Corn

Corn is the most commonly grown grain in the U.S., but it is mostly consumed indirectly as animal feed or even industrial feedstock rather than directly as food. Nevertheless, it comes in an amazing variety of forms and, like wheat, some of them are better suited for a particular purpose than others. The varieties intended to be eaten as fresh, sweet corn are very high in sugar content and do not dry or store well. The other varieties are the flint, dent, and popcorns. All of them keep well when they have been properly dried. To a certain extent, they're all interchangeable for purposes of grinding into meal or flour, but some make better meal than flour and vice versa. As a general rule of thumb, the flint varieties make better meal as they have a grittier texture than the dent corns which make better flour. If meal, hominy and grits are what you are most interested in, use the flint type. If you intend to make corn masa for tortillas and tamales, then the dent type is what you want. Popcorn is what you need if youwant to pop it for snacks and it can also be ground into meal or flour. It seems to me it makes a very good meal, but it's just a bit gritty for flour. Your mileage may vary.

Popcorn is one form of a whole grain available to nearly everyone if they know where to look. Since it's so popular as a snack food, particularly in movie theaters and events like fairs and ball games, even the smallest of towns will generally have at least one business selling it in twenty five or fifty pound bags. Since it's meant to be eaten it's safe for food. To be at its most poppable, this corn needs to have a moisture content between 13.5%-15.5% which makes it just a little too moist for ideal storage. A small amount of drying will need to be done before it's packed away. If wanted for popping later, it can always be re-hydrated by sprinkling a small amount of water on the kernels, shaking vigorously and allowing it to be absorbed.

Once you've decided between flint, dent or popcorn, you now have to decide upon it's color: there are yellow, white, blue, & red dried varieties. The yellow and white types are the most common by far with the blues and reds mostly being relegated to curiosities, though blue corn has been gaining in popularity these last few years. It should be kept in mind that white corn does not have the vitamin A content of yellow. Since vitamin A is one of the major limiting vitamins in long term food storage, any possible source of it should be utilized so for this reason I suggest storing yellow rather than white corn. Additionally, much of the niacin content of corn is chemically bound up in a form not available for human nutrition unless it has been treated with an alkali. If grits, hominy or corn masa are not a part of your diet and you're storing corn, it is a very good idea to begin to develop a taste for some or all of these alkali treated forms of corn foods.

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