Corny

Church Corn Suppers
Iowa, New York & Connecticut, 1886-1888

Two corn cobs were walking along, and the first cob noticed that they were being followed by another cob. The first cob whispered to the second, “Don’t look now, but I think we are being followed by a stalker.” This type of corny joke may have made the rounds at the church corn suppers that were popular in the late 1880s.¹

Church suppers were commonplace occurrences during the nineteenth century, serving both as social gatherings and a way for ladies aid groups to raise money. Around 1886, church groups across the country began to use corn as a theme for their suppers. The short-lived fad seemingly came out of nowhere—it was not confined to the Corn Belt in the Midwest nor related to the harvest season.

The three menus below provide a comprehensive list of corn dishes that were prevalent at the time.² Although most of the dishes were actually made with corn, there were exceptions, such as Corned Beef, which was served at all three suppers. The ladies of the Congregational Church of Keokuk, Iowa called their dish “Corn Beef,” while those in West Hartford, Connecticut justified its inclusion by naming it Corn Fed Corned Beef.

Regional traditions and personal preferences influenced how the corn dishes were prepared. Green Corn and Popped Corn required minimal preparation, while other dishes entailed more effort. Hulled Corn—already described in 1890 as an “old-fashioned luxury" when prepared by the traditional process—was made by seeping corn in hot water and lye to loosen the hulls and remove the germs. The hulls were then soaked several times in fresh water to remove the lye, and finally boiled until soft.³ Hulled Corn was eaten with milk, or butter and sugar. It could also be broken or ground down to produce three similar dishes: Samp, Hominy, and Corn Mush.

There was Corn Bread, of course, as well as Corn Gems, made with equal parts cornmeal and flour, and cooked in the small pockets of a gem pan. Corn Johnny Cake was a simple flatbread made from cornmeal, water, salt and sometimes sugar or molasses. The same ingredients shaped into small oval cakes and baked or fried, like a hushpuppy, produced Corn Dodgers. Corn Balls, one-inch balls made with whole grains, were also fried. Corn Hoe Cakes, known as ashcakes or cornpone in the South, were originally baked on a hoe over a campfire in the fields.

Desserts with unappealing names such as Corn Starch Pudding, Corn Starch Blanc Mange, Corn Starch Cake and Corn Starch Pie probably tasted better than they sounded. Corn Baked Indian Pudding, made from cornmeal, milk, molasses, and spices, was a common dish throughout the century. Candy Corn would have made an easy addition to the menu, but the new confectionary made in Philadelphia was not yet widely distributed in the 1880s. Corn Coffee and Koffee were most likely plain coffee with silly names assigned for the occasion.

The corn fad did not last long. By the early 1890s church suppers were being promoted as “Old Tyme Suppers” with menus written in Old English. The new theme was probably sparked by the Centennial celebrations of 1889. Why corn had ever become the fashion remains a mystery.

Notes
1. Seed catalogs contained jokes and anecdotes among the product listings in the late nineteenth century. The genre came to be known among farmers as corn catalog jokes or corn jokes. The term “corny” was reportedly first used by jazz musicians and jazz writers in the late 1920s.
2. The menu from the Congressional Church of Keokuk, Iowa is a fragment, having separated at the fold with only the first half of the menu surviving.
3. Estelle Woods Wilcox, The New Practical Housekeeping: A Compilation of New, Choice and Carefully Tested Recipes (1890) provides the traditional method for "properly" preparing hulled corn. In the shorter process, corn was kiln-dried to separate the hull from the grain and then loosened and removed by machinery.