Dry-milled Corn Foods: Grits, Cornmeal, Corn Flour

Most corn is prepared and eaten in ground form, and dry-milled products are ground directly from the stored grain, usually yellow dent corn, without any pretreatment. These days they’re generally refined to exclude the hull and germ, an innovation that dates from around 1900 and that made large-scale milling practical. The rarer whole-grain corn meal and flour, sometimes ground between stone wheels, are richer in fiber, flavor, and nutrients, but also stale rapidly thanks to the oils and related substances in the germ, which become oxidized on contact with air.