Can you pop field corn

Answer 1

I've been wondering this, myself, for quite some time. You can buy a 50 lb bag of feed corn for less than $5, and I wanted to know if it's truly possible to get good nutrition for practically free. Finally, after not finding the answer anywhere on the internet, I decided to try it myself!

You can eat it, and make it taste good. It's not hard to do, but it requires a little bit of work and learning a few things.

I did a little research and learned that people have been surviving for thousands of years using dried corn as their main staple food, but it must first be treated with lye, slaked lime, or wood ashes. This treatment is known as "nixtamalization." Native Americans/Mexicans have survived and thrived on a diet very high in corn. When Europeans came to this continent and tried it, many of them suffered and then died of a disease called Pellagra. Unfortunately for them, they did not know that it is necessary to nixtamalize corn if you want to survive off of it long-term. This releases B vitamins which are necessary for survival.

There is an excellent 3-part video on YouTube showing how to nixtamalize corn. Do a search on YouTube for "how to make hominy" and a guy known as "The Derelict Epistle" will show you how to do it using ashes from your woodstove. If you don't have ashes, you can do it using slaked lime (available as "pickling lime" in the grocery store) or lye. You can also search for "how to make masa" to get excellent instructions.

All of the videos and instructions I have found use high-quality flour corn or other corn grown for human consumption. I did it using feed corn and learned a few things:

#1 Because it hasn't been cleaned, it's necessary to take it outside on a breezy day and "winnow" it first - pour it back and forth from bowl to bowl and let the wind blow away the dried corn silk and other debris.

#2 There are lots of broken kernels in feed corn. The broken kernels absorb the lime and that tastes awful. Lime is also harmful to eat. You must sort out the broken kernels. It takes a while but it gives you an excuse to sit in front of the TV while you're keeping your hands busy. Don't waste the broken kernels - throw them out to the birds! Then it needs to be rinsed, of course.

#3 The process took me a bit longer than it did for the people using high-quality corn. If you soak it long enough, the ugly brown tips pop out and rub off easily - that's when you know it's ready to be rinsed and ground.

#4 Treat the corn gently and try not to stir it or rub it too much until you've got the lime/ashes/lye poured off and you're rinsing it under running water. I made the mistake of breaking kernels open in the lime the first time, then the corn absorbed the lime.

I ground mine using my KitchenAid grinding attachment, but you can do it using a food processor.

This morning, I made tortillas. They weren't as pretty as store-bought and not nearly as light and fluffy as good fresh Mexican tortillas, but my 20-year-old son ate them and loved them. Maybe 1 cup of dry feed corn expanded to make 6 or 7 small tortillas - a decent meal for him. I don't know how many cups of corn are in a 50-lb bag, but it seems like that's as close to eating free as you can get.

I got a good start growing my own good, organic, Native American flour corn this year. It's called Mandan Bride. This year I only got enough for a few meals plus seed for next year. I hope to grow enough to use it as a staple food in my home. In the meantime, I'm going to use the feed corn to experiment and learn how to prepare and cook it. Feed corn is generally not organic and I'm sure it's been chemically treated. I think all the boiling in lime, soaking, and rinsing got rid of most of the chemicals but I would feel better eating stuff I've grown myself.

By the way - my Mexican coworker says he thinks most of the corn the US imports to Mexico (which Mexicans then use to feed their families) is basically just feed corn. His family enjoys their meals very much.

Answer 2

Yes, you can eat field corn. Cut it off the cob, leaving some part of the kernel on the cob. Turn your knife over and scrape the rest of the juice out. It will go everywhere. Put it in a pan with butter, salt, and milk. Cook until it thickens.

Answer 3

Field corn can be eaten at different times. If you prefer it sweeter, like typical sweet corn then it can be picked, cooked and eaten while the kernels are yellow, plump, and the silk on the end is light brown/slightly dry. Typically, field corn is not picked until the ear is hardened, and the kernels are dimpled, and the silk on the end is dark brown/completely dry. If you try to eat it then, it will need to be cooked for a long time or ground into corn meal and used that way.

Answer 4

When it is ripe.

Ask a corn farmer or look it up at the library and it will probably be an easy answer to find. Obviously it is ripe when it is full grown and has the color its is supposed to have.

Answer 5

No, it doesn't have a hard enough pericarp, or seed coat, to allow it to pop like popcorn does.

Answer 6

an ingredient in many processed foods including breakfast cereals, salad dressings, margarine, syrup, soft drinks, and snack items.

Answer 7

A person would most likely eat corn