Grain
Dent Corn
A tier
Dent corn shows a dimple in each dried kernel where soft starch shrinks—the workhorse of US field maize for feed, cornstarch, syrup, and much industrial milling. Not sweet when mature; flavour is cornmeal-deep after grinding. Huge yellow dents dominate commodity agriculture from the Midwest outward. Dry and mill for meal, grits precursors, and hominy after nixtamal. Fresh green dent stages can be roasted in some traditions, but supermarket sweetcorn it is not. Identify by the characteristic kernel dent when dry on the cob or in the bin.
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Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
Grading systems
Grades are placed along a shared scale so systems can be compared side by side.
History
American farmers selected dent types that thrived in Midwest soils.
Hybrid dent corn revolutionised yields and standardised commodity maize.
Dent-based wet milling scaled cornstarch and sweetener industries.
Global feed and ethanol demand kept dent corn the volume king of maize.