Go to the Recipe: From Corn Kernels to Fresh Masa
Sodium hydroxide (lye) was mentioned a couple of times. Could you swap the calcium hydroxide for lye without much difference? Would you need to decrease the amount of lye to reflect the difference in ph?
Hi Curtis, Calcium hydroxide is your best option, however lye can be used. We did not test or develop with it but if you want to do some reading on it this is a great article that has some ratios for you.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/seasonal-recipes/how-to-make-hominy-corn-zebz1305znsp
Thanks!
Cool beans! Will you be playing w/ some fruits and veg as well? Cool things can be made/done w/ pears, apples, salsify, celery root etc etc.
Is there anything to look out for if I were to use AP flour to thicken instead of masa harina? I'd like to get something like the leveled up flour tortilla but with fresh nixtamalized corn
My joule refuses to go above 92.9C... how does that change the time required?
With the 350 g of corn, about how many tortillas would this yield?
About 45 at 28g per.
Time won't help you at that point. I would just stick to the stove top method.
Oops - I misread the SV time and did 205F/12h instead of 2h...the corn was a little over cooked- but not terribly so... love the experimenting though- so glad you tackled this topic.
Kyl, is there any reason you can’t pressure cook the corn & Cal, does the hydroxide retrograde over 100c or something? And did you try an Indian style wet stone grinder to make the Masa? ... thanks as always
Hi there! You can easily over cook the corn in the pressure cooker. Also, we ran this one time in our fast slow pro and the CAL damaged the coating in the pot.
Ah thanks. Any thoughts on stone wet grinder wouldn’t that be a closer facillime of the traditional stone rolling pin?
In my experience it works well, you do need to cook the corn a touch further, and it helps to give it a pulse up in a food processor first.
Could you use calcium chloride instead of calcium hydroxide? I was able to find chloride at my local grocery store, but no hydroxide. Thx!
Nope sorry, calcium chloride will raise the calcium levels, but not effect the ph the way you need to nixtamalize. They are not interchangeable.
If you can't get a hold of a stone grinder (Masienda's "Molinito" is way pricey for home use), I would go ahead and use a hand crank grinder, grinding the nixtamal some three times. Using a blender to make a more liquid mix and later adding Maseca or other dried corn dough does not seem to make sense to me; if you are going to use a flour, you might as well not go to the trouble of making your own nixtamal.
Hi Jorge, thanks for the feedback. We do agree that using a hand crank grinder does yield a more superior masa. This method is more of a hack for those who don't have/ want to purchase another piece of equipment. How ever we do think it is a much better product than just using masa flour. We wish every one could try fresh masa ground in a hand grinder or traditional machines since we do believe that is the best method period. Just trying to get some people hooked on the taste of a great tortilla by introducing them to fresh nixtamal and masa dough. Thanks again.
I used my Joule to make two quart sized mason jars of the corn. I used some Goya dried corn I found at the grocery store. I had to use a lot more than the 15% masa harina to get the right consistency. In the end it came out great but I only needed 1 mason jar to make the pupusas. It's a week later and I'm looking at my second mason jar of corn kernels on my counter. I'm thinking its vacuum sealed in the mason jar. Is it still good? Reading the warning label on the calcium hydroxide was a bit intimidating. Is it safe to use or should I pitch it and start over?
Did the lid seal? If so you should be good, but is there bubbles or an off smell? If so discard. It is practice to keep the corn in the cal solution for days before using but the ball is in your court and we cannot recommend any safety here.
The lid sealed but after smelling it I decided not to take the chance. Thanks.
When in doubt, throw it out.
I cannot seem to find food grade dried maize in quantity here in the UK - other than for popping corn. Is popping corn OK to use? Can I substitute frozen sweetcorn instead? Having researched, it seems that this is fresh corn from the cobs and isn't cooked or processed before being frozen. If it is OK to use would that affect the cooking time with the calcium hydroxide?
Hi Wade, simple answer to all of those questions is no. Pop corn is a different type of all corn used for masa, that would be Dent Corn. You will not have the same results. And frozen sweet corn is a no go either. The corn needs to dry on the cob.
Hi Kyl! I have the mockmill kitchenaid grinder for grains. I reckon this won't be helpful, but was curious if you've used it for this purpose?
I think it would be great to make corn meal really fine, but is it capable of wet grinding?
I doubt it. Any utility in pre-grinding and THEN simmer with cal? Probably would just make a gummy mess. Maybe if I knew my hydration ratio ahead of time I could cook it in a mason jar or something, but that sounds tricky.
What is the difference between masa and masa harina? We are making masa here but then adding masa harina? Thanks for your help.
Hi slim, masa harina is simply masa that has been dried. When fresh masa is milled through stone grinders you have a product that is pretty much ready to make into tortillas. The reason we add a little of the masa harina back to our mix is that we needed to add excess water to the blender to get our mix smooth enough with out the blender getting jammed up. Making tortillas from masa harina gives you a much better product then store bought precooked ones. But it is still a slight step down from one made from corn that has just gone through the nixtamalization process.
How does this compare to the hominy method you guys (greatfully) introduced me to? Seems like a lot more work
If you are referring to the flour style tortilla from the hominy, I would say use this as a method for corn tortillas, and that one would be for flour tortillas. So all depends on what you are wanting.
Modernist Pantry did a review of this recipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK77kW5yaFs
Thank you for surfacing this for us and sharing the link!
