Les Jones

Food & Drink > Huitlacoche, AKA Corn Smut or Mexican Corn Truffle

In comments on the corn maze post saraclark writes:

Hey, did you know that the weird corn picture is actually a food delicacy called huitlacotche(wheet-la-coat-chay)? It is prized in Mexican cooking and dates back to the Aztecs.It is almost like a truffle or other gourmet mushroom and there are lots of recipes for it.

My Dad has always just called it Corn Smut, a common fungal disease. This year several people asked if they could search his corn fields for this delicacy and they would pay him for every ear of corn they took. You just never know, do you?

Wikipedia has an entry, and Gourmet Sleuth has a page devoted to what it calls Mexican corn truffle.