I have loved corn from my earliest memories.
It was what we ate everyday in one form or another.
We enjoyed biscuits in the
morning and it was corn bread for what we called dinner and supper. I’ve eaten a lot of molasses and corn bread.
Part of the time we had home made butter and sometimes not.
When the corn was green and
the ears were full it was corn on the cob and some times off the cob. I remember going into the fields and plucking
several ears of corn and shucking and pulling the corn silk from the ears.
One of the grown ups would
take a large butcher knife and first cut the corn off the cob, then they would
scrape the cob to get the milk from it. Next it was into the frying pan with some pork
side meat to fry with the corn.
Just was plain good eating; fresh
sweet corn with a smoky bacon flavor.
A ritual we followed after
the corn was dried was to go to the corn crib and pick out some large ears and
remove the end grains and then shell the grains from the ears.
Since it was all done by hand
it took some time to get enough grain for the grinding. We would take the grains to a mill about two
miles from the farm and the miller would grind it into corn meal. He would give us half and keep half for the
grinding.
I suppose today it would be
called organic for it was all natural with no pesticides.
Come winter it was back out to the corn crib which was down to near half full by now and the shelling process was repeated. It only took about ten lbs of grain that had been picked through and poor seeds removed to make some hominy.
Come winter it was back out to the corn crib which was down to near half full by now and the shelling process was repeated. It only took about ten lbs of grain that had been picked through and poor seeds removed to make some hominy.
Our fire place had a swinging
hook on which you could hang a three gallon cast iron pot and swing it over the
fire in the fire place.
In making hominy you need
some lye to loosen the hulls on the grain. If you didn’t have lye you could use a bag of
ashes thought it worked slower.
With the pot filled with
water, grain, and some lye it would be hung over the fireplace fire and let
cook a couple of days. Finally it took
several washings to remove the lye and the hulls but eventually you had a
palatable dish.
Fried in bacon grease it was
very tasty.
Whether it is green or dried/ground (and now available frozen) I love corn however you fix it.
Just put it on the table and call me for a lip smacking time.
This True Story will be shared at:
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