Corn Recipe Roundup

August 25, 2016 Published by Dina

Corn hardly needs an introduction. Nothing says summer more than fresh corn on the cob with a little butter and a generous sprinkling of sea salt. A corn feast of eating a bunch of corn freshly picked that morning and bought directly from the grower is the best food memories of our summers. Leftover cobs can be stripped of their kernels with a sharp knife and the kernel used on their own with a little butter and salt, or added to beans, salad, other vegetables or made into soups or fritters.

Corn is more than simply a fun summer food and due respect must be given to its role in sustaining civilization over millennia. Genetic and archeological studies identified its origin in Central America where it was culitivated by native people from a grass species that contained seeds. Native legend counts corn as one of “three sisters”, being corn, squash and beans that should never be separated and always grow together.

Here is some trivia about corn:

Corn (maize) is a grain crop and produced world wide in larger quantities than any other grain.
Corn is cultivated product and does not exist in the wild.
There are more than 50 different species of corn, white and yellow being the most common.
An average ear of corn contains 16 rows, 800 kernels and one silk.
An acre of corn clears 8 tons of carbon dioxide from the air (no offence to meat eaters but think what cows emit in comparison. Go vegetarian, save the world).
USA is the largest grower of corn in the world, producing more than 30% of the world’s corn crop.
80% of the corn produced in the US is used in feed for livestock, o[poultry and fish. Since when fish eat corn?
After wheat and rice, corn is the third most important food crop worldwide and the most fundamental staple food in Africa and Central America (90% of white corn consumption). Civilizations could not have survived without it.
Corn has wide industrial use and is used in close to 4000 industrial products from ethanol to ink, drywall, dyes, toothpaste and thousands others (yes, thousands, not a typo).