Canku Ota
	(Many Paths)
	An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
	August 11, 2001 - Issue 42
	Corny Cooking

Corn and American Indians: Corn was a very important crop for the people of the northeast woodlands. It was the main food and was eaten at every meal. There were many varieties of corn -- white, blue, yellow and red. Some of the corn was dried to preserve and keep it for food throughout the winter months. Dried corn could be made into a food called hominy. To make hominy, the dried corn was soaked in a mixture of water and ashes for two days. When the kernels had puffed up and split open, they were drained and rinsed in cold water. Then the hominy was stir-fried over a fire. You can buy canned hominy in most grocery stores. Perhaps someone in your class would like to bring some for everyone to sample. Corn was often ground into corn meal, using wooden mortars and pestles. The mortars were made of short logs which were turned upright and hollowed out on the top end. The corn was put in the hollow part and ground by pounding up and down with a long piece of wood which was rounded on both ends. This was called a pestle. Corn meal could be used to make cornbread, corn pudding, corn syrup, or could be mixed with beans to make succotash. A special dessert was made by boiling corn meal and maple syrup. All parts of the corn plant were used. Nothing was thrown away. The husks were braided and woven to make masks, moccasins, sleeping mats, baskets, and cornhusk dolls. Corncobs were used for fuel, to make darts for a game, and were tied onto a stick to make a rattle for ceremonies. Corn was unknown to the Europeans before they met the Indians. Indians gave them the seeds and taught them how to grow it. Today in the U.S.A., more farm land is used to grow corn (60 million acres) than any other grain. From: Woodland Culture Area, Ross/Fernandes, 1979
Succotash
	Ingredients: green corn with kernels removed fresh shelled beans enough water to cover salt and pepper to taste cubed salt pork
Directions:
Mix the corn and beans and cover with water. Cook the mixture over medium heat for about a half hour. (Be sure to stir the mixture to avoid scorching.) Add pepper and salt and salt pork if desired.
Grilled Corn on the Cob
Ingredients: fresh corn in husks
Directions:
Buy the corn still in the husks. Strip back the husks without tearing them off. Pull out all of the silks and kind of scrub at the ear to get the silks out (silks are the stringy parts for all of you non-midwesterners:)). Pull the husks back up over the ear to completely encase it. Soak the ears in a bucket of salt water overnight. Take the ears directly from the bucket and put them on the grill to cook. To eat, just pull back the husks and use them for a kind of a handle, butter and enjoy.
Corn Fritters
	Ingredients: 1 cup fresh or whole kernel canned corn 1 egg 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. flour, 1/2 tsp baking power, 1/2 tsp salt. 1 egg white beaten stiff.
Directions:
Chop and drain corn, add egg. Sift together dry ingredients. Stir in corn, fold in egg white. Drop from a tablespoon into fat heated to 370 degrees. Cook until lightly browned. Drain on paper towel.

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