Shoepeg corn is a cultivar of white sweetcorn valued for its sweetness. It is characterized by small, narrow kernels tightly and unevenly packed on the cob. The corn has a sweet, mild flavor. The only variety of shoepeg corn available today is Country Gentleman.
Shoepeg corn is popular in some regions of the United States, particularly in the South. An early promoter of canned shoepeg corn was Malcolm Mitchell of Maryland — his Mitchell's Shoepeg Sweet Corn is a brand still available today, although its original center of production was transformed into Aberdeen Proving Ground soon after the U.S. declared war on the Central Powers in April 1917.
The name "shoepeg corn" derives from a shoemaking term used during the 19th century. Shoepeg corn kernels resemble the wooden pegs used to attach soles to the upper part of shoes.
Shoepeg corn is a common ingredient in salads and corn dishes throughout the Southern United States, but is relatively unknown in other areas of the country. It is on rare occasions available fresh in some areas, but it is most often canned. Shoepeg corn is also the best variety of corn for Kokanee Salmon bait.
Famous quotes containing the word corn:
“Every New Englander might easily raise all his own breadstuffs in this land of rye and Indian corn, and not depend on distant and fluctuating markets for them. Yet so far are we from simplicity and independence that, in Concord, fresh and sweet meal is rarely sold in the shops, and hominy and corn in a still coarser form are hardly used by any.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)