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Hulled Corn

A boiled corn dish prepared by removing hulls with lye or potash and cooking the kernels until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Hulled Corn

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Hulled Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lye

  1. Combine ashes or potash with water in a kettle and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

Hull the corn

  1. Strain the lye into a kettle, add the corn, and boil until the skin easily breaks from the kernels, stirring frequently.

  2. Skim out the corn and rinse it several times, rubbing thoroughly during the last rinse.

  3. Soak the corn in clear water for 10 minutes, then rub off any black chits and rinse again.

Cook and serve

  1. Return the corn to the kettle, cover with water, and boil slowly until tender, adding hot water as needed.

  2. Serve with cream and sugar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Corn
Is the main food being hulled and softened until its kernels become tender.
Wood ashes or potash
Provides the alkaline lye that loosens the tough outer skin of the corn kernels.

The step that matters

Boil until the skin easily breaks from the kernels. The lye must loosen the hull fully, but over-boiling can break down the kernels. Stirring frequently helps the corn cook evenly so the skins release without the kernels falling apart.

“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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