Dehydrator Corn Bread

Until you dry your own corn and grind it for meal, you have no idea how fragrant homemade cornmeal can be. It is a striking golden yellow and the meal actually smells like corn. Gone is the smell of a cardboard carton, the "aroma" of commercially prepared cornmeals. This bread is especially good with a bean or root vegetable soup. To dry corn, harvest it when the silk at the tip of the husks is brown. Remove the husks and silk, reserving it, if desired, as it too can be dried, then pulverize and use as a flavoring in soups or pasta dough. Cut any damaged kernels off the cobs. it is easier to cut cooked corn off the cob than uncooked; however, if you stand an uncooked cob on end and cut straight down on the kernels with a sharp knife, the kernels do come off. Begin the drying process as soon as possible after the corn has been picked, before the sugar in the kernels converts to starch. Steam-blanch the kernals for 3-5 minutes or water-blanch whole small ears for 7 minutes, medium ears for 9 minutes, large ears for 11. Recipe adapted from "Mary Bells' Complete Dehydrator Cookbook". Prep time does NOT include dehydrator drying time.