Cornmeal

Cornmeal is a dry, ground product made from dried maize kernels sold in fine, medium, or coarse grinds and in yellow or white varieties. It tastes mildly sweet and toasty, with a pleasantly gritty crunch that crisps when fried; it thickens porridge-like when simmered. Cooks use it for cornbread, polenta, coatings for frying, and for dusting pizza peels to prevent sticking; typical retail forms include stone-ground whole-grain and degermed enriched cornmeal.\n\nMaize was first domesticated in Mesoamerica and became a staple across the Americas before spreading to Europe, Africa, and beyond after the Columbian exchange. Stone- and roller-milling practices developed regionally, yielding coarse meals for Italian polenta, Southern U.S. cornbreads, and stiff porridges like South African pap and Zimbabwean sadza.