formaldehyde but I am not sure. If you know of any Mormons in your area, you might ask them what they use. Personally, I prefer using bay leaves and/or cloves.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

We talked about this in a ships biscuit thread. Weevils and their eggs Can be elemanated by getting the grain under 0 for :hmm: 3 days I think, or above 140 for something like -5 minutes So if you seal it in containers and bring it to those temps for those times it should be bug free without putting stuff in it.
https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/rice-weevil-and-granary-weevil

 

[George]

Most if not all of the sources that I have found from the time period and from the beginning of the 20th century, seem to agree that corn meal was from ground dried corn, and parching then grinding gave the user rockahominy aka coal flour.

It was known by various names over a long period of time. I've collected:

rockahominy
cold flour
coal flour
parched corn meal
parched corn flour
parched meal
nocake or nookik
Psindamóoan
Tassmanáne

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

I read somewhere that 3 spoonfuls of parched meal and a canteen of water was sufficient to sustain a traveler for an entire day. Unfortunately, I do not recall where I saw this.

 

[George]

I read somewhere that 3 spoonfuls of parched meal and a canteen of water was sufficient to sustain a traveler for an entire day. Unfortunately, I do not recall where I saw this.

Maybe not what you saw, but...

[nocake]... is Indian corn parched in the hot ashes, the ashes being sifted from it; it is afterwards beaten to powder and put into a long leatherne bag trussed at the Indian's backe like a knapsacke, out of which they take three spoonfuls a day."
William Wood 1634

That was quoted by Horace Kephart, “Camping and Woodcraft”.

Spence

 

[Nativearizonan]

Most if not all of the sources that I have found from the time period and from the beginning of the 20th century, seem to agree that corn meal was from ground dried corn, and parching then grinding gave the user rockahominy aka coal flour.

It was known by various names over a long period of time. I've collected:

rockahominy
cold flour
coal flour
parched corn meal
parched corn flour
parched meal
nocake or nookik
Psindamóoan
Tassmanáne

Spence

You may want to add Pinole to that list. Pinole was used for both the parched corn flour alone, and the combination of that with various other ingredients such as sugar and cinnamon.

 

[George]

You may want to add Pinole to that list. Pinole was used for both the parched corn flour alone, and the combination of that with various other ingredients such as sugar and cinnamon.

I've seen that term, in fact Kephart used it in his description of his use of parched corn. Problem is, I've never seen it in the old literature, and am cautious it might be a more modern term.

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

Their nokehike was parched corn pounded.
A History of the Indian Wars with the First Settlers of the United States to the Commencement of the Late War: Together with an Appendix, Not Before Added to this History, Containing Interesting Accounts of the Battles Fought by Gen. Andrew Jackson
Daniel Clarke Sanders
January 1, 1828
G.P. Humphrey

Farther south they use great quantities of parched corn-meal and sugar, as practised by our hunters, each dragoon having a small bag. They thus live when on command, on an allowance, which our troops would. conceive little better than starving, never except at night attempting to eat any thing like a meal, but biting a piece of biscuit, or drinking some parched meal and sugar, with water during the day.
The Critical Review, Or, Annals of Literature
January 1, 1812
W. Simpkin and R. Marshall

...they can subsist several days upon a little rockahominy, which is parched Indian corn, reduced to powder: This they moisten in the hollow of their hands, with a little water, and it is hardly credible how small a quantity of it will support them... With this slender subsistence, they are able to travel very long journeys. But then to make themselves amends, when they do meet with better cheer, they eat without ceasing, until they have revelled themselves into another famine.
The Sportsman's Cabinet, and Town and Country Magazine: A Periodical Devoted to the Genuine Sports of the Field, and Interesting Illustrations of Natural History Indispensably Connected with the Ramifications of the Chase, the Turf, the Stream, &c. &c. with Amusing and Instructive Anecdotes, and Elegant Engravings, Volume 1
Thomas Burgeland Johnson
Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, 1833

 

[Black Hand]

Interesting info:
Pikes Travels through North America
The traveling food of the dragoons in New Mexico consists of a very excellent species of wheat biscuit, and shaved meat well dried. With a vast quantity of red pepper, of which they make bouilli, and then pour it on their broken biscuit, when it becomes soft and excellent.
https://books.google.com/books?pg=...view+parched+corn&id=zXxPAAAAYAAJ&output=text

 

[Black Hand]

Myth or fact - you decide:
The recorded history of Pinole dates back to the early 1700s when a Spanish commandant, Don Pedro Fages, led an exploration through Contra Costa. With a small band of soldiers and an Indian guide, Don Pedro Fages left Monterey and traveled northward until he reached the area known today as Pinole. According to legend, the soldiers ran out of provisions on their march and found a village of Indians who gave them food. This food consisted of a form of meal, made from acorns, seeds, and wild grain, which they called “pinole” (derived from the Aztec word “pinolli” meaning ground and toasted grain or seeds.) Thus, the soldiers named their camp “El Pinole,” and Pinole received its name.
http://www.ci.pinole.ca.us/about/history_summary.html