(whett-lah-KOH-chay) – Also called huitlacoche, corn mushroom, maize mushroom, Mexican truffle, and corn smut or smut corn. It is a costly and much-coveted corn fungus or parasite that occasionally balloons on sweet corn causing kernels swell to 10 times their normal size during the rainy season. It is very popular Mexican delicacy and considered a gourmet rage in the United States.It is often compared to caviar or truffles (not so much in terms of taste but cost and delicacy). Its earthy, smoke-like flavor is reminiscent of mushrooms. It is sold canned and frozen in gourmet markets. It’s used in a variety of dishes–typically appropriate for dishes that call for cooked mushrooms.
History:
The Aztecs are said to have prized cuitlacoche and the Hopi Indians thought it a delicacy and gathered it when young and tender. The black spores were referred to as “excrement of the gods.” Cuitlacoche became acceptable on elite tables in the 1950s when Jaime Saldar, a Mexican restaurant owner, created a preparation, in cres with bhamel sauce at his restaurant. Saldivar is said to have created a sensation when he combined a Mexican product with French crepes. By 1990s, the fungus had become known as the “Mexican truffle” and it formed the mainstay of the so-called “nueva cocina mexicana.”
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