Have question about stone ground heirloom corn?

Hi- I posted this question in the Evanston farmer's market section, and I did not get any response. Hopefully somebody will respond to this post.

About five weeks ago at the Thanksgiving market at Emmanuel Lutheran church in Evanston, I purchased two bags of heirloom corn that had been ground. Does anybody have any idea what I can make with them? In a healthy family cookbook put out by ATK a few years ago, there is a recipe for healthy corn muffins, but they specifically say to not use stone ground corn meal because it dries out the muffins. They recommend using Quaker cornmeal. Does anybody here have any suggestions on what I can make with this stone ground corn meal that is at least semi healthy? I have both bags in the freezer right now. Thanks, Nancy

I also have two bags of heirloom corn flour from Henry; I haven't figured out what to do with them yet. But I'm thinking of trying a finely-textured cornbread.

Hi- I just went through Henry's archives, and there is one of the stone ground corn meals you can use for polenta, but I did not buy that one. The Butcher blood corn meal Terra says can be used for corn bread, hominy, grits or moonshine. It is too expensive to use for moonshine, which I am not interested in trying anyway. I might try to make some corn bread out of it. It might actually work for bread or muffins because it is way fresher than what you get in the grocery store. I did not double bag it when I stuck it in the freezer, and so I hope it is still fresh. Thanks, Nancy

Hi,

I wonder if Henry's cornmeal was ground at Graue Mill?

They have recipes at their website for their stone ground cornmeal here: http://www.grauemill.org/recipes.htm

Regards,
Cathy2

The stuff I got from Henry’s was corn flour … not corn meal. Finer texture. Probably somewhat substituteable, but would probably result in a slightly different result.

I just looked again, and the blue hopi is referred to as corn flour, and can be used for corn bread or muffins. The Floriani corn meal is ground more corse and can be used for polenta. I am not sure how finely ground the butchers blood corn meal is. I think that Henry grinds the corn himself. He lives half way between Bloomington and Peoria, and so I am sure he did not go to Grau mill.

Hopi blue corn is, in fact, a race of corn known as flour corn, so yes, that would be flour. Stone ground meal is usually dent corn or, if you're in New England, flint corn. In fact, in Rhode Island, if you're going to make a johnny cake, you had better be using white cap Narragansett flint corn, or it won't be considered acceptable.

There are a ton of things to do with stone ground corn meal. Johnny cakes, hasty pudding, corn meal mush (which is at heart close to the same thing as polenta), corn meal pudding (if they have my book, Midwest Maize, at your local library, I have a great recipe for corn meal pudding in the recipe chapter), and, of course, corn bread. Stone ground corn meal takes longer to cook than the steel roller-ground stuff, but it is "cornier" and heartier, and most fans of corn consider it worth the trouble.

Keeping it in the freezer is good -- as corn can go rancid. But, again, it depends on the type of corn. Flour corns do go rancid faster than flint corns.

Happy cooking.

Hi Cynthia- Thanks for the info. I just found out that bloody butcher corn is also dent corn, and so it sounds like I got a bag of corn flour and a bag of corn meal. Unfortunately Evanston does not have your book. There are three libraries in the Northern suburbs that have your book, and it is checked out at two of those. I might get it through interlibrary loan. Thanks, Nancy

You can find an article about the book and an adapted version of the recipe on
http://www.cleveland.com/cooking/index. ... a_gre.html