Cornmeal

Let me tell you about cornmeal, and let's not confuse it with wheat flour, because it behaves nothing like it.

Corn is not wheat. It has no gluten, so cornmeal cannot build that elastic web that holds wheat dough together. This is why mamaliga and polenta are thick porridges, not dough — the starch grains swell and burst in hot water, thickening the liquid around them, but there is nothing to stretch or knead. Treat it like wheat flour and you get a crumbly, grainy mess instead of a smooth bake.

Choose cornmeal by look and smell, not by the bag's promises. Good cornmeal is dry and free-flowing, evenly coloured, with no clumps. If it smells flat, dusty, or faintly rancid, the oil in the germ has turned — leave it on the shelf.

Some people say cornmeal is just "yellow flour," interchangeable with wheat in any recipe. No! Without gluten, it cannot rise the same way or hold air. That misconception leads cooks straight to disappointment: a dense, cracked loaf, when they expected something light and airy. Respect what cornmeal is — a grain for porridge and crumb, not for stretch.