Maize is the domesticated variant of the four species of teosintes, which are its crop wild relatives. The two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and teosinte being a short, bushy plant. The difference between the two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes, called grassy tillers-1 (gt1, A0A317YEZ1) and teosinte branched-1 (tb1, Q93WI2). In 2004, John Doebley identified Balsas teosinte, Zea mays subsp. parviglumis, native to the Balsas River valley in Mexico's southwestern highlands, as the crop wild relative genetically most similar to modern maize. Maize pollen dated to 7,300 years ago from San Andres, Tabasco has been found on the Caribbean coast. A primitive corn was being grown in southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America 7,000 years ago.

Maize requires human intervention for its propagation. The kernels of its naturally-propagating teosinte ancestor fall off the cob on their own, while those of domesticated maize do not. All maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Maize spread from this region to the lowlands and over the Americas along two major paths. The centre of domestication was most likely the Balsas River valley of south-central Mexico. Maize reached highland Ecuador at least 8000 years ago. It reached lower Central America by 7600 years ago, and the valleys of the Colombian Andes between 7000 and 6000 years ago.

The earliest maize plants grew a single, small ear per plant. The Olmec and Maya cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica; they cooked, ground and processed it through nixtamalization. By 3000 years ago, maize was central to Olmec culture, including their calendar, language, and myths.

After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize, and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe. Spanish settlers much preferred wheat bread to maize. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for communion bread, since in Christian belief at that time only wheat could undergo transubstantiation and be transformed into the body of Christ.

Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. It was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbus's voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa, the Philippines and elsewhere. By the 17th century, it was a common peasant food in Southern Europe. By the 18th century, it was the chief food of the southern French and Italian peasantry, especially as polenta in Italy.

When maize was introduced into Western farming systems, it was welcomed for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever it had become a staple food. Indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali-water – made with ashes and lime – since at least 1200–1500 BC, creating the process of nixtamalization. They did this to liberate the corn hulls, but coincidentally it also liberated the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which caused pellagra. Once alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied, pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high-lysine maize and the promotion of a more balanced diet have contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists in food-poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize.

The name maize derives from the Spanish form maíz of the Taíno mahis. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus used the common name maize as the species epithet in Zea mays. The name maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as a common name because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region. Most countries primarily use the term maize, and the name corn is used mainly in the United States and a handful of other English-speaking countries. In countries that primarily use the term maize, the word corn may denote any cereal crop, varying geographically with the local staple, such as wheat in England and oats in Scotland or Ireland. The usage of corn for maize started as a shortening of "Indian corn" in 18th-century North America.

Maize is a tall annual grass with a single stem, ranging in height from 1.2 to 4m. The long narrow leaves arise from the nodes or joints, alternately on opposite sides on the stalk. Maize is monoecious, with separate male and female flowers on the same plant. At the top of the stem is the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers; their anthers release pollen, which is dispersed by wind. Like other pollen, it is an allergen, but most of it falls within a few meters of the tassel and the risk is largely restricted to farm workers. The female inflorescence, some way down the stem from the tassel, is first seen as a silk, a bundle of soft tubular hairs, one for the carpel in each female flower, which develops into a kernel (often called a seed. Botanically, as in all grasses, it is a fruit, fused with the seed coat to form a caryopsis) when it is pollinated. A whole female inflorescence develops into an ear or corncob, enveloped by multiple leafy layers or husks. The ear leaf is the leaf most closely associated with a particular developing ear. This leaf and those above it contribute over three quarters of the carbohydrate (starch) that fills the grain.

The grains are usually yellow or white in modern varieties; other varieties have orange, red, brown, blue, purple, or black grains. They are arranged in 8 to 32 rows around the cob; there can be up to 1200 grains on a large cob. Yellow maizes derive their colour from carotenoids; red maizes are coloured by anthocyanins and phlobaphenes; and orange and green varieties may contain combinations of these pigments.

Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2020, total world production was 1.16 billion tonnes, led by the United States with 31.0% of the total (table). China produced 22.4% of the global total.

Maize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) constitute a staple food in many regions of the world. Maize is used to produce the food ingredient cornstarch. Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener. Maize may be fermented to produce beer (common in Italy) and further distilled to produce Bourbon whiskey. Corn oil is extracted from the germ of the grain.

In prehistoric times, Mesoamerican women used a metate quern to grind maize into cornmeal. After ceramic vessels were invented the Olmec people began to cook maize together with beans, improving the nutritional value of the staple meal. Although maize naturally contains niacin, an important nutrient, it is not bioavailable without the process of nixtamalization. The Maya used nixtamal meal to make porridges and tamales. Maize is a staple of Mexican cuisine. Masa (nixtamal) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Central American food. It is the main ingredient of corn tortilla, tamales, atole and the dishes based on these. The corn smut fungus, known as huitlacoche, which grows on maize, is a Mexican delicacy.

Coarse maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, the mămăligă of Romania, to cornmeal mush in the US (or hominy grits in the Southern US) or the food called mieliepap in South Africa and sadza, nshima, ugali and other names in other parts of Africa. Introduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, maize has become Africa's most important staple food crop.

Sweet corn (or sweetcorn), a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is eaten in the unripe state as corn on the cob.

The alphabetical list of all the maize/corn-based recipes on this site follows, (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 605 recipes in total:

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Savoury Corn Muffins      Origin: American	Spinach and Potato Croquettes      Origin: Ireland	Tom Brown Porridge      Origin: Ghana
Scallop Broth with Cornish Earlies      Origin: England	Splytys Kernewek (Cornish Splits)      Origin: England	Touo du Niger (Nigerienne Touo)      Origin: Niger
Scrambled Eggs with Thee-cornered Leek      Origin: Britain	Sri Lankan Love Cake      Origin: Sri Lanka	Traditional Cornbread      Origin: America
Selsyg Kernowek (Cornish Sausages)      Origin: England	St Clements Morning Quickbread      Origin: Britain	Traditional Cornish Pasty      Origin: Cornwall
Semovita      Origin: Nigeria	Stargazy Pasty      Origin: England	Tres Leches Cake      Origin: Chile
Shellfish and Leek Roly-poly      Origin: Britain	Stewed Scallops in Milk      Origin: Britain	Tres Leches Cake      Origin: Mexico
Shima      Origin: Mozambique	Strawberry Jelly      Origin: England	Tricolour Pilau Rice      Origin: India
Shisa Nyama      Origin: South Africa	Street Corn Salsa      Origin: America	Trinidad Paime      Origin: Trinidad
Shisa Nyama      Origin: eSwatini	Stuffed Chicken Roll-ups      Origin: Cornwall	Turkey and Cranberry Mini Pies      Origin: Britain
Shishwala (Maize Porridge)      Origin: eSwatini	Stywepap (Stiff Maize Porridge)      Origin: South Africa	Turks and Caicos Boil Fish and Grits      Origin: Turks Caicos
Sidvudvu (Pumpkin Porridge)      Origin: eSwatini	Succotash      Origin: America	Turn Cornmeal      Origin: British Virgin Islands
Sierra Leonean Pork Fried Rice      Origin: Sierra Leone	Succotash      Origin: Equatorial Guinea	Turnip Pasty      Origin: England
Sint Eustatian Johnny Cakes      Origin: Sint Eustatius	Suck Cream      Origin: England	Tutu (Cornmeal Porridge with Black-eyed Peas)      Origin: Aruba
Slangetjies (Pea Flour Noodles)      Origin: South Africa	Sugarplum Turkish Delights      Origin: Britain	Tutu      Origin: Bonaire
Slappap (Soft Maize Porridge)      Origin: South Africa	Swazi Cornbread      Origin: eSwatini	Tutu      Origin: Curacao
Smočani kačamak (Fatty porridge)      Origin: Montenegro	Sweet Cornbread      Origin: America	Ugali      Origin: East Africa
Smoked Haddock Chowder      Origin: Ireland	Tagliarini with Gurnard, Parsley, Garlic and Sea Spaghetti      Origin: England	Ugali      Origin: Kenya
Smoky Sweetcorn and Avocado Salsa      Origin: South Africa	Taita (Eritrean Flatbread)      Origin: Eritrea	Umngqusho (Samp and Beans with Potatoes)      Origin: South Africa
Soda Bread      Origin: Britain	Tamal de Maicena      Origin: Costa Rica	Valentine Raspberry Scones      Origin: Cornwall
Sopa Mexicana de Flor de Calabaza (Mexican Pumpkin Flower Soup)      Origin: Mexico	Tamal de Olla      Origin: Panama	Vegetable Potjie      Origin: Botswana
Sopa Paraaguaya (Paraguayan Cornbread)      Origin: Paraguay	Tamales      Origin: Mexico	Vincentian and Grenadinian Paime      Origin: Saint Vincent
Sopa Paraguayana (Paraguayan soup)      Origin: Paraguay	Tamåles Gisu (Tamales gisu)      Origin: Northern Mariana Islands	White Chocolate and Cornflower Fudge      Origin: America
Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Aruba	Tamåles Gisu (Tamales gisu)      Origin: Guam	Whole Meat Mould      Origin: England
Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Bonaire	Tarte à la crème de noix de coco (Coconut Cream Pie)      Origin: Tahiti	Windy Pasty      Origin: England
Sopi di Piská (Fish Soup)      Origin: Curacao	Tartys Choklet (Chocolate Tarts)      Origin: England	Xarém      Origin: Portugal
Sour Milk Ginger Cake      Origin: England	Tesen Aval (Cornish Apple Cake)      Origin: England	Xerém Tradicional (Traditional Xerem)      Origin: Cape Verde
Sour Sauce Pasty      Origin: England	Tex-Mex Beef Tacos      Origin: America	Xerém (Cape Verdean Pap)      Origin: Cape Verde
Soused Cornish Sardines      Origin: England	Tex-Mex Quesadillas      Origin: America	Xerem de Festa (A Feast Dish)      Origin: Cape Verde
Southern Cornbread      Origin: American	Three-cornered Leek Omelette      Origin: Britain	Xima (Cornmeal Porridge)      Origin: Mozambique
Southern Succotash      Origin: America	Three-cornered Leek Pesto      Origin: Britain	Xima (Cornmeal Porridge)      Origin: Sao Tome
Special Fried Rice with Oxeye Daisy Greens      Origin: Fusion	Three-cornered Leeks Tempura      Origin: Britain	Yeasted Currant Loaf      Origin: Britain
Speedy Chilli Bean Wraps      Origin: Fusion	Ting      Origin: Botswana	Ys du (Bilberry Tart)      Origin: England
Spider Crab Casserole      Origin: Britain	Tirk doung (Tom Yam Goong 1)      Origin: Cambodia
Spider-crab Salad with Cornish Earlies      Origin: Britain	Tom Brown      Origin: Nigeria

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