Old Fashioned Hulled Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Shell the corn.
Place it in an iron kettle.
Cover the corn with cold water.
Add the bag of wood ashes.
Make the lye and loosen the hulls
Boil until the corn looks yellow and tastes strong of the alkali, then remove the bag.
Boil the corn in the lye for over an hour.
Pour off the lye.
Add fresh water.
Simmer until the corn swells.
If hulls do not come off by stirring, rub them off with a towel.
Add more water.
Simmer for 3 to 4 hours.
Stir often to prevent burning.
Finish and serve
When the corn is soft and white, add salt to taste.
Let the water simmer away.
Serve warm or cold with cream or milk.
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
What each ingredient does
- Corn
- Provides the starchy kernels that swell and soften into the final texture.
- Wood ashes
- Supply alkali that loosens the hulls and softens the kernels during boiling.
The step that matters
Stir often to prevent burning. During the long 3 to 4 hour simmer, the starchy corn settles on the bottom of the kettle and can scorch, so regular stirring keeps it from sticking and burning.
“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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