Shoepeg Corn Salad or Manna From the Heavens

If you have never tried shoepeg corn salad, then you have likely never truly explored the deep South. Gracing the table of every church potluck supper, family reunion, and holiday meal — shoepeg corn salad is as southern as cornbread dressing.

Shoepeg corn is a white sweetcorn with tight kernels that closely resemble the wooden pegs used in shoemaking (or so they thought in the 1800s). It can be grown in the garden, purchased in cans or frozen, and is ideal for southern-style salads, casseroles, and other dishes. Don’t tell my neighbors, but shoepeg corn hails from the Yankee state known as Maryland. Shhh!

You will need:

• 4 cups shoepeg corn
• 1 vine-ripened tomato
• 1/4 large red onion or several green onions
• several pickled jalapeño peppers, diced
• 1 heaping shot glass of mayonnaise (Want to make your own? Click here.)
• freshly ground black pepper

Make sure that the corn has been cooked and removed from the ear or just use three cans of the stuff. What I don’t know… I don’t know.

Would you look at that northern impostor just lovin’ life in my grandmother’s mixing bowl?

Choose your own adventure here. Add more or less jalapeños.

I just happened to have red onions on hand but you may use green onions, too. I love onions and am always glad when a visitor does not… more for me.

Yank out those seeds (or don’t) and dice a tomato from your local farmers market or your backyard or my backyard. Lock your doors if you come around here or I’ll stash tomatoes in your car. You have been warned.

There is more than one use for a shot glass, y’all.

Ah… the panacea, a.k.a. freshly ground black pepper. Be generous with this one.

Wrap that baby in cellophane (and go watch Fried Green Tomatoes… if you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m referring to and if you haven’t seen it: **wagging a press-on nail tipped finger** shame on you). Consume in a few hours or the next day. You’ll thank me later.