Corn Products Are Everywhere in American Life

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Corn is king in much of North America, and judging by the beauty of this well kept barn, on this farm the king pays pretty well. iStockphoto.com/studio2F

Imagine arriving in a brand-new country. The culture you find is different from that which you’ve left, and the people seem suspicious of you. But never mind that. You’re tired, hungry and willing to try anything – even corn products you know nothing about.

You recognize wheat in the fields, and oats are familiar to you, too. You know rye and millet, but these people are growing something you’ve never seen. The plants are huge – taller than you are – and they seem to worship it. The seeds are large, too, much bigger than seeds you’ve ever seen. And the taste? Good stuff.

RECIPES FOR CORN
Cheesy Corn Bake Recipe
Corn Relish Recipe
Dried Corn Soup Recipe 

That’s what happened to Christopher Columbus and his crews when they came to Mesoamerica, where corn was king. 

Silky beginnings

Although Columbus might have thought he’d just stumbled upon something grand and new when he loaded corn onto his ship for the voyage home, Native Americans had been growing corn for some 5,000 years before Columbus set foot in the New World.

No one knows how the plant itself came into existence (Mayan culture says that corn was given to man by the feathered God Quetzalcoatl), but experts think it originated in Central America or Mexico and was traded hand-to-hand. Corn played an important part in Aztec and Mayan religion and cultivation spurred its spread northward. Scientists believe that corn became “domesticated” about 4,500 years ago.

When Columbus finally returned from Cuba to Barcelona in 1493, great excitement surrounded his arrival. Though he hadn’t found the trade route he sought (he thought he had), he came back with many wondrous things that Europeans had never seen. In writing to his patron, a Spanish cleric described (in Latin) one of them: an amazing plant that Columbus said the natives called “mahiz” (or maize).

It didn’t take long for maize to spread around Europe and Asia, or for confusion to reign. Twenty years after Columbus’ first voyage, Portuguese sailors took maize to China (where the Chinese tried to lay claim to its beginnings). Traders carried it to Turkey and India. The French called it Turkish wheat (and sometimes still do). Farmers in several countries on three continents swore that the crop originated in their area. European botanists couldn’t wait to get their fingers on “Corne.”

While it’s unlikely that the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in America with all the foods we traditionally attribute to their feast, it’s fairly certain that corn was on the table, though they called it “Indian corn.” To them, “corn” was a word that encompassed several kinds of grain including wheat. Adding the distinction differentiated maize from all other seeds.

They, and other early settlers from Europe, learned how to plant, nurture and cultivate corn from their Native American neighbors, as well as how to reap and store the harvest and use the grain. For many, hoecakes, corn mush and bread supplemented what wild game was caught. Corn meant the difference between survival and cold starvation.