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What the heck is ... huitlacoche?
 In
Mexico, Huitlacoche
(Kweet-lah-KOH-chay) is a delicacy to be savored. At Tapino, it is a inky
black sauce that is lovingly spread on the Duck confit tostadas, served
with refried beluga lentils and queso fresca (fresh cheese), in one of
our more popular small plates. Huitlacoche, often spelled “Cuitlacoche”
is also, euphemistically called, maize mushroom, Mexican truffle, Aztec
caviar, Mexican caviar, or corn mushroom. But, those cute names are lies!
Cuitlacoche is really a grayish black parasitic fungus that is scientifically
named "Ustilago maydis" and grows naturally on ears of sweet
corn. Huitlacoche is not exclusive to Mexico. It has been eaten by almost
all of the corn-growing native American Indians at least as far back as
the Aztecs and Toltecs. The Zuni Indians call the corn fungus “corn-soot”
and say it symbolizes the "generation of life". Hopi call it
“nanha” and the Cochiti call it “wesa”. These
tribes revere its delicate taste and powerful life-giving properties.
The Aztecs believed that huitlacoche gave them special powers and was
thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac. It has a flavor described as mushroom-like, sweet,
savory, woody, and earthy. The taste is a cross between a mild mushroom
and fresh corn. That is about as far as I can go with a description of
Huitlacoche without grossing out the average person. Like all delicacies,
Huitlacoche walks the fine line between the repulsive and the exquisite.
It shares a common trait with raw oysters and blue cheese – It took
either a very adventuresome or very, very hungry person to ever eat the
first bite! In the United States, Its common English name is “corn
smut,” which helps to explain why it has never quite caught on north
of the Rio Grande. American farmers call it "smut" and "devil's
corn" and consider  it
a disease to be eradicated. Even more disgustingly, its original Aztec
name “Huitlacoche” is compounded from two Nahuatl (the native
language of the Aztec) words; "Huitlatl", and "coche".
When translated literally into English, Huitlatl means “excrement”.
And, Coche means either “Raven” or “black”. So,
when translated you either get “Raven poop” or “black
crap”! Either way you go with it, the name is a pretty fair description
of what Huitlacoche-in-a-can looks like. The fresh stuff doesn’t
look much better either.
Corn
smut is a disease of corn caused by the pathogenic plant fungus Ustilago
maydis. Although it can infect any part of the plant it usually enters
the ovaries and replaces the normal kernels of corn on the cobs with large
distorted tumors analogous to mushrooms. Infected kernels grow large and
oddly shaped, turning silvery grey o r
black as they fill with spores, producing silvery, swollen, pebble like
kernels. These tumors, or "galls", are made up of much-enlarged
cells of the infected plant, fungal threads, and blue-black spores. When
mature, the spores give the cob a burned, scorched appearance. In fact,
the name Ustilago comes from the Latin word ustilare (to burn). To call
Huitlacoche a “mushroom” is misleading, because it makes you
think of something that grows independently on the cob. Instead, Huitlacoche
is a spore that grows within the individual kernels, distending them,
and disfiguring the ear. Regular mushrooms are the “fruiting body”
of their respective fungal specie. Huitlacoche has no fruiting body. It
merely commandeers the corn kernel for that purpose. For culinary use,
the huitlacoche galls are harvested while still immature. These galls,
gathered two to three weeks after an ear of corn is infected, at about
the time the ear is at the “fresh roasting ear”  stage,
still retain moisture and have a somewhat soft spongy texture. Fully mature
galls are powdery dry and almost entirely spore-filled. A single gall
can contain 200 billion spores. If left to mature, the galls eventually
explode, releasing a cloud of spores that can blow in the wind for miles
before landing in the dirt somewhere. They can remain viable in the soil
for up to three years. Spores are very hardy little devils and just lie
there in the ground, waiting to attack some poor defenseless little corn
plant during the next growing season. Therefore, commercial corn farmers
in the US will not tolerate huitlacoche in or near fields that will be
used to produce any kind of corn the following season.
Today in Mexico the product is actually seasonally cultivated, providing
an ample supply to be eaten fresh, with the excess then frozen or canned.
Historically, Aztecs purposely inoculated corn with the spores by scratching
their corn plants at the soil level with a stone knife—thereby allowing
the soil/water-borne spores easy entrance into the plant. Today, growers
inoculate the corn plant with the fungus by squirting water, containing
spores, onto the emerging “silks” of individual ears of corn.
Using this technique, the infection rate is almost 100%. In modern Central
Mexico, ‘blighted’ ears sell for 20 to 50 times what ‘healthy’
ears of corn sell for. Huitlacoche is a highly seasonal and perishable
food; it is harvested when the maize is ripe and sold on the ear. As with
most foods, huitlacoche is best when fresh, which means during the rainy
season or summer months in Central Mexico. It has been reported that four
to five hundred tons of fresh huitlacoche are sold in the markets in Mexico City and surrounding towns, while another 100
tons are canned for the North American gourmet market. While the product
is not easy to find in the U.S. most typically it can be purchased canned.
In Mexican cooking, huitlacoche is cut from the ear along with the maize
kernels and the spongy nubs are cooked with other strongly flavored ingredients
such as chile and garlic. Over heat, the huitlacoche leaks an inky liquid,
turning the mixture black, and gradually cooks down to a puree. It can
also be sautéed in butter or oil and served in quesadillas, tacos
and soup. It transforms stews, tamales, and quesadillas with a rich, earthy,
and pungent flavor. The delicious flavor of these traditional dishes has
inspired chefs to develop gourmet recipes for huitlacoche. In international
cooking, huitlacoche tends to be used in sauces much like a mushroom,
and indeed some chefs combine it with other mushrooms. It is superb as
a sauce over meat and fish, and combines well with cheese, particularly
the fresh cheeses used in Mexican cuisine.
The fungus has had difficulty entering into the American and European
diets as most farmers see it as a disease. Huitlacoche (corn smut) feeds
off the corn plant and decreases the yield. Smuts are a class of fungi
that are parasitic on flowering plants and form black dusty spore masses
that resemble soot or smut. A farmer in the U.S. who spots this on his
crop will move heaven and earth to get rid of it. Usually smut-infected
crops are destroyed. The USDA has spent a considerable amount of time
and money over the years, trying to eradicate huitlacoche in the United
States. Extensive research has been devoted to controlling it through chemicals and production practices.
However, breeding for plant resistance has proved the most effective means
of control. Occurrence is higher among sweet and popcorn varieties than
dent corn, with rates in sweet corn as high as 20 percent in some areas,
depending upon corn variety and weather.
You can buy canned huitlacoche in the U.S. in Mexican groceries or in
gourmet specialty stores. But, fresh huitlacoche is hard to come by and
very expensive. For over a hundred years people have been trying to prove
that huitlacoche is bad for you. After thousands of research hours a nd
hundreds of tests, all that the scientists have been able to prove is
that huitlacoche is, by far, the ugliest substance on earth ever to be
considered a food. But, It has no ill-health properties. If you are not
brave enough to open your own can of huitlacoche and cook with it, stop
by Tapino and take a little taste of it on the duck confit tostadas. Go
ahead! check it out! We think you’ll like it. As a minimum, it will
be one of those things that you can at least point to with pride on your
"Been there…done that!" list.
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