How to Turn Corn Into a Hominy (Nikstamal)
Even if you have not eaten nixtamal (known as “homi” in the southern United States), you have most likely consumed nikstamal in one form or another. Tortillas, butter dough, cereals, and even corn chips are all made from corn that has been nyxtamalized – a process in which corn is soaked in an alkaline solution to make it more digestible, more nutritious, and, in my opinion, tastier.
In an excerpt from his book Beautiful Corn, Anthony Boutard explains how nixtamalization makes certain nutrients in corn more readily available:
Soaking the grain in an alkaline solution makes it more digestible and, most importantly, more nutritious. In unprocessed corn, the niacin (vitamin B3) it contains is bound to a large molecule that cannot be broken down in our intestines. An alkaline treatment cleaves this molecule, making niacin available in the human digestive tract. In addition, slaked corn has a higher calcium content than raw corn, which is especially important in pre-Columbian culture, without any dairy animals providing this important mineral in the form of milk and cheese.
The indigenous people of Central America used slaked lime (calcium hydroxide), called “feces” in Spanish, while the native people of North America used wood ash; Each process added its own minerals to the dish. Currently, industrially processed hominy are nixtamalized with food lye (sodium hydroxide), which gives a sweet, sodium-rich taste and … nothing more.
Fortunately, making your own nutritious and flavorful nixtamal is easy. You can make it with calcium hydroxide, which makes all the niacin that Butar talked about readily available and also adds – I bet you can guess – calcium in the mix (nyx?).
In addition to the nutrients I’ve heard are important, nystymalization gives corn a divine flavor and a chewy chewy texture. The nutty, sweet, very commonplace and plump kernels are absolutely intoxicating and, once transformed, can be used to make cereals (my personal favorite), pozole, tortillas or tamales. Or you can just use it as a simple side.
How to cook niximal (aka mom)
First you need dried corn. You can technically eliminate any corn (even popcorn), but some varieties are better for this process than others. Anson Mills sells bougie yellow corn specifically for this purpose, but Hickory King and Boone County White do.
Once you have purchased corn, you need calcium hydroxide, which you can find as “pickling lime” wherever pickling products are sold, or you can buy it online . If you have corn and corn chemical, all you need is water (some recommend distilled, but I used Portland tap water for best results) and an inert pot (stainless steel or enamelled, not aluminum, which will pickle).
Turning corn into mum is a fairly simple process, but it requires a little bit of very simple math. First, you need to weigh the corn. Two cups of my bougie-style yellow corn made up 350 grams – a nice round number that made me happy. Then calculate 1% by weight of corn (in my case 3.5 grams) and output this amount of calcium hydroxide. Finally, take the mass of corn and double it, and then measure out that amount of water. If you have weighed everything in grams, just change the units from grams to milliliters (because one milliliter of water weighs one gram). Thus, I used 700 milliliters of water.
Add corn and water to a saucepan, sprinkle with calcium hydroxide on top and stir with a wooden spoon to crumble. Bring water to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. I know this sounds like a big window, but it really depends on the type of corn you are working with. You need a “medium rarity” core. The paring knife should cut through the outside easily, but will meet some resistance from the starchy white endosperm. Start observing the pot after 30 minutes, checking every 10 or 15 minutes until it’s done.
Once you reach the medium-rare finish, remove the pan from the heat, cover and leave overnight or at least eight hours. If the corn has absorbed a lot of water and looks a little dry, just add enough water to raise the water level about half an inch above the corn.
In the morning you will be greeted by a spine suspended in thick silt. This is the dissolved pericarp (outer cover) and this is what you need. Rub the root / nixtamal / old corn between your palms for a few minutes to get rid of the last pieces of the pericarp (don’t worry about the little black bumps at the end), then rinse in a colander until the kernels are plump and shiny. …
Your hominy / nikstamal is now ready to be cooked or processed into masa, grits, or whatever you desire. Fresh mom is kept in the fridge for a week or three months in the freezer, so you have enough time to decide his fate.