In the US it’s called corn smut, and viewed with dismay by corn growers. In France, it’s goitre du mais. I don’t know if it’s eaten there.
Here in the land of corn, Mexico, it’s viewed as a delicacy. I bought a batch weighing about a pound from a stand selling corn fresh from the field. The man and his son running the stand were going through the ears to find the affected ones. They chopped the fungus off the cob and put it onto styrofoam trays. When sold, it was dumped into a plastic bag.
The huitlacoche consists of greatly enlarged, silvery colored and very tender kernels; kernels which have mutated into a fibrous yet tender silvery mass, along with some black semi-liquid stuff which I guess is spores.
I chopped some onion and poblano pepper and sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil while I cut up a chayote, which I then added to the skillet. Once the chayote became tender in the covered skillet, I added the huitlacoche, stirred it through, and covered it for a couple of minutes while I minced some epazote to add just before serving.
The taste is hard to describe. It has an earthy richness, but is also bitter, which can be off-putting at the first bite. The bitterness is akin to something burnt, but it’s good. The dish I made was excellent, as the texture of the cooked chayote did not war with the tender kernels of the huitlacoche and the chayote’s sweetness balanced the slight bitterness of the huitlacoche.
Another nice way to fix it is to sautĂŠ the onion & pepper then cook the huitlacoche in with it as described above. Into that mixture fold freshly cooked rice until the ingredients are nicely mixed. Add the epazote & serve. A variation is to cook down a cut-up tomato in with the onion & pepper before adding the huitlacoche & finally the rice.
8 Comments
wut?
Its still gross đ
Corn from farmers market was loaded with this but it was black and blobby. Very gross.
The heavenly huitlacoche
I look at my ears every day hoping to see that. I want to eat smut.
In my lovely way, I present here my introduction to the joys of huitlacoche ~
(pronounced: weet lah coh chay) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut
In the US it’s called corn smut, and viewed with dismay by corn growers. In France, it’s goitre du mais. I don’t know if it’s eaten there.
Here in the land of corn, Mexico, it’s viewed as a delicacy. I bought a batch weighing about a pound from a stand selling corn fresh from the field. The man and his son running the stand were going through the ears to find the affected ones. They chopped the fungus off the cob and put it onto styrofoam trays. When sold, it was dumped into a plastic bag.
The huitlacoche consists of greatly enlarged, silvery colored and very tender kernels; kernels which have mutated into a fibrous yet tender silvery mass, along with some black semi-liquid stuff which I guess is spores.
I chopped some onion and poblano pepper and sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil while I cut up a chayote, which I then added to the skillet. Once the chayote became tender in the covered skillet, I added the huitlacoche, stirred it through, and covered it for a couple of minutes while I minced some epazote to add just before serving.
The taste is hard to describe. It has an earthy richness, but is also bitter, which can be off-putting at the first bite. The bitterness is akin to something burnt, but it’s good. The dish I made was excellent, as the texture of the cooked chayote did not war with the tender kernels of the huitlacoche and the chayote’s sweetness balanced the slight bitterness of the huitlacoche.
Another nice way to fix it is to sautĂŠ the onion & pepper then cook the huitlacoche in with it as described above. Into that mixture fold freshly cooked rice until the ingredients are nicely mixed. Add the epazote & serve. A variation is to cook down a cut-up tomato in with the onion & pepper before adding the huitlacoche & finally the rice.
ÂĄBuen provecho!
Lovely gift! đ
So, itâs corn truffles. đ¤