Huitlacoche, or Corn Smut

Huitlacoche is a parasitic fungus, Ustilago maydis, that attacks corn plants, and that has been eaten in Mexico and Central America since Aztec times. It infects various plant parts, including the kernels in the growing ear, and develops into irregular spongy masses or “galls” that are a combination of greatly enlarged plant cells, nutrient-absorbing fungal threads, and blue-black spores. Fully mature galls are dry, black spore bags. The optimum stage for harvest is two to three weeks after infection, when the galls on a single ear can weigh as much as a pound/500 gm and are about three-quarters black inside. When cooked, these immature galls develop a sweet, savory, woody flavor thanks to glucose, sotolon, and vanillin. In the United States, corn smut was simply a disease until the 1990s, when growing interest in Mexican food led some farmers to cultivate it intentionally.