Real Parched Corn

Parched corn recipes are like a#$&^$%^*s, everyone has one and many of them are not quite right. Additionally, every recipe I have seen involves the use of a cast iron or other metal cooking impliment!

Did the Indians develop parched corn as a by product of the introduction of metal cookware? Do we have documentation of its existance during the stone age period? How was it origionally prepared before metal cookware?

Please do not tell me they cooked it on a hot rock, I tried that, it does not work!!

What kind of actual first person witness do we have about how the Indians made theirs before european intrusion.

 

[bnail]

:Shake:Thinks Ghost,:shake: another headache for me to ponder! :hmm:

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Parched corn recipes are like a#$&^$%^*s, everyone has one and many of them are not quite right. Additionally, every recipe I have seen involves the use of a cast iron or other metal cooking impliment!

Did the Indians develop parched corn as a by product of the introduction of metal cookware? Do we have documentation of its existance during the stone age period? How was it origionally prepared before metal cookware?

Please do not tell me they cooked it on a hot rock, I tried that, it does not work!!

What kind of actual first person witness do we have about how the Indians made theirs before european intrusion.

This subject might be more appropriate in the camp cooking or recipes categories.

The Indians utilized parched dried corn long before the White man ever came to the Americas. If on the trail without utensils, parched dried corn was primarily a cold camp food, AKA eat as is

I think a misconception some may have about parched dried corn, is that it is just field dried corn and kernels are parched whole or cracked.

I am sure others have their own thoughts on the subject, but this is the way I have done it.

To dry, take fresh green corn on the cob, pull back the husks, hang by husks until dehydrated and then use as desired. If for parching, shell corn off the cob (grating is the way I have done it) and parch it dry, or (the way I prefer) in a little grease or oil in a pan.

Correctly dried corn as described, If boiled, is almost like fresh corn.

One can use the packaged frozen corn kernels, but will not be the same, as much of the nutrients have been bled out as the kernels were cut off and in the processing.

 

[blacksmithshoppe]

You still didn't explain how they parched the corn without iron cook ware. Did they in fact parch it? Or did they just dry it and grind in up, mortar and pestle style before the introduction if iron cook ware?
Jeff :hmm:

 

[Claude Mathis]

You still didn't explain how they parched the corn without iron cook ware. Did they in fact parch it? Or did they just dry it and grind in up, mortar and pestle style before the introduction if iron cook ware?
Jeff :hmm:

You can parch corn in a clay pot (bowl), but without documentation, we're all just speculating on what might have been.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

You still didn't explain how they parched the corn without iron cook ware. Did they in fact parch it? Or did they just dry it and grind in up, mortar and pestle style before the introduction if iron cook ware?
Jeff :hmm:

The corn would have been parched before taking to the trail, this could have been done in numerous ways. Why would one take dried corn and then parch it away from where utensils were available. As I stated, parched dried corn was food primarily to be eaten on the trek, as is. Written accounts are replete where Indians and longhunters meal consisted of, a couple mouthfuls of parched dried corn, followed by a long draught from the nearest creek. The parched dried corn once in the tummy, would swell, and the hunter would somewhat feel he had eaten a full meal.

For the purpose, I use the term utensils of the era with broad meaning, flat stones, pottery, fire dried clay or mud, etc, etc.

As a kid when I was out traipsing around in the river bottoms and the corn was in season. If I got hungry, I would just take field corn from the nearest patch, build a fire, leave the husks on, pack ears in mud and roast in the fire. After gorging on the roasted fresh corn, I always kept some of the husks to serve another purpose, knowing full well the curse to come from what follows after over indulging on nothing but fresh green corn.

So I guess one could say, those corn husks served as an ad hoc "utensil" of the moment. :rotf:

 

[dodgecity]

according to Heckewelder, the corn was parched in clean hot ashes.

 

[Harddog]

Many old journals mention whites carrying cracked corn. Cracked corn is not ground up corn or even ground up parched corn, but rather ground up hominy. Better known today as grits or hominy grits.

I remember 25 or more years ago when reenactors bought "cracked corn" type chicken feed to carry. They would try and boil it till soft, but it never got soft and was much like eating pea gravel.

Grits are much more palatible then any ground parched corn and entirely PC.

Randy Hedden

 

[Claude Mathis]

Grits are much more palatible then any ground parched corn and entirely PC.

PC it is...

"Grits (or hominy) were one of the first truly American foods, as the Native Americans ate a mush made of softened corn or maize. In 1584, during their reconnaissance party of what is now Roanoke, North Carolina, Sir Walter Raleigh and his men met and dined with the local Indians. Having no language in common, the two groups quickly resorted to food and drink. One of Raleigh's men, Arthur Barlowe, recorded notes on the foods of the Indians. He mad a special note of corn, which he found "very white, faire, and well tasted." He also wrote about being served a boiled corn or hominy.

When the colonists came ashore in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, the Indians offered them bowls of this boiled corn substance. The Indians called it "rockahomine," which was later shortened to "hominy" by the colonists. The Indians taught the colonists how to thresh the hulls from dried yellow corn. Corn was a year-round staple and each tribe called it by a different name."

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Grits are much more palatible then any ground parched corn and entirely PC.

PC it is...

"Grits (or hominy) were one of the first truly American foods, as the Native Americans ate a mush made of softened corn or maize. In 1584, during their reconnaissance party of what is now Roanoke, North Carolina, Sir Walter Raleigh and his men met and dined with the local Indians. Having no language in common, the two groups quickly resorted to food and drink. One of Raleigh's men, Arthur Barlowe, recorded notes on the foods of the Indians. He mad a special note of corn, which he found "very white, faire, and well tasted." He also wrote about being served a boiled corn or hominy.

When the colonists came ashore in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, the Indians offered them bowls of this boiled corn substance. The Indians called it "rockahomine," which was later shortened to "hominy" by the colonists. The Indians taught the colonists how to thresh the hulls from dried yellow corn. Corn was a year-round staple and each tribe called it by a different name."

Then right after the hominy, the Indians said, "lets have a smoke," and things tain't been the same since. :rotf:

 

[dodgecity]

This is an article I ran across from an old woodscraft publication while I was looking for something else. Among others, it contans the complete Heckewelder account that I was referring to in my earlier post. I have not personally tried this, but, I have tasted parched corn made by this process. Ground up and made into gruel with a pinch of salt and some maple sugar, or, in my case, brown sugar, it is very tasty. This is, of course, from the 18th century, but the process, which needs no iron utensils, could have been passed down from much earlier times. The biggest difference from pre Columbian times might lie in the actual corn used. Some, like the Choctaw knew only flint corn, while other tribes during that time had developed varieties of corn for different uses. [url] www.kurtsaxon.com/foods011.htm[/url]

 

[crockett]

The other thing about grits is that they swell to beat the band. About three tables spoons of dried grits with yield about a full cup of cooked grits. Pretty good for a trek.

 

[chingachgook]

Greetings all,

Just a note, we all have to remember that although the natives didn't have the luxuries of the "whites", they still were able to produce all the foods from that time period. With one clay pot, maybe a wooden bowl and a stick I can recreate almost all of the foods of the period. The natives were quite resourceful, and knew there environment and equipment very well. They had to.

On another note.... Great topic... I've learned alot from the differing veiws

~chingach