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Hulled Corn

A boiled corn dish where hulls are removed by lye and rinsing, served with cream, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Hulled Corn

Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Hulled Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lye water

  1. Boil the hardwood ashes in cold water for 15-20 minutes.

  2. Let the mixture stand until the ashes settle and the water is clear.

Hull the corn

  1. Add enough cold water to cover the corn.

  2. Boil the corn until the hulls begin to separate.

  3. Skim the corn into a bowl of clear cold water and rub to remove hulls and lye.

  4. Repeat rinsing in 2-4 waters to eliminate any lye taste.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the cleaned corn in clear water until tender.

  2. Serve hot or cold, dressed with cream, pepper, and salt.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Corn + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hardwood ashes
Their lye solution loosens the hulls from the corn kernels.
Corn
Forms the base of the dish; it softens as it cooks until tender.
Cream
Adds richness and fat to the finished corn at serving.

The step that matters

Rinsing out the lye. Lye is caustic and leaves a harsh, bitter taste if not fully washed away. Repeated rinsing in clear water removes the remaining lye before the final boil, making the corn safe and pleasant to eat.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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