How to make Cornmeal

take your corn and dry the kernels then grind them down into course medium or fine meal. You can use a rock to smash the kernels a mortar n pestle or a actual grain mill.

Keep in mind cornmeal is a fairly cheap thing to buy already ground for you and stores well when packaged properly. If you are wanting to just try and grind your own but dont have the corn pick up a cheap bag of popcorn and try grinding it down on your own. It will give you a good idea of how it is done without going out n purchasing oodles of equipment beforehand. If you plan on growing your own corn and processing it out keep in mind that most grains take more space in growing than many of us have and that it takes alot of "grain" to make decent amounts of meal or flours etc.

 

Dry corn

Food mill
Lehman's - Products for Simple, Self-sufficient Living
Lehman's - Products for Simple, Self-sufficient Living
Grain Mills Hand Grinders Health Food Mill Wheat Grains Seeds Retail Retsel Corporation
Grain Mills @ Survival Unlimited .com - Country Living Grain Mill and the Family Grain Mill
THE COUNTRY LIVING GRAIN MILL

Grind

Easy

 

i ground yellow dent corn, 'deer corn' , into cornmeal with excellent results in a champion juicer with grain mill attachment. 25lbs per hour, about. dusty, noisy, and effective.

great taste. sifted it once and reground siftings..

the corn took a LOT of cleaning. pull broken grains, cob, rocks, stalk, OUT.. every grain you grind, LOOK AT!

that ain't optional. be religious about 'picking' your grains and beans.. it may save a tooth, it will improve storage times and flavor, and you KNOW you aren't about to toss a rock in your grinder.

bad idea to NOT know..

 

buy bulk popcorn......grinds clean and is excellent tasting for cornbread.

 

I've since motorized the grinder

 

what do you call that grinder. proper name please

 

This be a mill I bought offin ebay:



I dry LOTs of canned corn. I use this dried corn an run through the mill an make corn bread outa that.


Here be what it all looks like.


The finished cornbread.

 

The best cornbread I ever ate we made with dried sweet corn. I just left it on the stalks until late October, picked, shelled and ground it. Wonderful stuff!

 

Their is a BIG taste difference in home ground cornmeal and that packaged and sold in the grocery store. Your generic cornmeal from the store will make cornbread that is barely edible at best.

I have no idea why their is such a difference but try baking 2 batches, one with packaged cornmeal and one with home ground. You will be amazed at the difference.

It is my understanding the commercial meal is made from he same "dent" verity corn that is sold for human consumption from grain markets.

 

Most cornmeals in the store have their germ removed (that is where the fat is and it goes rancid in storage) when you grind it yourself you get to keep all that yummy goodness in there. Even cornmeal ground the week before is not going to be as tasty as grinding it right before you use it. It is like it loses it's aroma when it gets older.

 

I appreciate all replies from everyone. I recently moved to mexico and my husband and i love chili n cornbread and i have made it a couple of times to sell. We don't make alot of money but we r not pushing it too much bc i only brought so much cornmeal with me and soo many kidney beans. I cannot find cornmeal or cornbread mix anywhere! And i only put about an eighth of a portion of kidney beans in this last batch of chili bc thry don't even know what red beans r here! So we r using peruano a type of pinto bean. I know thats what i thought "yuck!" lol but i guess if all the other ingred r workin thn it's not thee most important thing
so i will try the popcorn seed grinding thing. We do hava sams near us so that may b problem solved. And yes i hav tried the yellow and white masa fir tortillas lol. The dogs ate alota cornbread that week. Very blah!

 

That looks so good that I want you to invite me to dinner! That is beautiful. I have a cast iron skillet just like that but even though I seasoned it like it says, it sticks really really bad......can't fry eggs in it so I put it up. Any suggestions so I could make bread that looked like yours?

 

Dinner gonna be one heck of a drive! But yer all welcome!

Tell me how yall seasoned that pan?

Er I'll tell ya how I do mine.

Lard, yup, real lard.

Wipe yer lard on yer pan, get it on there good.

Now, if momma ain't home I do mine in the oven, put the pan in the oven over a bakin sheet ta catch the drippins.

Turn the oven ta 500° er as high as it'll go.

Give it at least 2 hours (that be longer then some folk say to, but be how grandpa did it) then turn the oven down ta 250° fer another 2 hours.

Shut the oven off an leave yer pan in there over night. Should have a really dark amber color ta it. This will develope inta a smooth black coatin after ya keep usin it.

After each use, don't use soap! That takes the finish right off. Wipe it out an give it a light coat a vegi oil. That will pertect it from rust an keeps addin ta the carbon buildup.

Grandpa used ta do his in a good hot fire outside to, just chunk the larded pan er pot inta the fire an let it go. Nowadays a bbq grill works good to.

It's gonna take some time to build up that finish. But when ya do, be the finest way ta cook there be!

 

Geez, fergot bout the bread!

Take real butter an coat the inside a the pan. Put yer cornbread batter in there an bake.

 

I always buy just cornmeal mix in the store.

Now if I grind my own corn, stupid question but... Do I need to add some SR flour to it?

 

Here be my recipe:

Storage Cornbread

1 C cornmeal
1 C flour
2 tsp bakin powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 C milk
1/4 C oil

Mix dry stuffs tagether an add in milk an oil, mix well, then put in a greased pan an bake at 350° fer bout 30 minutes just till the center is nice an firm. This can also be done in a dutch oven.

 

I wonder if you could make corn bread with can corn without drying it out?Just use less liquid in the recipe.
I think I'll try it and see.I know I'll have to put some leaven in it to make it rise so I'll put that in the flour.I never use flour in my corn bread but in this case I'd have to use dry ingrediant for it to rise.I also use eggs in mine.
Any other suggestions on this experiment?

 

I don't know. Seems like you may end up with a crusty white bread of some sort with corn. I'm picturing doughy fluffy as well.

I usually just buy premier cornmeal mix which has flour in it, one egg if small pan, two eggs if large and milk. Bacon grease in pan while heating up, I might throw some meal in the bottom to make the top crusty.

Wendy Dewitt says you can use Khor gelatin instead of eggs!!! For shtf!!

 

Is that a "hand grist mill"? It is absolutely correct that cornmeal ground from whole corn has a completely different and better taste than what you buy. You can also use that little mill to grind most anything. Grind pecans, peanuts, beans, grains, corn, Important to make sure there is no dirt and such in your product.