American farmers have spent untold millions of dollars trying to eliminate corn smut, which is a fungal disease of corn.  Meanwhile, in Latin America people have been happily eating the corn smut.  And it turns out they were right!

Corn smut is properly known as Ustilago maydis, which infects the developing kernels of corn and transforms them into gigantic gray-black blobs, which look something like a brain made out of mushrooms.  In Latin America the resulting blobs are known as huitlacoche, and are used as a filling.  Corn tumors may not sound very delicious, but a lot of people swear by them!

Well it turns out that the joke's on us, because huitlacoche is incredibly nutritious!  And, if prepared properly (and from a fresh source, not canned) many people swear it's delicious as well.  

Somehow the huitlacoche fungus manages to synthesize vitamins and minerals which are not actually present in the corn that it infects.  Perhaps it is best not to dwell on how that happens, or why.

The Aztecs were the first to eat huitlacoche.  Today you can find it on the menu at many restaurants in Mexico, as a filling option along with beans, chicken, or beef.  Huitlacoche is usually purchased and used fresh, although you can buy it in canned form.

It is the canned form which I had heard of before.  Huitlacoche featured as a typically graphic entry in "Steve Don't Eat It," a regular feature where Steve eats something gross.  Steve described the smell of canned huitlacoche as being "like corn that forgot to wipe," although he begrudgingly admitted that "it doesn't taste as truly horrible as it looks."

But to be fair, can you imagine eating a can of crinkle cut pickled beets for the first time?  Canned vegetables are gross.  (I have a strange fondness for canned fruits, including those Harvest Spice flavored peach slices.)

Writing for The Atlantic, journalist Sara Lipka described the taste of huitlacoche as being "like rich earth and raw corn, like a wild mushroom that's been cut with a corny knife."

Aside from being the latest new taste sensation, what restaurant owner wouldn't want to put something called "corn smut" on the menu?  From an ecological perspective, eating corn smut is an unalloyed Good Thing.  

Farmers used to destroy crops that came down with a case of corn smut.  Not to mention dousing their crops with fungicide in an attempt to prevent it.  However, if a viable huitlacoche market opens up in North America, our farmers could quickly find themselves in the same position as South American farmers,  where huitlacoche sells for a lot more than the regular corn it feeds on.  

Corn smut comes into season when corn does, which means that in theory it's out there on the market right now.  Maybe you'll see some at the farmer's market!  Lipka recommends preparing it basically the same way you would prepare gourmet mushrooms.  Thinly sliced and sautéed in butter, it works well as the filling of a burrito, or in quesadillas.  

If you track some down, do let us know how it went!

Photo credit: Flickr/hexodus...