My grandmother used to eat maize meal in Ireland that was also called Indian Meal. She called it Inga meal. I wonder if anyone else knows about someone calling it this. I don't know how she would have gotten Inga from Indian. I later learned that the Irish language tended to use G's where C's are now and am wondering if she meant Inca (an Indian tribe) by Inga. Maybe the Inca were the only Indian tribe she was familiar with? Did many rural Irish people of the early 20th century know about Inca Indians, perhaps because the potato came from the Incas? The only Indian people I found connected to maize meal is the Choctaw (http://www.feastorfamine.ie/?p=296).

Since maize meal is often used in Mexican cooking, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Inca also used it. Certainly the Aztecs did: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization

_________________
賢いふくろぐま
Seans Eile - free software to help you practice your Irish
Scéala na Wombait - Muddle-headed Memes and Musings

Maize (which we in the US call corn) was grown by Indians all over North America, at least from Central America all the way to the east coast of the US and Canada (I don't know how much it was used in South America), and the first English settlers in Massachusetts were taught to grow it very early on (according to one of our national founding stories, by an Indian named Squanto). Potatoes did come from the Andes, but I don't think maize was as common there, and I've never heard it associated with the Incas. I think maize originated in Mexico, and they still have a huge number of varieties of it, in many colors (red, blue, yellow, black, and all sorts of hues in between).

In the early years, at least in some places in the US, maize was called "Indian corn" (like the older Irish term arbhar indiach), so that might be how the name got to Ireland. Since English speakers in the British Isles used (or still use?) the word "corn" generically, to mean what North Americans call "grain" or "cereal" crops, I think "Indian corn" was originally a way to differentiate maize form other crops. The term "maize" is not used much in the US, and many people would not even understand it. I think the term "Indian corn" has also pretty much died out, but it might still be used in some places.

I read somewhere that maize/corn meal was first widely introduced to Ireland in the famine years, as emergency rations to feed the poor. It apparently wasn't very popular, but kept some people alive. Maybe the crop was already there, but had not previously been used to feed people, because I think corn was for a long time considered fit only for animals in some parts of Europe.

When I was a kid I spent several summers in France studying French at language programs for foreigners which were conducted at some of the universities during the summer. We used to eat in the university dining hall and one summer there were fields of maize growing nearby, and I asked a teacher once why we never had any maize/corn in the dining hall. He told us it was not for human consumption and was fed only to animals in France. I don't know whether the French only had what is called "pig corn" in some parts of the US, and hadn't started growing sweet or "eating" corn, but in any case it seemed strange at the time, because people in North America eat quite a lot of it. The Italians certainly had polenta already, but I guess food like that hadn't made its way to France yet. When I lived in Germany years later, they had corn on the cob, but it was a relatively new food to them and not widely available.

_________________
I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

What I called "Indian corn" growing up was the multicolored ornamental corn (maize)...we didn't eat it, but had it around during Thanksgiving for decoration.

Given wider usage, I'm guessing that "inga" is just a corruption of "Indian," or perhaps the more colloquial "injun."

Redwolf

I can see getting injun from Indian, but inga? I guess it will remain a mystery for now.

What age would she have been when she started eating it? If it was something she got used to as a young child, she might have adopted a pet-name for it that she never grew out of using.

_________________
Ag lorg cómhra as Gaeilge? Bígí linn - http://www.foramnagaeilge.com

In Texas we have two kinds of corn that we eat, sweet corn and field corn. I think what CaoimhinSF was calling "pig corn" is what we call 'field corn'. 1) We use it to roast over a fire to eat with butter and salt, 2) we grind it for cornmeal to make corn bread and or tortillas. Field corn is yellow or white in color. I love it. It is not sweet at all.

Sweet corn is smaller kernals and is eaten fresh only for a couple of weeks each year. When I grow it here on the farm for our own use, we have to sometimes pick it all night because the sugar is 'coming' into it and does so over a very brief time period. We cut it off of the cob and my wife freezes it in baggies to eat throughout the year.

Indian Corn to us is what Audrey said. It is colorful corn with husks left on it for decorative purposes. I spent some time with the Navajo a few years ago, and they gave me a large bag of blue corn that I have in a freezer. They eat it like we eat field corn or sweet corn. I will try growing it one of these days, and I guess we will call it "Navajo Corn". When I am in Ireland and am questioned about corn (I have been) I distinguish it by calling it "indian corn". For me "maize" is a totally distinct headed grain like sorghum.

Corn was grown in Meso-America and in South America. There were many gods associated with it as it was a staple of life. When we lived in Chile the corn was very very crude looking and ancient. It was like our field corn. I speak spanish and there are many different words for corn in different settings. For example: a 'milpa' is a a field of corn standing with the ears almost ready to be picked. The Spanish word used in Mexico is "maiz" In South America we called it "choclo". I looked up the word in Mayan and it is " xi-im ". Maybe we should have just called it what they did.

"Maize" is the most commonly used word for what we call corn (both sweet and field corn) outside of the U.S. and Canada. Even in the international agricultural stations, they refer to it as "maize."

Blue corn is quite commonly used here in tortillas and such.

Whatever you call it, I just love it! When we were in Colombia we had arepas con choclo from a little stand up in the mountains (filled with fresh farm cheese and butter...yum!). I just learned there's a Venezuelan arepas place in San Francisco called Pica Pica...can't wait to try it!

http://www.picapica.com/

Redwolf

I happened upon this -- it turns out some of the Inca call themselves "Inga" and speak a dialect called Inga Kichwa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inga_people

I don't think grandma knew that, though, but it's a pretty neat coincidence.

That sounds very plausible to me.

I think at the time of the Famine, and possibly the War, maize would've been imported. I don't think we have a hot enough climate for it- but I don't know that for sure. The traditional corn crops in Ireland are wheat, barley, and oats.


I doubt if rural poor largely uneducated people would've heard of the Inca.


Possibly the Choctaw alright because of their generous donation at a time when they themselves were suffering.

_________________
___________________________________________________________

It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________