6 FOOD FOR THE TROPICS 



are a delicacy when eaten with a little salt or oil. The 

 riper and harder grain is boiled in the leaves, and eaten 

 with oil. The tender green grains, dried, may be kept all 

 the year round, and used boiled (first soaking some hours 

 in water). Ground into finer meal and boiled, it is eaten 

 with milk or oil ; or it can be mixed with water and salt, 

 and baked into a cake. 



Parched maize is prepared as follows : — Fill an iron pot 

 with sand and set it on the fire till the sand is very hot. 

 Two to three pounds of grain are then put in, and mixed 

 with the sand by stirring, which causes each grain to burst 

 and throw out a white substance of twice its size. It is 

 then separated from the sand with a sieve, and the latter is 

 returned to the pot to parch fresh grain. The parched 

 maize is pounded to powder in mortars, and this, being 

 sifted, will keep a long time. 



Another authority says that the sweet variety (sugar- 

 corn) furnishes a most palatable dish when the ears are 

 taken green and boiled, the seeds being eaten from the 

 cob with salt, pepper, and oil ; or cut off and served in 

 milk. 



Hulled corn, a much relished dish, is prepared by taking 

 shelled corn of a superior quality and boiling it in weak 

 lye (made from wood ashes) until the hull or cuticle cover- 

 ing the grain is loosened. It is then put in cold water 

 and the hulls rubbed off with the hands, care being taken 

 not to break the form of the kernel, and the grain washed 

 to remove all taste of the lye ; after which it is boiled till 

 soft, and served in milk, or with oil and sugar. 



In the Southern States of America the grain is often 

 simply ground coarsely, and after the chaff has been 



