Do you grown "Corn Meal" corn?

Sparticle · #1 06/15/08, 12:17 PM

When I search for "corn meal" corn and make your own corn meal, I get tons of website, but none that help. I"ve planted "corn meal" corn, that's what the seed packet says. Is it just sweet corn or you think it's another type? I would like to find a website that shows how to process it into corn meal. Any one do this?

Alice In TX/MO · #2 06/15/08, 01:07 PM

Hard corn. Yellow dent.

vicker · #3 06/15/08, 03:16 PM

I grow Hickory King White Dent corn, and grind it into meal. It is very good. I grind it very course one time and blow the chaff off of it, then grind it fine and sift it. What sifts out I use for cornmeal, and what's left behind is grits. Sorry, I know of no web-site. Dent corn is what you want to use for flour our meal.

sbeerman · #4 06/15/08, 03:18 PM

I have ground small amounts of blue corn with a mortar and stone. but if you want any amount I think you would be happer with a corona mill. Take a look at these web pages
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Natur...-a-Corona.aspx
This page tested several mills.
http://waltonfeed.com/self/grind5.html
and here they have the Corona King Convertible Mill it dose flour and other grains
http://www.thesustainablevillage.com...t/detail/35548
Happy Gardening Sandie Or 5/6

Alice In TX/MO · #5 06/15/08, 04:18 PM

I'm not being argumentative, but the coarser cornmeal is polenta.

Grits are ground dried hominy, which is corn that has been soaked in lye.

texican · #6 06/15/08, 04:19 PM

You can make corn meal out of any dried corn... sweet corn when dried has some tiny little kernels... field corn has the larger kernels... I'd go with at least some open pollinated corn, so you could have some seed stock for next year. Or you could plant several varieties... OP and hybrids... just make sure to stagger the plantings, so there's no cross pollination (have to also be aware of neighbors corn plantings so as to not cross pollinate with theirs)...

Forerunner · #7 06/15/08, 05:13 PM

We use "Stowell's Evergreen" sweet corn, open pollinated.

Dried, it makes a good, heavy kernel.
It makes for a very sweet flour/meal.

piglady · #8 06/15/08, 05:56 PM

We buy 50 pound bags of yellow dent. I much prefer the yellow to white. I have a country living grain mill and grind it once, no sifting. It's very quick and easy to do most evenings while the rest of the meal is cooking. This year I planed a blue/black variety from Baker Creek Seed Company because it is a heritage seed (native american I think) and supposed to make the best corn meal. The plants are doing wonderful but too soon to tell how it will taste. I just know that almost any corn you buy commercially is going to be genetically altered and I want to start raising my own.

Aeirios · #9 06/15/08, 08:12 PM

Planted Hopi blue corn this year, specifically for corn meal. Is coming along nice!

THETOOLMAN · #10 06/15/08, 08:21 PM

I Mplanted some field corn called TROPICAL . I planted it for feed.I would think it would be good to grind & eat? I guess

Manny · #11 06/15/08, 08:33 PM

The best tasting corn that I have grown for meal is yellow "Trucker's Favorite". It has the most honest corn taste that I have found in any meal that has either been bought or grown.

Sparticle · #12 06/15/08, 08:37 PM

thanks for the input. These are from CHM and I"m sure it's seeds they have saved. It's open pollinated and I decided not to plant any other types of corn. Sweet corn stands are all over down here, so no urgency to plant that. OUr direct neighbors just grow hay.

beamernc · #13 06/15/08, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rose

I'm not being argumentative, but the coarser cornmeal is polenta.

Grits are ground dried hominy, which is corn that has been soaked in lye.

Rose, grits here in the South grits are made from corn not hominy. I was with my cousin grinding white corn yesterday. He has a 3 hp hit and miss pulling a small Meadows Mill. It has a shaker screen for the cornmeal to fall through and the larger pieces and chaff continue on and fall into a seperate bin. He has a different shaker table with a larger screen opening that lets the grits fall through and the chaff stays in the screen. He can adjust the mill so that the corn is ground into a fine flour, cornmeal, grits or just cracked corn.

I prefer yellow corn over white corn for grits and cornmeal.

insocal · #14 06/16/08, 12:16 AM

They say that flint corn and popcorn are both good types for cornmeal, and dent corn somewhat less so. Apparently "sweet" corn is just immature flint corn? IIRC...

sammyd · #15 06/16/08, 02:58 AM

Sweet corn is sweet corn. Flint is something totally different.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/archives/garden/history/corn.html

#16 06/16/08, 08:57 AM

Corn meal can be milled from any type of mature dry corn whether it is sweet corn, dent, flint, flour, or popping corn. The exact characteristics of the meal produced will vary somewhat with the type of corn used, but they will all be largely interchangeable.

The same for the color. It mostly comes down to the type you prefer, were raised with, or both. For me I prefer my meal yellow and my grits white.

Now as to what grits are made from there's a topic to start a fracas among food historians. Grits are made from hominy, but exactly what hominy is and is not varies because the word was used to describe both whole dry corn coarsely ground and corn that was hulled with an alkali (wood ashes, lime, etc) that was then dried and ground. Hominy can be either one and grits can be made from either one.

They cook differently though and may taste different as well. Ordinary coarsely ground whole corn can take up to forty five minutes to fully cook depending on how coarsely ground it is. Flavor is corny and good. Doesn't keep too well though since it's a whole grain product. Grits made from hulled corn cooks faster since it is more processed, keeps better since it is pretty much degerminated as well as hulled, and has a blander flavor.

If your grits were stone milled or from a small mill such as what beamernc describes they'll be whole corn. If you bought them from a local supermarket and the label does not indicate they were stone ground or "whole corn" they'll be made from hulled corn. Modern processing can vary somewhat though from traditional methods of hulling corn but the hull and germ will still be removed.

I haven't grown my own field corn in a few years (dang squirrels!) but the last that I did grow was Truckers Favorite Yellow and it made very good meal.

.....Alan.

fatrat · #17 09/30/09, 08:13 AM

I grow Leaming corn. It's open pollinated and is a very good field corn for meal or feed.

poorboy · #18 09/30/09, 09:24 AM

Reid's yellow dent..last we grew strickly for cornmeal..makes a very good meal...

EDDIE BUCK · #19 09/30/09, 11:47 AM

If you want some meal this year,just buy a bushel of dry field corn from a local farmer when he's picking,then get it ground.It will only cost the market price,around 4-5 bucks per bu.

rambler · #20 09/30/09, 12:43 PM

Any type of corn can be ground into meal when it is dried down to 14% moisture or so.

Corn meal is typically field corn. This is 'dent corn', or hog & livestock feed type of corn. It comes in yellow (mostly) or white, and can be the older open pollinated or now hybred or even GMO types of corn.

Flnt corn is prefered by some. This is a different type of corn, but corn all the same.

Some will use sweet corn. It is much harder to dry down dry enough for grinding.

Popcorn works too.

All of the above are different types of corn. They will have different flavors, textures, colors. Try them all,s ee what you prefer.

If you bought a box of basic corn meal from the store, it was probably a yellow field corn, dent corn, that was ground up.

--->Paul