Flint corn

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Flint corn
Corncobs.jpg
Flint corn is named for its hard kernels, which come in a multitude of colors
Species Zea mays
Variety Zea mays var. indurata

Flint corn ( Zea mays var. indurata; also known as Indian corn or sometimes calico corn) is a variant of maize, the same species as common corn. [1] Because each kernel has a hard outer layer to protect the soft endosperm, it is likened to being hard as flint, hence the name. [2] It is one of six major types of corn, the others being dent corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, and sweet corn. [3]

Contents

History

With less soft starch than dent corn ( Zea mays indentata), flint corn does not have the dents in each kernel from which dent corn gets its name. [4] This is one of the three types of corn cultivated by Native Americans, both in New England and across the northern tier, including tribes such as the Pawnee on the Great Plains. Archaeologists have found evidence of such corn cultivation in what is now the United States before 1000 BC. [5] Corn was initially domesticated in Mexico by native peoples about 9,000 years ago. They used many generations of selective breeding to transform a wild teosinte grass with small grains into the rich source of food that is modern Zea mays.[ citation needed ]

Distinctive traits

Because flint corn has a very low water content, it is more freezing-resistant than other vegetables. It was the only Vermont crop to survive New England's infamous "Year Without a Summer" of 1816. [6]

Coloration

The coloration of flint corn often differs from white and yellow dent corns, many of which were later bred. Most flint corn is multi-colored. Like the Linnaeus variant of maize, any kernel may contain the yellow pigment zeaxanthin but at more varying concentrations. [7]

Glass Gem Corn Glass gem corn with husk.jpg
Glass Gem Corn

Regional varieties with specific coloration include blue corn and purple corn. Glass Gem corn became internet famous in 2012 when photos of this brightly colored flint corn went viral. [8]

Uses

Popcorn (Zea mays everta, "corn turned inside out") is considered a variant of this type. It has a hard, slightly translucent kernel. [9]

Flint corn is also the type of corn preferred for making hominy, a staple food in the Americas since pre-Columbian times.

In the United States, the flint corn cultivars that have large proportions of kernels with hues outside the yellow range are primarily used ornamentally as part of Thanksgiving decorations. They are often called either "ornamental corn" or "Indian corn", although each of those names also has other meanings. These varieties can be popped and eaten as popcorn, although many people incorrectly believe that such colored varieties are not palatable or are poisonous.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hominy</span> Dried nixtamalized corn consumed as food

Hominy is a food produced from dried maize (corn) kernels that have been treated with an alkali, in a process called nixtamalization. "Lye hominy" is a type of hominy made with lye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corn tortilla</span> Unleavened flatbread made from nixtamalized maize

In North America, a corn tortilla or just tortilla is a type of thin, unleavened flatbread, made from hominy, that is the whole kernels of maize treated with alkali to improve their nutrition in a process called nixtamalization. A simple dough made of ground, dried hominy, salt and water is then formed into flat discs and cooked on a very hot surface, generally an iron griddle called a comal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweet corn</span> Variety of corn

Sweet corn, also called sweetcorn, sugar corn and pole corn, is a variety of corn grown for human consumption with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring recessive mutation in the genes which control conversion of sugar to starch inside the endosperm of the corn kernel. Sweet corn is picked when still immature and prepared and eaten as a vegetable, rather than field corn, which is harvested when the kernels are dry and mature. Since the process of maturation involves converting sugar to starch, sweet corn stores poorly and must be eaten fresh, canned, or frozen, before the kernels become tough and starchy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popcorn</span> Type of corn kernel which expands and puffs up on heating

Popcorn is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion.

Field corn, also known as cow corn, is a North American term for maize grown for livestock fodder, ethanol, cereal, and processed food products. The principal field corn varieties are dent corn, flint corn, flour corn which includes blue corn, and waxy corn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stewart's wilt</span> Bacterial disease of corn

Stewart's wilt is a bacterial disease of corn caused by the bacterium Pantoea stewartii. The disease is also known as bacterial wilt or bacterial leaf blight and has been shown to be quite problematic in sweet corn. The causal organism is a facultatively anaerobic, gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium. The disease is endemic in the mid-Atlantic and Ohio River Valley regions and in the southern portion of the Corn Belt. Stewart's Wilt causes minor reductions in field corn yield, despite common occurrence, because most hybrids grown in the Midwest have adequate resistance. However, the disease can be problematic in seed production because many countries have restrictions on maize seed from areas where the Stewart's Wilt occurs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waxy corn</span> Type of field corn

Waxy corn or glutinous corn is a type of field corn characterized by its sticky texture when cooked as a result of larger amounts of amylopectin. The corn was first described from a specimen from China in 1909. As this plant showed many peculiar traits, the American breeders long used it as a genetic marker to tag the existence of hidden genes in other maize breeding programs. In 1922 a researcher found that the endosperm of waxy maize contained only amylopectin and no amylose starch molecule in opposition to normal dent corn varieties that contain both. Until World War II, the main source of starch in the United States was tapioca, but when Japan severed the supply lines of the U.S., they forced processors to turn to waxy maize. Amylopectin or waxy starch is now used mainly in food products, but also in the textile, adhesive, corrugating and paper industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maize</span> Genus of grass cultivated as a food crop

Maize, also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes in the Three Sisters polyculture. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other varieties can be of many colors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dent corn</span> Variety of corn

Dent corn, also known as grain corn, is a type of field corn with a high soft starch content. It received its name because of the small indentation, or "dent", at the crown of each kernel on a ripe ear of corn. Reid's Yellow Dent is a variety developed by central Illinois farmer James L. Reid. Reid and his father, Robert Reid, moved from Brown County, Ohio, to Tazewell County, Illinois, in 1846 bringing with them a red corn variety known as "Johnny Hopkins", and crossed it with varieties of flint corn and flour corn. Most of today's hybrid corn varieties and cultivars are derived from it. This variety won a prize at the 1893 World's Fair.

Flour corn is a variety of corn with a soft starchy endosperm and a thin pericarp. It is primarily used to make corn flour. This type, frequently found in Aztec and Inca graves, is widely grown in the drier parts of the United States, western South America and South Africa. The large-seeded corns of Peru, called choclo or Cuzco corn, are used in the preparation of chicha. In South Africa, similar corns are known as mealies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Purple corn</span> Variety of flint maize

Purple corn or purple maize is group of flint maize varieties originating in South America, descended from a common ancestral variety termed "kʼculli" in Quechua. It is most commonly grown in the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazamorra</span> Beverage from Iberia or Hispanic America

Mazamorra or masamorra is the name for numerous traditional dishes from the Iberian Peninsula and Hispanic America.

Traditional Italian maize varieties have been, according to historical, archaeological, botany, morphological, and genetic evidence, molded since the introduction of this exotic cereal crop from the Americas in the sixteenth century.

The varieties of Ecuadorian maize are the repository of a rich farming and cooking tradition.

The varieties of Bolivian maize are the result of thousands of years of selective breeding for superior agronomic and cooking traits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue corn</span> Variety of maize

Blue corn is a group of several closely related varieties of flint corn grown in Mexico, the Southwestern United States, and the Southeastern United States. It is one of the main types of corn used for the traditional Southern and Central Mexican food known as tlacoyo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pod corn</span> Variety of maize

Pod corn or wild maize is a variety of maize (corn). It is not a wild ancestor of maize but rather a mutant that forms leaves around each kernel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glass Gem Corn</span> Variety of maize

Glass Gem Corn is a Native American heirloom flint corn, or maize. It is a variety of what people call "Indian corn" and is considered unique due to its rainbow coloring.

References

  1. jugalbandi.info Indian Corn
  2. "Seeds of Change Garden". www.mnh.si.edu. Archived from the original on July 22, 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  3. Linda Campbell Franklin, "Corn," in Andrew F. Smith (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013 (pp. 551–558), p. 553.
  4. nmsu.edu Archived April 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Blue Corn Unique to American Southwest
  5. , Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1965; reprint 1977, pp. 4–8, accessed 16 Dec 2009
  6. slowfoodusa.org Archived 2013-08-23 at the Wayback Machine Roy's Calais flint corn. Retrieved August 2011
  7. mnh.si.edu Archived July 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine What kinds of corn are there?
  8. "Glass Gem Corn". Native-Seeds-Search. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  9. New Oxford American Dictionary