Pasta la feasta, baby: British use of the word "corn"

» CunningVixen - British use of the word "corn"

I have to back up a statement in this article that the word "corn" may be a generic grain reference, not a reference to maize.

British usage of the term "corn", especially in British farming contexts, almost never refers to maize if the writing is before 1950, and in British agricultural traditional materials. (For an example, check out the short stories of H.E. Bates, a Tolkien contemporary who also wrote fiction immortalizing a vision of the British countryside. His short story, "The Good Corn," refers to a field of waving wheat.) I'm living in New Zealand right now, the last bastition of boring British culinary traditions, and I can hardly find "cornmeal" based on corn in the supermarket, although I can find oats, barley, etc. It's just not a very British ingredient.

Based on this, I'd theorize that the lembas "corn" was almost 99% likely a form of wheat. A lembas recipe would probably be like less like Tostitos White Corn Cantina Dippers and more like some elevated Nilla Wafers. I'm sorry, but with Tolkien's descriptions, the brown outside and creamy inside that's how I visualized it!!!

-- posted by CunningVixen