# Cooking Tips for the Local Corn



## ltharveyd (Aug 30, 2015)

We've been here in Mexico for three weeks and are enjoying new foods whenever we can. I stopped at a roadside produce truck today and bought some corn. It's light in color, with much larger kernels than back in the states, a lot of taper from bottom to top. I boiled for about 10 minutes and it was very tough and chewy. Do I need to cook it longer? Any tips appreciated as the flavor was awesome! Thanks.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

20 to 25 minutes it says here ...... my elote lady next door says at least a 1/2 hour

Mexican Style Corn Recipe - Allrecipes.com


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

With salt, limon, crema and a powdered chili


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

You can buy some tequesquite at the market and boil corn with it, it makes it even tastier!


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

GARYJ65 said:


> You can buy some tequesquite at the market and boil corn with it, it makes it even tastier!


For those who don't know about _tequesquite_ here are some quotes from Wikipedia. Just recently my husband was explaining to me about using this stone when cooking corn to give it more flavour, when I was asking how esquites are made. That was the first I'd heard of it, and this is the second. Apparently one of the places it can be found is Laguna Tequesquitengo - hence the name.

From Wikipedia:
Tequesquite aka tequexquite or tequixquitl (the tetl Nahuatl, 'stone'; quixquitl 'gushing', 'stone leaving alone, efflorescent') is a natural mineral salt, used in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times mainly as a food seasoning.

Chemically it is an alkaline rock composed of various minerals, which changes its ratio according to where is obtained. It consists mainly of sodium bicarbonate and common salt (sodium chloride), but also contains potassium carbonate, sodium sulfate and clay. 
...

The tequesquite has many uses as an ingredient in traditional Mexican dishes. Mainly used in products made from corn, such as tamales, to accentuate their flavor. The corn is usually boiled with it. It is also used for cooking nopales and other vegetables as it retains their bright green color, to soften dried beans, and as a meat tenderizer, similar to sodium bicarbonate.


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## ltharveyd (Aug 30, 2015)

Thanks for the replies! It's much better after 25 plus minutes of cooking. Chilli and a splash if Lime juice!


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## Waller52 (Jun 17, 2015)

ltharveyd said:


> We've been here in Mexico for three weeks and are enjoying new foods whenever we can. I stopped at a roadside produce truck today and bought some corn. It's light in color, with much larger kernels than back in the states, a lot of taper from bottom to top. I boiled for about 10 minutes and it was very tough and chewy. Do I need to cook it longer? Any tips appreciated as the flavor was awesome! Thanks.


We call this "field corn" as it is used primarily for animal feed.


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## Cristobal (Nov 25, 2014)

Waller52 said:


> We call this "field corn" as it is used primarily for animal feed.


No it isn't field corn. Most of the corn planted in Mexico is for human consumption. White corn, and there are countless varieties, is what is planted and used for human consumption. More than 95% of the corn harvested here is white corn. Yellow corn for animal feed makes up less than 95% of the total harvest.

Among the white corn varieties, most are for tortillas, there are other varieties such as maiz pozolero, some are for esquites or elotes etc.


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## Playaboy (Apr 11, 2014)

There are hundred of different types of corn. What we ate NOB was sweet (super sweet) corn on the cob. There is very little of this type of hybrid grown in Mexico. Most of the sweet corn that is grown comes from Sinoloa and is exported to the USA during the winter months when it is out of season in the States.


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## Bobbyb (Mar 9, 2014)

Sonora does have some sweet corn. The quality is about grade D but it is better than nothing. Sometimes I will even buy frozen Green Giant cobs from Costco. None of the markets have sweet corn. I do find it on some of the veggie trucks.


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

But what about tomatoes?

When I first came to Mexico eons ago, the tomatoes were a revelation, so sweet and juicy. It was one of the reasons I always liked to return.

I started worrying when Mexican tomatoes began to take over the U.S. market, at least on the east coast. My fears were realized when I returned. Whether I buy tomatoes in a supermarket or a tiangus, they have little juice and no sweetness. On both the round tomatoes and what we call Roma, the oblongs, the skins on both are so tough, I have to use a serrated knife and press hard. So disappointing.

Any place left in D. F.? In the Republic? I might move there. Not all Western technology is an advance for human civilization.


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## Anonimo (Apr 8, 2012)

*A Tomato Worth Seeking*

We have enjoyed tomates criollos, also known as tomates riñones, when we can find them. We first had them from street stands near the mercado de campesinos in Zihuatanejo, and a couple of years later, even better specimens in the Mercado de La Merced, in Oaxaca.









*Oaxacan tomates criollos. (The tomatoes on the right)*


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

All corn in this area is yellow. I never see white


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## xolo (May 25, 2014)

I remember the pile of corn outside of my father-in-law's house. _El pinto, amarillo, azul_, but no _blanco_. And in that part of Mexico they were called _jitomates_, which I think is truer to the indigenous word.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

más chueco que la fayuca said:


> . . . And in that part of Mexico they were called _jitomates_, which I think is truer to the indigenous word.


I believe they are called "jitomates" in most of the country. However, the Nahuatl word is "tómatl".

According to the _Diccionario de Aztequismos_ by Luis Cabrera, "jitomate" refers specifically to red tomatoes.


Just found this etymology in the dictionary of the Real Academia Española:


*jitomate.*

(Del nahua xictli, ombligo, y tomatl, tomate).

1. m. Méx. tomate (‖ fruto de la tomatera).


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> I believe they are called "jitomates" in most of the country. However, the Nahuatl word is "tómatl".
> 
> According to the _Diccionario de Aztequismos_ by Luis Cabrera, "jitomate" refers specifically to red tomatoes.
> 
> ...


And at least in Morelos "tomates" are the green tomatoes in a husk, what I would call "tomatillos" NOB or "miltomate" in Guatemala.

(In Central America the red tomato is just known as "tomate" - I have to remind myself to use jitomate in Mexico.)


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

ojosazules11 said:


> And at least in Morelos "tomates" are the green tomatoes in a husk, what I would call "tomatillos" NOB or "miltomate" in Guatemala.
> 
> (In Central America the red tomato is just known as "tomate" - I have to remind myself to use jitomate in Mexico.)



The little green tomato-like fruits are called "tomatillo" in Mexico, at least in Mexico City.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

In Chiapas the red tomatoes are tomate or chichol.


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## Cristobal (Nov 25, 2014)

Isla Verde said:


> The little green tomato-like fruits are called "tomatillo" in Mexico, at least in Mexico City.


They are rarely called tomatillo in Jalisco. Here in Jalisco they are usually called tomate. Miltomate or tomate milpero are a smaller tomate that are grown among the cornfields. Almost like a wild tomate.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

Cristobal said:


> They are rarely called tomatillo in Jalisco. Here in Jalisco they are usually called tomate. Miltomate or tomate milpero are a smaller tomate that are grown among the cornfields. Almost like a wild tomate.


I had never heard the phrase "tomate milpero" before, but the word makes sense if it grows among the corn stalks in the _milpa_.  I wonder if that is the origin of the word _miltomate_ as well. Interestingly, in terms of the miltomate being different from the tomatillo, it seems this is true in Mexico, but in Guatemala _miltomate_ is a tomatillo. i found an academic paper from the Faculty of Agronomy of the Unversidad de San Carlos which refers to the _miltomate_ as _Physalis philadelphica_, which is the same as the tomatillo. 

In terms of "tomatillo", I find people in our town know what I am referring to when I use the word, but I hear "tomate" used more often for the green ones. It would be interesting to hear from different regions of the country, to see where tomatillo is used more commonly vs. tomate for the green ones.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

In Oaxaca or at least in Teotitlan del Valle red tomato is a jitomate and a green one is a tomate
in Chiapas a red tomato is a tomate and a green one is a tomate verde


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> In Oaxaca or at least in Teotitlan del Valle red tomato is a jitomate and a green one is a tomate
> in Chiapas a red tomato is a tomate and a green one is a tomate verde


So when in doubt which vegetable you want, just point!


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## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

Isla Verde said:


> So when in doubt which vegetable you want, just point!


At Comercial Mexicana in Zihuatanejo, what we just call "tomatoes" NOB are called "bolas". Jitomates are what we call Romas, and the little green ones with the onion-like wrappings are tomatillos.


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