Hulled Corn
Ingredients
Directions
Make the lye
Fill a large pot half full of wood ashes and nearly fill it with water.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Drain off the lye and discard the ashes.
Return the lye to the kettle.
Hull the corn
Add 4 quarts of shelled corn.
Boil until the hulls rub off easily.
Transfer the corn to a tub.
Pour in a pailful of cold water.
Scrub the corn with an old broom.
As the water thickens, pour it off and add clean cold water. Repeat this process four times.
Remove the corn to a pan.
Rub it between your hands to remove hulls.
Cook and store
Cook the cleaned corn in cold water.
When it is half boiled, pour off the water and renew with cold water.
Do not add salt until the corn is tender. Ensure it does not burn.
Store in jars.
Serve with 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Shelled corn
- Is the main food being softened and hulled, forming the whole dish.
- Wood ashes
- Produce lye when boiled with water, which loosens the hulls from the corn.
The step that matters
Boil until the hulls rub off easily. Under-boiling leaves hulls tightly attached, while over-softening can break the kernels. Checking that the hulls rub off easily shows the lye has done its work before scrubbing.
“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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