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Hominy or Hulled Corn

Hominy is corn kernels that have been boiled with baking soda to loosen hulls and then cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Hominy or Hulled Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Hull the corn

  1. Hull the corn by boiling it with baking soda and enough water to cover for 4 hours until the hulls loosen.

  2. Wash the corn thoroughly in cold water, stirring and rubbing until all hulls are removed.

  3. Soak the corn in clear water overnight to remove traces of baking soda.

Cook and store

  1. Cook the corn in a kettle or large saucepan in clear water all day, stirring occasionally and replenishing with hot water as needed.

  2. Season with salt, place in a jar, and store in a cool place.

Serve

  1. Warm small quantities as needed with a little cream or milk and butter, and serve hot. Add sugar if desired.

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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Corn
Is the main ingredient that softens and becomes the hominy itself.
Baking soda
Loosens the hulls during the long boil so they can be rubbed off.

The step that matters

Remove the baking soda by soaking. Baking soda left on the corn is alkaline and can leave a soapy or bitter taste and affect texture. A thorough soak in clear water after hulling removes the residue before the corn is cooked and stored.

“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.

More hominy recipes

Croquettes 58Fritters 37Muffins 35Pudding 35Cakes 31Boiled 30 See all 42 →

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