Making Corn Bread From Your Own Corn

Done it for years. Bought a hand grinder, steel grinders, not stone because stones were too expensive for us at the time. Always wanted an electric grinder but again, more expense. This is the South and we eat grits. Grits from sweet corn was too thick and syrpy to suit, don't remember if I ever made corn meal from sweet corn.

Tried hybrid field corn but it was not as tasty as open pollinated corn. Always wanted to try hybrid corn developed for corn meal but never found any, also, we wanted yellow corn meal and which is usually not sold in stores so I assume hybrid yellow corn seed for meal is hard to find, anyway, I solved the problem by getting some pencil cob corn which has a small cob and long grains, easy to shell by hand, and planted it beside some Reids Yellow Dent until it crossed, so I have light yellow corn which makes good tasting corn meal and grits.

Last year planted some ornamental green corn which made very tasty meal and grits.

Baking cornbread with the homemade meal requires some experimenting with the cornbread recipe. Baking soda(baking powder?) has to be added and maybe some mixing withj commercial corn meal.

I grind the corn, sift it, regrind the meal toget it finer. What is sifted out makes grits. Put these in water and the bran floats to the top. Pour off the bran, repeat as necessary. Cook grits longer than store grits. Eat with sausage.

KEH

I'm sorry, but I have to start at the beginning of this long story:
About 6 years ago, I made my first trip to Lehman's with a friend (also Ht'er). I had saved for 2 yrs to purchase a Diamant mill. I never even considered that it would have increased so much in 2 yrs that my savings would not cover it. I will forever be in my friend's debt for wandering around Lehman's and coming across their clearance section. They had a returned mill that I could purchase outright and still have money left over for shopping!

I knew that I wanted a mill that would be easily adjustable because I wanted to be able to grind wheat, corn, oats. Now, that mill costs a full 100% than I paid for it - which was a King's ransom at the time.

I do not bolt my corn meal, but probably grind it a little finer than most right from the start. I have tinkered with a real basic recipe and this is our favorite to date for a 9"sq pan:

1 cup freshly ground cornmeal *
1 cup freshly ground hard white wheat flour *
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup raw honey
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup melted lard


*After I grind a qt or 2, I will freeze whatever I do not use that day.

Mix dry ingreds. Mix together milk and egg, add fat. All milk mix to cornmeal mix. Stir only enough to mix. Fill baking pan half full. Bake at 425 about 25 mins or until lightly browned. See if you can wait for it to cool before cutting.

If you spread with fresh butter and a little apple butter, you will wonder if you have died and gone to heaven.

Before I purchased the mill, I would buy freshly ground organic corn from a little water-driven mill in NW Arkansas whenever I would drive out to visit my aunt. I think that is what encouraged me to start grinding my own.

__________________
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson

This year I was able to order seed for Floriani red flint corn. Other years I was too late and seed was sold out.

Has anyone grown this corn before?

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-...m0z10zsto.aspx

__________________
May all your weeds be wildflowers.

http://www.democratsforlife.org/

Looks like the baking with homegrown corn has been covered pretty well.

We dry our excess sweet corn down and use it for cornbread and pancakes.
Whole 'nuther world, right there......

We also partially grind corn, wheat and other grains and cook them with water, similar to oatmeal, for breakfast porridge. It's great, hot, with a big pat of fresh butter and honey.

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

another option might be to check at some of the antique tractor/engine shows and see if someone has a grist mill set up. I have a friend who sets up his old mill that runs on a model A engine at a show in friendship indiana and also at morgantown ky. I go to the one in morgantown and take all my shelled corn and he mills it for half. year before last I ended up with almost 200 pounds of meal and he got half of it for doing the grinding.

We've used Stowell's Evergreen, since our crop sat in the field.

I used the cheap hand grinder that Lehman's used to carry. I think it was like $40. Some corn is better than others for meal. Most yellow corn you see is not for meal. White meal has the best flavor. Look for a "flint" or "dent" corn.

__________________
Vicker
If you're born to hang, you'll never drown.

My recipe for cornbread is as follows but we call it a half batch and cook it in a small skillet. Its just enough for a meal for us. just double it for a full size skillet

3/4 c corn meal
1/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbs sugar ( I am a product of my up bringing and mom and both grandmothers put sugar in their cornmeal and it dont taste right to me without it )
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
dob of lard, melted ( about a heaping tablespoon )

I put it all in a bowl and whisk the beejeebers out of it while a skillet is heating on the stove. rub a little lard in the skillet and pur te batter in when the skillet is hot.

Bake at 425 for about 18-20 minutes for a half batch and 22-24 minutes for a whole batch

Oh yeah, if you're not lucky enough to have lard, you can use shortening

And I have to disagree to the bottom of my boot soles that white cornmeal is tastier. Different for sure, but better, not to me. And after our Bloody Butcher meal we'll never go back to yellow.

__________________
" Do or do not, there is no try. " - Yoda

Don't feel too bad oldmania. I buy my cornmeal at the supermarket too. Hodgson Mill all natural stoneground. It's fairly coarsely ground and makes the best cornbread ever. Everytime I bring it to a pot luck everyone says it's the best cornbread they've ever tasted. Now mind all you southern folks. I'm a Yankee so my recipe has sugar in it. Yummy