I am writing this essay in the hopes that it will prove to Tom Scandlyn, Howard Davis and Jim Reese that this old country boy’s tastes have gone to new heights. As a public service, I will try to save you a trip to your dictionary because the word “posole” is another upscale word for hominy. I suspect that those of us who were raised during the Hoover Depression may have had their fill of hominy. The fact that it is now called posole doesn’t mean that it tastes one bit better now than it did back then.
We try to buy groceries on Tuesdays and Fridays and, as a general fact, they are usually purchased from the Whole Foods Market. The Whole Foods Market was founded on the basis of serving organic food, which in my estimation is nothing more than a fraud. Seeds have to go into the ground and have to be fertilized with such things as cow manure or the droppings of chickens. For a store such as Whole Foods to advertise, as they did on score cards beside the main entrance as to the number of organic foods they were offering that day, is, as I said, a fraud. But nonetheless my wife Judy and I are generally pleased with the offerings of the Whole Foods Market here in Millburn. Basically, we are attracted to the fact that they have a fish counter that seems to offer unparalleled excellence.
The other day my wife Judy went to the soup counter and encountered a soup called posole. I must confess that I had no idea what in the world posole meant or contained, or whether its ingredients were healthy. When the posole arrived at our home, we examined its contents and found that its major ingredient was hominy.
As best I understand it, hominy is a kernel of corn with the seed removed. This renders it absolutely and totally tasteless. But it was used in my mother’s cooking, I suppose because it tended to fill up the stomachs of hungry children. And it probably did not cost much. In those days of 1933 to 1937, we were not eating many meals at The Four Seasons Restaurant. Also, it enabled my mother to say, “There are a lot of people in this town or around here who have nothing to eat.” The fact of the matter is that during those years, there were plenty of people who had very little to eat.
When my wife Judy picked up the story of hominy on the internet, it turns out that it was a dish that goes back to the days when the Indians ruled this country. Apparently they had perfected a means of removing the guts of the corn kernel. I will say this in defense of hominy. It is as close to nothing as you can get. That may not be a defense of hominy but more likely, it is probably an indictment of it.
Well, in any case, we ate the posole, whose major ingredient is hominy, and were none the worse for it. But I must say that the instant when my wife placed a bowl of posole or hominy soup in front of me, after 75 years the smell was instantly recognizable to me. I don’t contend that it smelled poorly but anything made with hominy in it has a distinct odor. In the instant case, I gobbled up the hominy with no enthusiasm whatsoever. That was the recollection of Depression days. But more than likely, the hominy was so tasteless that it recalled few other meals when the ingredients offered so little sustenance.
I started this essay as a means of instructing country boys such as Tom Scandlyn, Howard Davis and Jim Reese in my adventures into great foods. I thought that posole would baffle them but I am here to tell you that if any dish, regardless of its name, has hominy in it, it is probably not worth preparing. My mother was such a fan of hominy that its memory is ingrained in my senses. So I have given you fair warning. Stay away from hominy and from that fancy word of posole. It ain’t worth eating.
E. E. CARR
July 26, 2010
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Kevin’s commentary: I had no clue such a foodstuff existed. I suppose I should thank my mother and father for that. I wonder though if this will be one of the new hip miracle foods sometime. Like friggen “kale” — in the last two months everyone in San Francisco has developed a huge hardon for kale and I have no idea why, but it bothers me tremendously.