Amishway Homesteaders Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 OK, we have the grinder and we have lots of dried feed corn (organic) still left in the garden. SO can I use THAT to make cornmeal with? We were thinking of making things from scratch this Thanksgiving seeing we can get a turkey from the Amish and we grew the pumkins and squash. Making stuffing from home-made bread I am now drying, Potatoes we grew , corn we canned, you know STUFF like that? Now I need to know if the cornbread muffins will be OK to eat doing it this way? Thanks for the help! Link to comment
Simplegirl Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Ummm... I don't know. Sounds like it would work. You should try it and let us know how it turns out! Link to comment
Christy Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Would it be similar to what they did in dem olden days? If so, go for it! Is there a difference between corn and feedcorn? It's grown here but not a native plant and relative new. But I eat anything I can get my gob around really. Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Ummm... I don't know. Sounds like it would work. You should try it and let us know how it turns out! .... unless I make it - Eat it - And DIE! Link to comment
windmorn Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I remember making cornmeal when I was probably in kindergarten. My teacher was the best! I don't ever remember doing cut and paste with her. We always did cool stuff like melting crayons to draw on a tee shirt we tie dyed afterwards, make bird nests with sticks and mud, churn butter and stone grind corn. Enough remenencing. From what I remember my grandfather growing field/feed corn and eating corn is that field corn is not sweet like corn we tend it eat. It doesn't cook up as tender either, because on occasion we did eat it. I believe because it is lower in sugar and flavor, field corn is what was traditionally used for meal. (Someone please correct me if I'm not remembering correctly.) That being said, if your corn is store bought you need to make sure it wasn't treated with something you don't want to eat. Link to comment
CrabGrassAcres Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Depends on your grinder. My everyday, Whisper Mill gets hung up on corn but I can make enough corn meal for a pone or two. Usually end up having to turn it off and pound it a little but that is just my mill for you. Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Depends on your grinder. My everyday, Whisper Mill gets hung up on corn but I can make enough corn meal for a pone or two. Usually end up having to turn it off and pound it a little but that is just my mill for you. well we have a 'back - to - basics hand cranked one so I don't know how well that it will work? that was the other thing I was going to ask. LOL maybe put them into my coffee grinder (also hand cranked) Link to comment
CrabGrassAcres Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 The back to basics is not a very good mill. YOu can get one of the corona type corn mills off ebay that isn't particularly expensive and does corn very well. Link to comment
LindaLou Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 We have a Country Living grain mill and do corn all the time but you can't use the same auger as you would for wheat. You have to get an auger for corn and beans. Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 The back to basics is not a very good mill. YOu can get one of the corona type corn mills off ebay that isn't particularly expensive and does corn very well. I know, but we mainly use it when we 'play' pioneering on the weekends - like to make 1 cup of rice flour or flax seed flour, etc. Not for big jobs - for that we go over to 1 of our Amish Friends that have the bigger mills. This was just to make enough for 1 batch of cornbread? thanks for the replies. Link to comment
Dee Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I have always assumed, which is not a good nor necessary correct thing, that cornmeal, etc. was made from field corn. I called the Quaker company using the 800 number on the back of the cornmeal box. The lady was very nice and had a good time with the question since she's never had it before. She DOESN'T know the answer for sure but thinks it field corn NOT sweet corn. She took my number and will call me back within a couple of days if she can find out, sooooo, more to come on this maybe! Link to comment
Daylily Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I thought i posted here but don't see my post. We grow field corn (dent corn) and grind it for cornmeal all the time. I assume that feed corn is dent corn. There are several types of non-sweet corn: flint, flour, popcorn, and dent. We use a Country Living grain mill. Link to comment
Mt_Rider Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Edited to add: Are the 'post-bandits' active again, Daylily? Your's wasn't there when I typed mine....but mine took a while to finish. I see we concur! =========================================================== Cornmeal is not from "sweet corn". It's usually from 'flint' corn ....in all the colors like blue, etc. But no reason the current "field corn" [i beleive that's 'dent' corn] wouldn't work. AH, iffen you are being pioneers for Thanksgiving [and I'm inviting myself over....sounds delish!], you might just whack the big kernels with a stone-on-stone or hammer on concrete. If you get them broken up a bit, your Back to Basics would work easier. ....not that I've actually...wait...MtRider goes off to test the theory.... Crash, bang, boom, yiiiike, ooof! ....OK,now that I've FOUND my Back to Basics grinder [i wish I didn't have so many places I decide to put things ] ....... I ran thru some cracked corn and then about a dozen kernel of whole field corn [goat feed] and both went thru just fine. If you aren't trying to support a whole village in a third world country, I'd say it's a go, Micheal! MtRider [...had that thing all these years and thot it really was time to see how it works! Always used my better one but this is packed for longer-term BO... ] Link to comment
mommato3boys Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 OK, we have the grinder and we have lots of dried feed corn (organic) still left in the garden. SO can I use THAT to make cornmeal with? We were thinking of making things from scratch this Thanksgiving seeing we can get a turkey from the Amish and we grew the pumkins and squash. Making stuffing from home-made bread I am now drying, Potatoes we grew , corn we canned, you know STUFF like that? Now I need to know if the cornbread muffins will be OK to eat doing it this way? Thanks for the help! Considering I will be 49 in less than a month and grew eating cornmeal this way yeah you will survive. I would suggest cutting the corn and hanging it to dry. It needs to be super dry to grind. You will also have to grind it at least twice. The years we couldn't afford to take it to the grist meal and have it ground mother would grind the corn twice and then sift it and then grind it a third time and sift it again before using...that was until I got strong enough to turn the handle on the grinder. Then you will have plain cornmeal and will need to add salt and baking powder. EDIT: Yes what we grew was field corn. Dad would cut about 1/3 of the crop for us for cornmeal and then the rest was for the cows. I am not sure which was worse as a kid...turning the handle on the grinder or shucking dry corn and breaking the kernels off the cob to feed to the cows...sore shoulder vs sore thumbs...hummmmmmm Link to comment
CrabGrassAcres Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Feed corn is field corn is flour corn is dent corn. Popcorn is flint corn, and sweet corn is field corn that has been selected over many generations (corn generations) for sugar content as opposed to starch content. Michael, throw the corn in a food processor to crack it before you put it thru your grinder. It will make life a lot easier. Link to comment
snapshotmiki Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 CGA! That won't damage the food processor? I have never tried that. Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 Considering I will be 49 in less than a month and grew eating cornmeal this way yeah you will survive. I would suggest cutting the corn and hanging it to dry. It needs to be super dry to grind. You will also have to grind it at least twice. The years we couldn't afford to take it to the grist meal and have it ground mother would grind the corn twice and then sift it and then grind it a third time and sift it again before using...that was until I got strong enough to turn the handle on the grinder. Then you will have plain cornmeal and will need to add salt and baking powder. EDIT: Yes what we grew was field corn. Dad would cut about 1/3 of the crop for us for cornmeal and then the rest was for the cows. I am not sure which was worse as a kid...turning the handle on the grinder or shucking dry corn and breaking the kernels off the cob to feed to the cows...sore shoulder vs sore thumbs...hummmmmmm WOW! Thanks for all the good information. That was what I was thinking how it was done. Link to comment
CrabGrassAcres Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 Miki, no, it won't hurt the food processor unless you run it too long and over heat it. Mt_Rider, everything between post 12 and post 15 was not there when I posted #15! Board is acting crazy. Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 For everyone that posted so help on this...................................... JUST FORGET about it! No wait - thanks a bunch and we solved the problem of using our litle grinder! We had to drop something off at 1 of our Amish Friends place and while there she got talking about grinding stuff and I asked about making cornmeal? Well everybody does it that way was the answer we got . . . . . She also told us to just take her grinder home so we didn't have to use our little one! So we were able to bring home her "big" hand cranked grinder! We have been grinding corn all morning off and on (save the arms) and now have a big batch to use this winter. Again Thanks for all the ideas and good advice on this. Link to comment
CrabGrassAcres Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 It is good to have friends with stuff they will let you use! Link to comment
Amishway Homesteaders Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 that is why when we are going out there! and we have been told to come anytime and stay. Link to comment
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