Flint corn uses

February 14, 2018 7:57 AM

What do you do with whole-kernel flint corn?

I signed up for a "local grains" CSA and ended up with about 5 pounds of dried, whole-kernel flint corn. I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. I figure I can nixtamalize it and make hominy, but is there any value in preparing it without the lye treatment? What else can be done with it? Are there any good historical (especially New England) references that describe how this was used?

Note that I also received a further five pounds of ground cornmeal in the CSA, so I'm not interested in grinding these kernels.

posted by backseatpilot to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

Parched corn and rockahominy are traditional uses for non-nixtamalized corn. My search yielded a bunch of survivalist sites so I'm not sure they are culinary gems. They would also be less nutritious than hominy. Chicos are another dried corn not treated with lye and used in stews. I would try boiling a small amount, probably for a long time, and see what you get. Nixtamalizing may be the only useful approach.
posted by Botanizer at 8:32 AM on February 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Parched corn is delicious but it's typically made with dent corn, which has more soft starch than flint corn. I don't think flint would work very well for parching, since it's so tough. Rockahominy is, I think, usually beaten with rocks or coarse-ground. You may be able to pop it? Honestly it would probably be tastiest if you turned it into hominy and then made All The Pozole.
posted by halation at 8:40 AM on February 14, 2018

You can brew beer with it, for example a cream ale. You'd want to do a cereal mash which is a little involved and possibly messy.
posted by exogenous at 8:49 AM on February 14, 2018

Are you sure it isn't popping corn? That would be my first thought upon receiving a bag of whole dried corn.

Also, maybe ask the CSA for suggestions.
posted by slkinsey at 9:07 AM on February 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Popping corn is flint corn with a specific moisture content, so you can try popping some of it on the stove.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 9:34 AM on February 14, 2018

Trying a little as popcorn seems like a good first step.

If you'd like a historical take on parched corn, Townsends has two great videos demonstrating eighteenth-century methods for making it (part 1, part 2).
posted by ourobouros at 9:45 AM on February 14, 2018

If it's not popcorn, hominiy is flint corn's true destiny. (It's not really used for much else.)

Here is a recipe to nixtamalize your corn at home either for hominiy or to grind up into masa and make tortillas.
posted by carrioncomfort at 1:21 PM on February 14, 2018 [1 favorite]