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If you're a friend of mine, I'm sorry, but I'm about to spoil your Christmas present. You're getting my homemade corncob wine. Now get that look off your face -- it's actually pretty darned tasty, and if you don't believe me, at least trust the palates of James Beard Award winning cookbook authors and Lowcountry culinary ambassadors Matt and Ted Lee. I nabbed this method from The Lee Bros. Southern Cooking, and thought the first batch turned out so well, it was worthy of a second gallon's brewing a few weeks later.
I sliced the top of a clean one-gallon water jug, leaving a swath of uncut plastic to act as a hinge on the handled side, and an opening large enough to admit a corncob. Then I cut the kernels from eight ears of fresh, fulsome Scoharie County corn and set them aside to pickle with turmeric and mace (yup - another Lee Bros. recipe). I packed the cobs into the jug, and in a separate bowl, dissolved one teaspoon of sugar in two tablespoons warm water, gently stirred in a packet of yeast, and let it sit for a few minutes.
I boiled three quarts of water in a stockpot and dissolved two cups of sugar once I'd removed it from the heat. Once it was cool enough to touch, I poured the water over the cobs until it was about half an inch from the jug's rim, and added the yeast. Then I tucked the whole mess away in a pantry, visiting it every once in a while to see if it was still chattering at me.
The popping stopped after about two weeks, and I decanted the jug's contents into a pitcher, then strained it through a fine sieve to remove any stray bits of hull. It smelled heady -- of yeast and corn and summer, and that has not lessened over time. Poured into Ball jars and left to sit quietly in the fridge while the yeast settled at the bottom, the wine's flavor mellowed to a slightly honky-tonk Riesling, with subtle, sweet notes of the harvest from which it came.
And aw shucks, does it go down smoothly.
Visit mattleeandtedlee.com to learn more about the book.
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11-28-2008 @11:01PM Mike said... This is called Moonshine.
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11-28-2008 @11:28PM Kat Kinsman said... If I had distilled it, I'd totally agree, but I don't think this stuff'll have the revenuers on my tail.
Though now I have something to aspire to.
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11-29-2008 @1:06AM Poppin' Fresh said... It was popping? Chattering at you? Do explain, please! Enquiring minds want to know!
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11-30-2008 @10:44AM christopher said... so you just fermented in the open gallon jug with no air lock or anything? I think I'll give this a whirl next corn season - thanks.
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11-30-2008 @10:49AM Joshua said... This is not moonshine, moonshine is a distilled spirit that is illegal to produce without a license. This wine is legal to produce. American citizens are allowed to produce up to 100 gallons of home-fermented beverage (beer, wine, cider, etc) per person per year.
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11-30-2008 @1:03PM Kat Kinsman said... Yup - no air lock. I did wrap it loosely in plastic to keep curious insects out, but left it with some ventilation, in a clean pantry. Very, very low-tech, but the result is distinctive.
I used some to deglaze a pan a couple of nights ago, and the reduction sauce, over pork, with the pickled corn that I'd made from the cut-off kernels was out of this world.
One of the writers of the recipe, Matt Lee, told me that he's worked up a much more sophisticated set-up at home now -- not moonshining, still, but more like a beer-brewing process.
My next couple of objectives -- making corncob wine jelly, and growing my own corn for next summer. I actually managed to grow some on a black tar rooftop in Brooklyn a few years ago, so fingers crossed.
If anyone has any home fermentation advice or resources to which you could point me, I'd be most grateful.
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12-01-2008 @4:30PM Mario said... what yeast did you use brewers yeast or just bread yeast ?
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12-01-2008 @1:02PM Kat Kinsman said... Regular old baking yeast did the trick.
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12-02-2008 @7:38AM JMForester said... Kat- anything you want to know about fermenting, brewing, and such, just get in touch.
-JMF-
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