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preparing feild corn for eating

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corn feild corn grits hominy
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#2 ·
Nixtamalization is important if corn is going to be the staple of your diet. But it's very fuel intensive, just to free up a small amount of niacin. If you have other sources of niacin in your diet, which isn't that hard to get, it's simply not worth the effort. I've done it a few times. And in fact one of the many reasons I stock lye is in case I have to do it again.

Most societies that use dried corn today, use it untreated. Just ground. Corn meal from the store is just ground dried corn. It causes no problems because we have many other sources of niacin.
 
#3 · (Edited)
It's not fuel intensive, its incredibly easy. Used to do it all the time when I lived in mexico for a year. Let water boil for 5 minutes, set overnight and your good to go. I 've been in many homes with dirt floors that do this everyday. You can buy "calcium oxide" online for very cheap. I get mine on ebay.
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
Nixtamalization also reduces mycotoxins, softens the fiber, makes the protein more digestable and is much cheaper than buying hominy.

a 50 kilo bag of field corn runs around 700 pesos around 16 dollars but hominy is 33 pesos a kilo locally.
 
#5 ·
All of which is good if corn is your staple food. But for most of us, it's not. I store it because I like it, but it's far from my staple grain. Most people tend to store rice and wheat as their staple foods.

It still takes quite a bit of fuel to bring the water to a boil, for such a small return. You can get the "cal" from a lot of hispanic markets also. At least in this area.
 
#6 ·
I just grind it into mash for my chickens. I add in egg shells and leave the bugs in. My birds love whole corn on the cob as well. I keep lots of very small stones in the pen to help them grind it up. Im grinding up Acorns as well. Birds like Wild turkey eat whole Acorns all the time. Its a good job for the kids. They can peel enough acorns in a day to feed the chickens for a week.

I settle for a small pail to add to the corn meal and egg shell mix. It adds nutrients to the bird meal or layer mash. As my apple trees mature Ill be feeding apples to them as well. Field corn to me is animal feed. I raise it for my animals. We grow sweet corn for us and potatoes for our main complex carbohydrate. Kingfish
 
#7 ·
It's probably a regional thing, but I actually prefer the field varieties for eating fresh over the sweet corns. They're starchy and taste good with a sprinkle of chili powder and salt, or with lemon or lime juice and salt. And of course they make good cornmeal.
 
#8 ·
MikeK said:
Nixtamalization is important if corn is going to be the staple of your diet. But it's very fuel intensive, just to free up a small amount of niacin. If you have other sources of niacin in your diet, which isn't that hard to get, it's simply not worth the effort.
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I agree. But if you are burning wood for heating or cooking then the fuel intensive argument means less., as you are making useful use of the waste.


And having hominy or masa tortillas may be a welcome change in a limited diet.
 
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#9 ·
ShellbackBill said:
I agree. But if you are burning wood for heating or cooking then the fuel intensive argument means less., as you are making useful use of the waste.


And having hominy or masa tortillas may be a welcome change in a limited diet.
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I agree that it's a good skill to have. If for no other reason that the variety. That's part of why I did it a few times to get the hang of it. I just don't see it as critical.

Down here, we really don't need heat, so it would take fuel specifically set aside for that use. And not being in an area with natural resources like wood, I see it as wasteful. Where it may be more practical in other areas. But if I had a fire going anyway, I can see the logic behind getting as much use out of it as possible.
 
#10 ·
ShellbackBill said:
And having hominy or masa tortillas may be a welcome change in a limited diet.
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Sold me. I don't like corn bread, so the only LTS corn in my store is popcorn.

I do like hominy and love all the gozilion things you can make with masa harina.

I knew there had to be a reason I added 2 lbs of lye to the store the other day. Now to the feed store.
 
#12 ·
This is helpful info! The main crop around here(East of St. Louis, MO) appears to be feed corn, which I think is the same as field and dent corn. I grew up in NJ and was surrounded by delicious Jersey Sweet Corn fields and now I'm surrounded by Feed Corn... :(

Always wondered how to make the livestock corn edible for human consumption in a long term SHTF situation. Thanks!
 
#13 ·
Another reason for being interested in field corn

In some parts of the country, zillions of bushels of this stuff are grown every year. If you happened to be in Indiana, or Illinois, or Iowa when the bad $h1t went down you could probably make a deal with a farmer for some corn.
 
#15 ·
dgr said:
Mike,
Can you grind corn as fine as masa harina without converting it? I do like corn tortillas more than cornbread.
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Probably. I just haven't tried. My Country Living mill will do some fairly fine flour. But with hard popcorn, it might take two passes. I just grind it to the consistency of store bought corn meal for my own uses.

You can also buy dried hominy and it stores well if properly packed away from O2. I bought some from Walton Feed specifically for grinding into masa without having to do the nixtamalization step. Makes good southern grits too.
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
dgr said:
Mike,
Can you grind corn as fine as masa harina without converting it? I do like corn tortillas more than cornbread.
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WHen it is cleaned like the video shows, it is soft and you can run it thru a meat grinder a couple passes. You will end up with masa dough. Masa dough for tortillas, corn chips, and tamales. I love me some tamales and fresh corn tortillas.
 
#19 ·
The only thing not clear in the video is the cleaning or removing of the pericarp. It looks like she was simply rubbing it off of the kernels but not making any attempt to remove them from the colander. Did she leave that part out or are the pericarps left with the kernels after rubbing them off?
 
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