White cornmeal is dried white corn kernels ground into a fine meal, used as a flour-like base for breads, porridges, and coatings. Corn was ground into meal by Indigenous peoples of the Americas for millennia, becoming central to Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Aztec and Maya, and to cultures across the American Southeast; the Inca, by contrast, were an Andean civilization whose staple crop was more centrally the potato, though corn was grown there too.
Today it's produced mainly in the US corn belt, Mexico, and parts of South America; in the American South it's a defining ingredient in traditional Southern cooking.
White cornmeal is the base for cornbread, polenta, and grits, and is used to thicken soups and stews or to coat meat, fish, and vegetables before frying. Its flavor is mild and slightly sweet with a subtle corn aroma, pairing well with dairy (butter, cheese, milk), herbs and spices (rosemary, thyme, cumin, chili powder), and, in baking, sweeteners like honey or maple syrup.