Corncakes

Corn – A New World Food That Spread Around The Globe

• Corn cultivation as we know it today began in Central America as far back as 8,000 BCE. Indigenous peoples called the crop mahiz or maize meaning “source of life.” Domesticating the plant helped secure a steady food supply and turned Native American tribes from nomadic to agrarian societies.
• When Columbus landed in the West Indies, the Native Americans gave him mahiz to take home to Spain. From there it spread quickly throughout Europe and then the rest of the world.
• Etymologically, the word corn can be traced to an Indo-European word meaning ‘small nugget. The word evolved into the Germanic ‘korn’ which means any cereal grain and the Latin ‘granum’ (grain) which also refers to any edible grass seed.
• When English and German settlers arrived in the new world they referred to maize as "corn" referring to their generic term for an edible grass crop. They distinguished it from other grains by calling it "Indian corn."
• The earliest settlers in this country might not have survived their first winter if Native Americans hadn't given them corn to cook and eat. They also taught the colonists to grow corn by planting kernels along with small fish which fertilized the soil. Native Americans had numerous ways for preparing corn that they also shared with the settlers. They used corn in bread, porridge, soup, fried cakes, and pudding.  
• From those early dishes some popular American dishes evolved including cornbread, hoecakes, johnnycakes, Indian pudding, creamed corn, succotash, and old fashioned buttered corn on the cob.