I've never had the good fortune to find corn smut in my garden. But then, I seldom grow corn. If I did find any I certainly would cook with it. The only time I have eaten it was when I had it at the San Angel Inn, a very fine restaurant on the outskirts of Mexico City. I was served as Crepes of Huitlacoche. That was over 30 years ago, so don't ask me to describe it. I know it was good because everything is good at the San Angel Inn.

Jim

Treat it exactly as you would mushrooms, which is what it is, the fruiting body of a fungus. If it is in large pieces it can be sliced, if not, roughly crumbled. Fried in butter, season with a little salt and pepper, also, a bit of fresh thyme is very good. It has a vague mushroomy, corny taste which can be a bit off-putting until you get used to it. Sauteed, splash of dry sherry, light cream sauce wrapped in Crepes or over puff pastry. Treat it as a very high end mushroom.
Steve

I use it in quesadillas that I make with fresh masa. I flatten a ball of masa into a circle, add huitlacoche, some soft cheese, and maybe some salsa, fold it over and seal it, and then deep fry it in a wok. I've only found huitlacoche here in jars, but I used to buy the huitlacoche quesadillas on the street in Mexico City. I've had it in high end restaurants in D.F. as well, but the street food was better.

Lars

OH heck no....I don't do fungus' at all..and I just googled it to find out what exactly it was...gag!!

Yikes! I never new that stuff had a name...or a use!

I love mushrooms of all kinds, but I'll have to think long and hard about whether I want to eat "corn smut". Looks too much like engorged wood ticks....(sorry).

Linda

There is a joke in there somewhere....

I tossed it....but with some guilt! I know it's likely wonderful....and many things look awful before you prepare them....
But.....

But if they were to give it a fancy French name and charge $500.00 an oz, you will say it taste heavenly.

TRUFFE de MAIS, il est merveilleusement délicieux!

I always have to laugh that the Chinese used to feed their truffles to the pigs because they looked awful and tasted terrible to them.

dcarch

Preparation is important to making food appealing, even if it is only opening a clam or oyster or trimming a radish.

Jim

I thought huitlacoche was a fancy enough name....
I also have puff balls growing in the way back in my yard....but alas no morels.
And for the cook...often the raw material has to be appealing to warrant the time in preparation.
For that reason I don't fix beef tongue...but if someone else does I will eat it with gusto.
But I can't deal with the skin.
So Jim and dcarch....what are your tried and true recipes for huitlacoche?

I tried it once, now I toss it.

I'm not all that excited about truffles or things with fancy French names either, except French Bread and French Fries. I cannot stand champagne. I'm have much more plebian tastes, I guess.

Oops, I guess the fries aren't actually French either. (grin)

I don't particularly care for puff balls or morels or truffles, so I guess it's no surprise that I don't like corn smut.

Annie

Tiques bois gorgés....oh yum!

Linda

I've seen plenty of it. Never tried it and don't intend to.

Beverly

A little online research and I found this description with some pretty good pictures. If you are sensitive, don't read it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Steve, Don't Eat It! Vol 7

YUCK................

Great link, too funny.

The first people to eat that must have been desperate. Here's some more information, though I still couldn't bring myself to eat it. Apparently farmers are now growing "organic" huitlacoche!

Bizzo, that's EXACTLY what it looks like and it tastes even worse than Steve says.

I've never seen a can of silkworms either, but I have eaten the cricket in the middle of a lollipop at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. (grin) It was crunchy.

Yeah, I know it's weird. I'm picky and don't like a lot of things, but I'll try nearly any food.....once. I reserve the right to dislike it intensely and never try it again. At least for 7 years, right Renee?

Annie

And yet, people have no problem eating mushrooms, which are fungi grown from infected horse manure.

If I can find huitlacoche in the Spanish stores here I will definitely enjoy them. They are delicious, and healthy :-)

dcarch

OMG Bizzo thanks for that link - I haven't laughed this hard in a while!

dcarch, I have a cousin who raises mushrooms commercially and he doesn't use any manure, he uses a sterile synthetic medium made of rye straw, crushed corn cobs and I don't remember what else but it contains no manure. It is hung in bags from the ceiling of his extremely clean building. You have to suit up and wear booties to go inside so that you don't "contaminate" his growing environment. The spores of his mushrooms for growing come from a lab, where they are started in cereal grains. Definitely no infected horse manure there.

I don't care for morels, although they also don't require manure, they grow in naturally composted materials found in the forest and commercial growers have been spectacularly unsuccessful in growing them in any quantity.

Yes, I think if an agricultural product can be grown commercially and sold, someone in my family has probably grown it!

Annie

"....and many things look awful before you prepare them.... "

...and look appetizing if you have acquired a taste for them.

Jim

Comparing mushrooms to huitlacoche is not really a fair comparison. Mushrooms, by their very nature, are fungi. Corn is not. I would no more eit huitlacoche than I would eat a diseased mushroom. Because, at the end of the day, that is exactly what huitlacoche is; infected corn.

Oh, and btw, we go mushroom hunting all the time in the woods. Not a drop of horse manure to be found, but plenty of wild mushrooms. They tend to like the wet, leafy, log areas best.

Jo

The stuff sure won't win a beauty prize.

Bizzo, that was hysterical!

I'd try it well-disguised in something and prepared by someone else. I like 'shrooms in general.

Note to self...never read funny links at work! LOL The patients in the waiting room now officially think I am cazy!

Thanks for the laugh, Bizzo! I especially liked the "devil poop" analogy!

Linda

Just reading wikepedia's info about it was enough; this forum is a wealth of information, everyday I learn something new. Almost everyday.

Last year the last of my corn developed corn smut, and I think it was brought on by ant and aphids. I did taste some and it was really good :)...my bf thought I was crazy for eating it. lol

The older I get, the more I realize I don't know LOL. I passed over this thread for a while until my curiousity got the better of me because I didn't know what the heck huitlacoche was. Now that I know I wonder who in the world thought it might be a good idea to eat something that looks like that...?!

Thanks for the laugh :-)

Becky

Becky, I did the same thing. Now I'm sorry I didn't get in on the laughs sooner. I wouldn't touch that stuff with a ten foot pole. Ick.

So does blue cheese look less icky? smell less icky? taste less icky? :-)

Just the same, it's fungus growing on rotting milk.

I am gonna get me some huitlacoche, with blue cheese dressing on top. Don't kiss me afterwards LOL!

dcarch

Nope, I don't eat moldy cheese either! I even tried some Maytag blue that LindaC sent specially for a CF get together.

Still didn't like it...

Annie

I like moldy cheese, I like mushrooms but this has too much yuck factor for me.

I don't like blue cheeses at all, but I'd choke some down before I'd let corn smut pass my lips!

Linda

This was an absolute new one for me. If I were served it in a restaurant I'd give it a taste (don't guarantee a follow-up), but if I saw it in our garden I'd be cutting down corn and heading for the burn pile.

My step-mother worked many years ago in a mushroom plant. It was similar to what Annie described. Mushrooms were grown in a sterile medium and employees were monitored carefully for fear of contamination.

It was interesting to read Zuni Indians used huitlacoche to induce labor; vaguely reminiscent of the Salem witchcraft trials and rye ergot.

Carol

We lived for years in Mexico and, there, it was considered a delicacy. I've often had it cooked in eggs. I prefer to have some onions mixed in as well. I just picked some from the garden this morning and had it with my breakfast.

I wrote on it for our website today. Here's the link.

Homesteading Edu: Huitlacoche, a Problem You can Eat

I've found huitlacoche in jars here, but it was not as good as what I had in Mexico City. The last time I was in DF, I had tamales or enchiladas with huitlacoche, and they were excellent as well. I wish I had it in my back yard. High-end restaurants in Mexico City generally have huitlacoche in some of their dishes.