Fat Red Hominy

Mohawk Red Corn, sometimes called Mohawk Red Bread Corn, is one of the rarest and oldest corn varieties still in existence. In 2016,Rowen White, a renowned seed keeper, farmer, educator, and member of Mohawk Akwesasne tribal community brought the last known cob of Mohawk Red to the Native American Seed Sanctuary in the Hudson Valley where it was grown in hopes that it could be not only saved from extinction but rematriated to its ancestral land. In the Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) tradition, Corn Mother is a female spirit and all seeds belong to her. Corn was so much more than food, it was linked to traditions and rites of passage central to the community. The Mohawk Red was used to create ceremonial wedding cornbread. Today there are just a handful of small farms growing this special corn.

Mohawk chef, Dave Smoke McCluskey crafts hardwood ash washed hominy from this rare, ancestral corn in small batches to create his Fat Red Hominy. It's hard not to instantly think of the best Pozole you've ever had when you open the bag. The aroma is simply incredible. Chef Dave uses the techniques of his ancestors and the instincts of a chef in his unique Nixtamalization process which makes the hominy not only  more nutritious, it creates an intense corn flavor with a whisper of smoke. 

ABOUT CORN MAFIA

Once upon a pandemic a Mohawk chef found a new calling and the results are irresistible. Chef Dave Smoke McCluskey, founder of Corn Mafia closed his restaurant to pursue his passion for the most important of all indigenous ingredients, corn. These corns or O:nenhste as they say in Mohawk, are sourced from landrace, Indigenous farmed or organic sources.

He fire roasts his hominy after washing it to give it a signature taste of the past. Some people think Indigenous foods are or were bland. These products are meant to act as a foil to such unadventurous thoughts. What’s old is new, what’s old will never leave us.