Corn flour and polenta
Finely ground, the corn flour is widely used in the production of polenta; based on the grinding of the corn, flours with different grain sizes are obtained, which is a relevant factor for the result of the final product.
Despite being the main ingredient in the production of polenta, it should not be forgotten that cornmeal is also used for the preparation of flans, Mexican tortillas, crèpes, pasta, desserts and many other culinary products.
Corn Overview
In botany, maize is known as Zea maize : a herbaceous plant belonging to the Graminaceae family, native to Central America and currently widespread and cultivated a little all over the world. The botanical importance is attributed to the stigmas, which hang outside the bracts forming a sort of beard. Few are aware of the fact that the common "panicle" is actually an ear: more precisely, the male inflorescences constitute a terminal panicle, while the female ones (in the same plant) form an ear, surrounded by large bracts.
Corn, after rice and wheat, has won the record in human nutrition.
From the chemical point of view, essential oils are obtained from corn, flavonoids, phytosterols, mucilages, tannins, alkaloids and potassium salts.
Baked Nachos
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In the initial part of the article we mentioned that cornmeal has a different grain depending on the grinding: the grain size is important not only to characterize the final product, but also to establish cooking times. In fact, starting from a finely ground maize flour, a more velvety and creamy polenta is obtained: for cooking, it takes about 30 minutes. The finely ground maize flour is known as "fioretto", particularly suitable for polenta pasticciate, or as a "corn comic", with even finer grain, obtained by processing with cylinder mills.
On the other hand, when we consider coarse-grained maize flour (braised flour), it results in a rough and wrinkled polenta, which requires twice as much cooking time as the previous one. The term "bramata" owes its name to the rice husking process (shelling of paddy rice: in the case of corn, husking is the operation prior to grinding).
There are also precooked corn flours (commercially known as "instant flours"), whose cooking times are decidedly lower precisely because they are subjected to preliminary steam cooking.
On the market there is a particular mixture of flour - known as taragna - consisting of maize flour and buckwheat flour: the result is a darker and raw polenta, compared to the traditional one of corn only. Polenta taragna is a typical culinary dish of Valtellina, Bergamo and Brescia.
Advantages and disadvantages
With cornmeal products are obtained that are certainly very palatable and tasty: not to forget, however, that polenta, obtained from corn, has long been considered the food of the poor, since it is extremely satiating and very cheap. Unfortunately, in the past especially, a polenta-based diet was a big problem for the health of those people who took it in excess, practically feeding only this. Despite maize flour, then transformed into polenta, is a fairly caloric food (provides 362 Kcal per 100 grams of product), it is insufficient from a qualitative-nutritional point of view: polenta is in fact poor in proteins and above all in group vitamins B. According to the hypotheses formulated by some authors, it seems that corn flour contains an anti-vitamin PP: not surprisingly, pellagra is a very frequent disease precisely in those populations that consume excessive quantities of polenta or maize flour in general .
Corn flour and celiac disease
As we know, celiac disease is the best known gluten intolerance. People with celiac disease can consume cornmeal-based foods, precisely because the cereal does not form gluten in contact with water: in fact, corn contains a low quantity of gliadin (gluten component protein), but it is rich in alanine and amino acids. leucine. Because of this particular composition, gluten in corn is not formed.
Summary
Corn flour: in short
| Corn flour: uses | Preparation of polenta, casseroles, tortillas, crèpes, pasta, desserts Corn, after rice and wheat, has won the record in human nutrition |
| Corn: main features |
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| Chemical components | Essential oils, flavonoids, phytosterols, mucilages, tannins, alkaloids and potassium salts. |
| Grain size of corn flour | The granulometry is important not only to characterize the final product, but also to establish the cooking times:
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| Corn flour: advantages |
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| Corn flour: disadvantages | Insufficient from a qualitative-nutritional point of view: polenta is low in protein and above all in group B vitamins Contains an anti-vitamin PP → pellagra (excessive and almost exclusive consumption of corn flour) |
