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Hulled corn cooked until tender, served plain or with cream, sauce, milk, or nut meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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To Hull Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Hull the corn

  1. In a large pot, combine 2 gallons cold water, 1 tablespoon concentrated lye or potash, and 4 quarts corn (white corn if possible). Dissolve lye in water.

  2. Add corn to the pot and boil, adding water as needed to keep the mixture covered, until the hulls rub off.

  3. Wash and rub the corn in several clear waters until all hulls are removed.

  4. Soak the corn overnight or for several hours in cold water.

Cook and serve

  1. Drain the corn and cook it in boiling water until tender, possibly all day.

  2. Add salt a little while before it is done, then continue cooking until as dry as possible without scorching.

  3. Serve the corn as a vegetable, plain, or with cream or cream sauce. Eat in milk or with nut meats.

  4. The hulled corn may be dried.

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Corn (in the method)
Forms the body of the dish; cooking softens its starch into a tender, edible grain.
Lye or potash (in the method)
Alkali that loosens the hulls so they rub off easily after boiling.

The step that matters

Boil until the hulls rub off. The alkali must be dissolved and the corn kept covered in liquid so the hulls loosen evenly. If the corn is left to dry out or the alkali is not fully dissolved, hulls stay stuck and the kernels can be unevenly treated.

“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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