We Tried The Huitlacoche (Corn Smut) And It Was Fantastic

Chef Petrina Peart is not one to back down from a challenge.

The chef nearly beat Bobby Flay on Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” cooking competition, losing by just one vote to the world-renowned chef. She’s also made a name for herself in the Cowboy State — carnivore country — with her all-vegetarian meals that had even self-professed meat lovers coming back for more veggies.

So when Cowboy State Daily asked if she’d be willing to cook up some huitlacoche (pronounced wheat-la-KOH-chay) for a taste test, she didn’t just say yes, she said bring it on.

Peart was not in the least put off by huitlacoche’s unkempt, spoiled-rotten looks.

She’s heard of huitlacoche before, which actually goes by several names. Corn mushroom is common or, if one is trying to elevate this ingredient, a chef might call it a Mexican truffle or a corn truffle.

But to the farmer trying to grow a crop of corn, the name is the more pejorative corn smut. It’s a fungus, so the absolute ruin of his crop.

The disease grows from kernels in the corn, eventually taking over the entire cob. And it looks seriously unappetizing raw, in the wild.

It is, after all, a decaying, spoiled ear of corn that has twisting alien black spikes growing all over the place.

See a science experiment like that growing in the refrigerator, and it goes straight to the trash, breath held the whole time, so as not to inhale any noxious fumes.

Eat that?

No way. It would undoubtedly turn one into a fungus zombie just like on the HBO hit show, “The Last Of Us” where a fungus called cordyceps has taken over the planet and drives what’s left of civilization to to Jackson Hole.

But Peart didn’t flinch at all when asked what she could do with huitlacoche. She is aware much of the culinary world is embracing this increasingly popular ingredient, while in America, millions have been spent eradicating it.

Huitlacoche is common in Mexico, where the rainy season makes it an almost inevitable infection in fields of corn. In the last 10 years, chefs in many countries have discovered this culinary treasure and are clamoring for it.

America, however, has been much slower to catch on.

“I think I’m a very experimental chef, and I’m always trying to introduce new flavors to people,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I’ve been doing that for so long over the last few years that I think it’s just made me become more familiar with all the different flavor profiles and what will work together.”

Surprise! That’s Corn Fungus All Over Your Steak

For this challenge, Cowboy State Daily met with Chef Peart at Vintages in Cheyenne, a custom wine-blending operation that frequently hosts dinners put on by Peart.

These dinners are paired with wines blended for the meal she’s preparing. On this occasion, though, Peart was preparing a private dinner for a recently graduated doctor.

She didn’t tell the party ahead of time that huitlacoche would be on their menu.

“A lot of my clients do trust me in that way,” she explained. “They will let me decide what to prepare.”

They didn’t learn what was on the menu until they all sat down together for the dinner. They just knew it would be special, and that Chef Peart never disappoints.

Their first course was salmon sushi marinated in mango and yuzu, along with passion fruit, which provided both additional sweetness as well as the interesting, crunchy seeds. Passion fruit seeds have no real flavor, but they lent a surprise texture to the dish, which was nice.

Then came a vegetable salad with a dollop of garlic cream dressing hiding beneath a parmesan cheese crisp. The whole concoction was accented with a pinch of real gold flakes.

The star of the dinner — the main course — were steaks topped with huitlacoche served beside a tabbouleh salad prepared from puffed black rice and toasted pine nuts, for crunch. The salad was bound together with a moringa-chlorophyll pesto made from fresh herbs like cilantro and basil and sunflower seeds and pine nuts.

Winging It With Huitlacoche

Back in the kitchen, before the three-course meal was served, Cowboy State Daily learned that Peart had not even opened the jar of huitlacoche yet, purchased by Cowboy State Daily from Amazon. She had not practiced anything ahead of time at all.

She was 100% winging it.

Before opening the jar, she got everything ready for the steaks.

Fresh sprigs of rosemary followed by avocado oil went into the hot pan first. Avocado oil is a great ingredient for frying. It has a neutral flavor and a high smoke point.

As the scent of rosemary filled the kitchen, sprigs of thyme joined the sizzling hot pan to the sound of popping grease.

“It gets angry,” Peart said, laughing a little, and dancing away from the pan.

While the herbs were sizzling, Chef Peart finally opened the huitlacoche jar to give this new ingredient just a quick taste and confirm the idea she had in mind for it.

“It definitely has a mushroom texture,” she said. “This one has a tiny bit of, not spicy, but it’s a little tangy. A little citrusy that almost leans toward pickled.”

But not all the way pickled, she quickly added.

“I think it will be really delicious,” she said with a big smile. “Now I’m even more confident!”

She added five thick-cut steaks to her pan, letting them get a good sear on the bottom before turning them to brown and caramelize the other side.

Good quality butter was then added to the pan, to baste the steaks. That is a chef secret for the best steak flavor. Butter browns up nutty and delicious, and it enhances the caramelization of the steaks without affecting their natural flavor.

The steaks were quickly removed from the pan after basting with the browned butter to rest.

The herbs were also removed, to make way for the huitlacoche.

The corn truffles looked a bit like slimy black earthworms as they slid into the pan.

“I am treating this a little bit like I would truffles,” she said. “Well, I wouldn’t cook truffles, but I’m going to use it to top the steaks.”

The OMG Moment

After the huitlacoche was sizzling hot, Peart squeezed a little lime juice on them and turned off the heat, giving the whole thing a quick stir. Then she worked on plating each steak, turning each plate into an edible work of art.

The steaks went down on a smear of the maringo-chlorophyll pesto she’d used for the tabbouleh salad. Then a dollop of the salad was pressed into a ring mold so it would hold a nice circular shape beside the steak.

The final step was a generous scoop of shiny, black huitlacoche for each steak — including one prepared for Cowboy State Daily to try.

Peart carried her plates to the guests with a big smile and lots of confidence, only letting them know right before serving that the huitlacoche on top of their steaks was an experimental ingredient.

The diners agreed to let Cowboy State Daily watch them try huitlacoche for the first time.

The first bite went into one guest’s mouth, and what came out next were the words, “Oh my god.”

Followed quickly by another, “Oh my god,” and “I love it.”

As the other guests tried the dish, there were more exclamations to come.

“Oh Wow, this is a very good taste,” one said.

And another said, “I’ve never had anything quite like it.”

One of the diners was so impressed with the flavor she thanked Chef Peart for introducing the new ingredient to her.

Likewise, this Cowboy State Daily reporter can confirm, it was one of the most delicious steaks ever eaten in Wyoming. The huitlacoche did not take anything away from the experience. It had a texture somewhere between an onion and a mushroom, with the umami earthiness one would expect from any high-quality mushroom.

Asked if they would eat huitlacoche again, everyone enthusiastically confirmed they would.

There were no detractors in the room. The only thing on anyone’s mind at that point was slicing off another piece of the delicious steak, topped with some more of those Mexican truffles, corn smut, huitlacoche — whatever you call them, they are just as delicious.

Those who have an adventurous spirit are in for a treat with this ingredient, which is readily available on Amazon.

It can be treated much as one would any mushroom, in any dish where mushrooms would seem welcome.

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.