Parched corn

[shunka]

According to my Lovey Spousal Unit, corn must be cooked with lye in order to release the proteins that make it into a usable food. By parching it in ashes, this is accomplished.

yhs
shunka

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Um..., I don't think so, well not by simply parching in the ashes.

The alkaline solution to make hominy, which causes the chemical reaction that releases the niacin in the maize, is much harder than the alkaline contained in the ashes alone. One must leech out the alkaline, and one must soak the corn in the solution for many hours to break down the husks, and cause the nixtamalization. Even the cracking of the husk in the dry ashes isn't enough, as the ashes are dry and it needs to be in a liquid to cause the chemical change. If you took the parched corn along with the ashes, and dumped it into water to cleanse it, that would work, but you would need to leave the corn in the solution much longer than you would when placing it into a solution from leeched ashes due to the weakness of the alkaline.

LD

 

[nhmoose]

So to make corn bread or dodgers it has to be parched or alkalized? Getting confused sorry.

 

[Black Hand]

So to make corn bread or dodgers it has to be parched or alkalized?

No....

 

[nhmoose]

Thanks

 

[Sean Gadhar]

So to make corn bread or dodgers it has to be parched or alkalized? Getting confused sorry.

to make hominy=alkalized
-----------------------------------------------
to make rockahominy
cold flour
coal flour
parched corn meal
parched corn flour All = parched
parched meal
nocake or nookik
Psindamóoan
Tassmanáne
--------------------------------------------

To make corn bread = ground

 

[Black Hand]

To further confuse the issue:
Hominy corn can be ground, and (I presume) could be used to make corn bread, dodgers or pone (though all I've had was made with yellow corn meal). Also known as Hominy grits, which is really coarse-ground hominy corn meal....

For more info, see here

 

[George]

To further confuse the issue:....

If you are going to confuse us, do it right.

Eastern Native Americans boiled coarse-ground plain corn, not parched, for hours into a 'pap', called it hominy.

The same thing in today's world, the coarser bits left after plain corn is ground and the cornmeal is sifted out, is called corn grits.

Today, whole corn kernels treated with lye is called hominy.

Dry hominy and grind it into coarse meal and it becomes hominy grits.

All are very tasty. :haha:

Spence

 

[Loyalist Dave]

If one is to get the most nutrition out of maize, if one's diet is lacking in other sources of nutrition, the maize needs to be subjected to Nixtamalization. This is done by soaking the corn in an alkaline solution, which is done to turn the dried corn into Hominy. The purpose of the alkaline soaking is to get rid of the hulls on the outside of the kernels. (Plus the hominy is easier to use in preparing other foods.) A side effect of the hominy production is that the alkaline solution releases Niacin from the maize, which prevents Pellagra a condition due to a lack of niacin.

A typical Indian diet in North America as documented by early journals, had other sources of Niacin..., beans, grass fed bison, wild turkey, are some of the other sources. A very simple diet, such as what was found in parts of the Southwest of what would become the United States, as well as Mexico, consisting of tortillas and beans and chile peppers, is pretty good for niacin.

It was only leading up to and during the great depression, mostly in Southern States where very little other than cotton was grown, and the corn in the United States was milled, not turned into hominy (well not enough was turned into hominy), that Pellagra appeared, when cornmeal became the major food source (perhaps the only food source) for the very poor. The poor economic conditions removed the other Niacin sources from the diet of poor Southerners, and the result was an "epidemic".

LD

 

[coloradoclyde]

Ok, time for one of my random thoughts again... :grin:

If "corn" in English referred to wheat, barley and oats.
How do we know that parched corn was made strictly out of Maize?

Oatmeal would do a fine job of filling one's belly....making a mush and adding sugar Like some of the writings describe, is exactly how it's still eaten today...

 

[Black Hand]

If "corn" in English referred to wheat, barley and oats.
How do we know that parched corn was made strictly out of Maize?

Because natives in the colonies didn't grow wheat, barley or oats (introduced from the Old World)...?

 

[coloradoclyde]

Let's approach this from another direction....

Many other grains were also parched...

I have seen multiple accounts of oats being parched and eaten as "trail food".

People parched and ate whatever grain was available.

 

[Black Hand]

Agreed. However, I believe it should be viewed as location-specific...

 

[tenngun]

Just thinking putting in a garden of corn or three sister would be less work then a field of oats or barley. Corn would be handy across trans frontier area :idunno:

 

[George]

Just thinking putting in a garden of corn or three sister would be less work then a field of oats or barley. Corn would be handy across trans frontier area :idunno:

You aren't the first to think that way.

The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century;
J.G.M. Ramsey, A.M., M.D.

Of all the farinacea, corn is best adapted to the condition of a pioneer people; and if idolatry is at all justifiable, Ceres, or certainly the Goddess of Indian corn, should have had a temple and worshipers among the pioneers of Tennessee. Without that grain, the frontier settlements could not have been formed and maintained. It is the most certain crop--requires the least preparation of the ground--is most congenial to a virgin soil--needs not only the least amount of labor in its culture, but comes to maturity in the shortest time. The pith of the matured stalk of the corn is esculent and nutritious; and the stalk itself, compressed between rollers, furnishes what is known as corn-stalk molasses. This grain requires, also, the least care and trouble in preserving it. It may safely stand all winter upon the stalk without injury from the weather or apprehension of damage by disease, or the accidents to which other grains are subject. Neither smut nor rust, nor weavil nor snow-storm will hurt it. After its maturity, it is also prepared for use or the granary with little labor. The husking is a short process, and is even advantageously delayed till the moment arrives for using the corn. The machinery for converting it into food is also exceedingly simple and cheap. As soon as the ear is fully formed, it may be roasted or boiled, and forms thus an excellent and nourishing diet. At a later period it may be grated, and furnishes in this form, the sweetest bread. The grains boiled in a variety of modes, either whole or broken in a mortar, or roasted in the ashes, or popped in an oven, are well relished. If the grain is to be converted into meal, a simple tub-mill answers the purpose best, as the meal least perfectly ground is always preferred. A bolting-cloth is not needed, as it diminishes the sweetness and value of the flour. The catalogue of the advantages of this meal might be extended further. Boiled in water, it forms the frontier dish called mush, which was eaten with milk, with honey, molasses, butter or gravy. Mixed with cold water, it is, at once, ready for the cook; covered with hot ashes, the preparation is called the ash cake; placed upon a piece of clapboard, and set near the coals, it forms the journey-cake; or managed in the same way; upon a helveless hoe, it forms the hoe cake; put in an oven, and covered over with a heated lid, it is called, if in a large mass, a pone or loaf; if in smaller quantities, dodgers; It has the further advantage, over all other flour, that it requires in its preparation few culinary utensils, and neither sugar, yeast, eggs, spices, soda, potash or other et ceteras, to qualify or perfect the bread. To all this, it may be added, that it is not only cheap and well tasted, but it is unquestionably the most wholesome and nutritive food. The largest and healthiest people in the world have lived upon it exclusively. It formed the principal bread of that robust race of men--giants in miniature--which, half a century since, was seen on the frontier.

The dignity of history is not lowered by this enumeration of the pre-eminent qualities of Indian corn. The rifle and the axe have had their influence in subduing the wilderness to the purposes of civilization, and they deserve their eulogists and trumpeters. Let paeans be sung all over the mighty West to Indian corn--without it, the West would have still been a wilderness. Was the frontier suddenly invaded? Without commissary or quartermaster, or other sources of supply, each soldier parched a peck of corn; a portion of it was put into his pockets, the remainder in his wallet, and throwing it upon his saddle, with his rifle on his shoulder, he was ready, in half an hour for the campaign. Did a flood of emigration inundate the frontier with an amount of consumers disproportioned to the supply of grain? The facility of raising the Indian corn, and its early maturity, gave promise and guaranty that the scarcity would be temporary and tolerable. Did the safety of the frontier demand the services of every adult militiaman? The boys and women could, themselves, raise corn and furnish ample supplies of bread. The crop could be gathered next year. Did an autumnal intermittent confine the whole family or the entire population to the sick bed? This certain concomitant of the clearing, and cultivating the new soil, mercifully withholds its paroxysms till the crop of corn is made. It requires no further labor or care afterward. Paeans, say we, and a temple and worshipers, to the Creator of Indian corn.

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

Excellent!

 

[coloradoclyde]

If we look at corn from a trade commodity aspect it looses out to wheat, flour, and rice, in trade value to Europe during the colonial period.

 

[Black Hand]

Could you provide additional context for your statement?

 

[Claude Mathis]

If we look at corn from a trade commodity aspect it looses out to wheat, flour, and rice, in trade value to Europe during the colonial period.

Don't know about trading with Europe, but...

Indian corn, or maize, was the most widely consumed grain in 18th-century Virginia.

Relatively easy to grow and abundantly productive, corn played a central role in supporting the colony from its earliest days of settlement as a source of food for both people and their animals. Corn was usually worth half as much as wheat. It became an export commodity by the last half of the 18th century. In 1772, Virginia shipped half a million bushels of Indian corn to other colonies along the coast and to the Caribbean, where it was needed for the maintenance of field labor.

http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/trades/traderural_corn.cfm[/quote]

 

[coloradoclyde]

Could you provide additional context for your statement?

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/colonies1763.htm