I was tempted to chance the variable Pacific Northwest winter and drive down to the Hillsdale Farmers’ Market by the opportunity to buy some organic white polenta from Ayers Creek Farm. But this just wasn’t any ground corn, it was ground popcorn, specifically ground Amish Butter (aka Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavor, I believe). I am a sucker for white polenta and white grits, and Anthony’s description of the ground Amish Butter popcorn, besides being very enticing, put another piece of the real ‘corn’ puzzle in place for me:
Amish butter also makes a good white polenta. Interestingly, popcorn is not ground for meal in the US, and for no good reason. The Italians grow several landraces of popcorn, or everta types to botanists. The popcorn ear is conical and looks like pine cone, and the individual kernels resemble pine nuts, so these varieties are called pignolo or pignoletto. In Italy the kernels are ground for meal to use as a polenta or in cookies, just like other types of corn.
I was aware of the differences between the various types of ‘corn’ flint, dent, pop, flour, and sweet, and I had assumed that most polenta in Italy was made from flint corn, just as most grits down South were made from dent corn with no consideration for popcorn, other than for popping. His description though, reminded me of the first artisan-milled polenta I bought for the website - it was called Pingulet came from a cooperative in Piemonte - it was the house polenta for Chez Panisse for years. It made delicious polenta, and now I know that it was like made from a popcorn variety. Needless to say, I bought a few pounds some of which can be seen in the upper left image (click on it for a larger version). Right next to the bags of polenta were the bags of organic whole kernel Amish Butter for popping, and as I muttered to myself “what the hell,” I added a bag to my pile.
The combination of microwave popcorn at the office and $5-a-bag popcorn at the movies turned me off popcorn years ago, and I’ve never owned a popcorn popper. Tiny, almost translucent, and a bit pointy, the individual kernels are amazing looking, just like pinenuts (top right and bottom left images). That evening I popped some of my Amish Butter the old-fashion way, in a pot on the stove. Unfortunately, I was out of practice for the first run and worried more about burning the popcorn than getting it all popped. Subsequent batches went extremely well with less than 5% un-popped kernels and no partially popped ones - the latter case is a testament to Anthony’s skills in drying the corn. It is the smallest corn I’ve ever popped, but some of the tastiest, with a nice fluffiness and ‘light’ corn flavor - I just wish I had bought more.
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