How to Make Your Own Cornmeal and Ways to Use It

Making cornmeal at home is a lot easier than you might think. Whether you are looking to use cornmeal right away, or preserve some for food storage, it can be done in a few simple steps. 

I learned this technique at The Wonder Mill Company who kindly hosted some bloggers for a training on grinding grains. As I test more grains, I will be adding new articles too! 

This article will focus on how to grind popcorn or dried corn kernels into cornmeal. 

How is cornmeal made?

Cornmeal is made by grinding dried corn kernels in a blender or mill. 

I’m using a Wondermill Electric Grain Mill Grinder (affiliate link) for this tutorial.

What kind of corn is best for cornmeal

While field corn is generally used to make cornmeal, any type of corn that is properly dried can be ground into cornmeal.

Each corn type will bring different flavors and texture to your cornmeal. 

In this tutorial I will grind sweet corn and popcorn. Dehydrated sweet corn gave a great bright yellow color while the popcorn was a pale yellow.

How to Make Cornmeal

1. Read directions for your mill to properly set it up
2. Pour in amount of dehydrated corn or popcorn that you need. 
3. Turn on and let run until corn turns into expected cornmeal form

I found that dehydrated sweet corn was a 1:1 ratio of corn to cornmeal. Popcorn was a little higher of a ratio, about 1:1.25.

Below shows how much cornmeal I got from an almost full ball jar of kernels. 

10 Ways to Use Cornmeal

1. Cornbread – A classic use for cornmeal, often baked with various mix-ins like cheese or jalapeños.
2. Cornmeal Pancakes – Combine cornmeal with milk and eggs to create delicious pancakes. I did a special recipe for Wondermill for “Johnny Cakes” that your family might love! 
3. Polenta – Cook cornmeal with water or broth to make a creamy polenta dish.
4. Cornmeal Muffins – Bake muffins using cornmeal for a unique texture and flavor.
5. Hush Puppies – Deep-fried cornmeal balls often served as a side dish.
6. Cornmeal Dumplings – Add cornmeal to dumpling mixtures for soups or stews.
7. Fried Corn Cakes – Also known as johnnycakes, these are made by frying a cornmeal batter.
8. Corn Casserole – Mix cornmeal with corn, cream, and other ingredients for a baked casserole.
9. Breading for Meat or Vegetables – Use cornmeal as a coating for frying or baking.
10. Fish Breading – Coat fish fillets in cornmeal before frying for a crispy texture.

What types of corn are there?

While there are tons of varieties of corn out on the market, I’m going to stick to the most commonly used.

• Field or Dent is a heartier type of corn that has a ‘dent’ in it when it reaches maturity. It’s used generally to feed livestock, make corn syrup, and is the number one type of corn grown in America. 
• Sweet Corn is picked early in it’s maturation so that it’s still in a milky stage. It’s a vegetable at this point instead of being dried and considered a grain. 
• Popcorn has a great mushy/starchy inside but a hard shell. When it encounters enough heat, the insides steam and then explode!
• Hominy is a white corn that has been soaked in an alkali solution to create nixtamal. It is course ground to make grits, or more finely ground for masa, the flour used to make tortillas.

Why not just buy cornmeal?

When buying commercially ground cornmeal at the store, much of it is de-germinated, meaning the rich germ from the grain is missing. This reduces the nutritional value of store bought cornmeal, but increases the shelf life.

The whole grain that you grind yourself contains all of the nutrients from the grain and you can grind as little or as much as you need.

You can purchase commercially ground cornmeal that is still a whole grain, like Bob’s Red Mill Whole Ground Cornmeal. This particular cornmeal is also non-GMO if that’s an issue for you.