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Black Aztec Corn

Black Aztec Corn - St. Clare Heirloom Seeds

Black Aztec Corn - St. Clare Heirloom SeedsThis month we thought we’d highlight one of our neatest seeds, Black Aztec Corn (really, who can pick? there is so much awesome variety to God’s creation in the garden!).

Recently we had the opportunity to share Black Aztec Corn with the young ladies at the Girls’ Camp at our church, which was a blast.

BlackAztecCornGrinding

The girls had the chance to tryout grinding their own corn with a grain mill, and then made the fun and delicious purplish-grayish-blueish cornbread that results from Black Aztec Corn. We heard many comments that this was the best cornbread they’d ever had.

BlackAztecCornFillingHopperBlack Aztec Corn is a great multi-purpose corn. You can harvest it at the “milk” stage, when the juices in the kernels are milky looking and sweet, and the kernels are white(or tinged with purple), for a delicious sweet corn, or let it dry on the stalks to be ground for some of the best cornmeal we’ve ever tasted, also using it for a great Fall decoration, a unique corn color, sure to bring comments from guests. Black Aztec Corn is a very ancient corn, known to be grown by the American Indians for sure, but thought to date back to the actual Aztec Indians in Pre-Columbian times. It is truly one of the most beautiful corns available, a delight to watch develop throughout its stages starting out white, it slowly turns a purpley color, then darkens into a lovely blue-black at maturity. Make sure to set aside space in your garden plans to try out this awesome Heirloom Black Aztec Corn next year!

Black Aztec Cornbread Batter
Black Aztec Cornbread Batter

Below is the Black Aztec Corn recipe we used at Girls’ camp if you have some of your own corn and want to try a good cornbread recipe. Everyone agreed it tasted great!

Skillet Cornbread (makes 8 servings)

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons bacon grease or oil for frying/baking the batter
1 cup Black Aztec Corn cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
4 Tablespoons melted butter or oil

If you want to bake it in the oven, as we did for the last big batch, use a pie plate of 8″ square pan for a single batch, or a 9×13″ cake pan for a double batch, and bake at 400° for 20-25 min (25-30 for the 9×13 pan) or until golden brown around the edges and on top.

To cook over the fire when camping, place your cast iron frying pan over medium to hot coals until heated. Drop in about two tablespoons of bacon grease or cooking oil to season the bottom of the pan.

When the oil or grease starts to sizzle, pour in the batter – spreading it evenly over the bottom of the pan.

“If cooking it with a lid on, cover it with doubled foil to hold in the heat. Place it over a cooler part of the fire. It takes about 20 minutes. I’ve done it many times, and it’s great. Good Luck! Contrary to other posters opinions you DO need to cover it. To hold the heat, and to keep bugs out of it.”
“If trying it lidless: Fry over low heat campfire until bubbles start forming on the top of batter. Using a metal spatula, carefully flip cornbread over and cook until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into cornbread.”

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