Chess Pie for Dummies
August 19, 2012 12:05 PM   Subscribe

Can I use stone-ground cornmeal in a recipe for chess pie?

Trying to bake my first chess pie, and want to know if stone-ground cornmeal is acceptable for using when "cornmeal" is called for in the recipe.

Something tells me that stone-ground will be too coarse and will result in a gritty, unpleasant texture, because I don't remember any grit in the chess pie I had earlier this week.

OTOH, maybe the corn meal gets softened by the other ingredients and swells and turns into something wonderful?

I'm no food scientist, nor am I a chess pie expert, so if you are either one: what do you think?
posted by Pocahontas to Food & Drink (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I always use white rather than yellow cornmeal, but I don't think stone ground is going to make much difference.
posted by Ideefixe at 12:32 PM on August 19, 2012


This depends entirely on how finely your cornmeal is ground. Can you see little nuggets of corn in there? Does it look polenta-like? If so, it may be too coarse. On the other hand, as the pie cooks, the cornmeal will absorb moisture and should soften up into deliciousness.

I say try it with what you've got, unless it looks super coarse.
posted by Specklet at 12:32 PM on August 19, 2012


I'm entirely unfamiliar with chess pie (sounds delightful!), but it might well turn out gritty. The Southern cornmeal I've worked with is much more finely ground than stone-ground, which has a lot more character. If I tried to prepare this in my kitchen using only stone-ground, the first step I would use would be to toss the coarsest bits into my spice grinder and try to break them down a little more. The other thing that might help is presoaking the cornmeal in the liquids; I'd take the milk, heat it up for 30 seconds in the microwave, then dump in the cornmeal and let it soften for half an hour or an hour.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 1:28 PM on August 19, 2012


Best answer: My (chess pie-loving) gut says that's going to be too coarse and give it a weird texture. You could try to get it finer in a spice or very clean coffee grinder, or possibly a blender if you whizz up more than you need to give the blender enough to work with.
posted by mostlymartha at 1:36 PM on August 19, 2012


Also feel like it would be too grainy, but most recipes call for such a small amount that you could just sift it or hand grind it... Or leave it out and end up with a transparent pie. Or make a transparent pie with cornstarch added, which ought to thicken it up a little and make something in between the two. Or you could dodge the whole issue and make a chocolate chess pie, my favorite, which doesn't call for cornmeal at all.
posted by anaelith at 1:49 PM on August 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


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