If you plan to use a stone mill like a Mockmill, you need to fully dry the corn first.
I don’t have a dehydrator, so I use food processor or more recently, a Victoria grain mill (metal plates, hand crank).
When I use a food processor to grind the nixtamalized corn, I have to add a fair amount of water (to the already wet corn) to get decent fineness. The masa is then too wet for tortillas. So I just add to it a tbsp or two of store/breadtopia-bought masa harina (dry nixtamalized corn flour). Pretty simple and common procedure.
When I use the Victoria grain mill to grind the corn, I don’t have to add as much water for the process and the corn masa is more fine, and I actually need to add some water to it before forming the tortillas.
Yes, the weight of the pickling lime/calcium hydroxide should be 1% the weight of the corn. So 1000g corn would need 10g cal. And more water too, but the instructions from Masienda don’t specify water amounts beyond “a couple of inches over the corn.”
This is an awesome article! I’m just now learning about nixtamalized corn and I found this VERY informative. I have a question however! After I’ve nixtamalized the field corn I have in food storage, I need to dehydrate it in order to run it through my Magic Mill stone grinder, as I don’t have a wet grinder. At what temperature and for how long should I dehydrate it? What am I looking for it to look like after dehydrating it in order to make my own masa with it for tortillas, tamales, etc.? Thank you so much for this informative article!
I’m not very knowledgeable about dehydrating the corn once it’s been nixtamalized. There’s some info in these threads that you might find helpful. @DennisM has done a lot with corn.
My oven has a dehydrate function. At what temperature would you suggest drying nixtamalized corn before grinding on the MockMill? My understanding is stone milling gives the best texture to the masa.
This article says to dehydrate at 125F. I thought the corn flavor was stronger when I ground the nixtamal wet, but the tortilla texture was much smoother with stone milling dried nixtamal. It’s worth trying both to see which you prefer.
I nixtamalized corn, leaving it to sit overnight. I have rinsed it and now have all this corn, ready to be cooked into a stew (no plans to dry or mill it). The trouble is, all recipes I see for pozole call for canned hominy which is already cooked. Mine has been through half the process but is not cooked and ready to eat. Maybe I need to improve my search techniques to find what I’m looking for. Does anyone have any ideas for stew recipes that call for what I’m calling uncooked hominy? Or, do I need to cook what I have before adding it to a recipe, and if so, how? Either way, preference given to ideas using a pressure cooker. Thanks!
I make posole a lot! Not exactly from a recipe – though my original framework was this one: Party Posole Rojo Recipe | Bon Appétit
I’ve used pork, leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, and more recently did a vegetarian posole with black beans and blue corn.
As you noted, the nixtamalizing process gets the corn partly cooked. The good thing is you will be stewing the pork (or turkey, or beans if you make vegetarian) for a long time, so you can just add the corn earlier than the recipe states so it can simmer for a long time.
Thanks, Melissa. If I understand correctly, I can use any pozole recipe and just cook until the corn is soft enough to eat. (duh…seems pretty obvious now) Thanks for the links and tips on cumin and peppers.
You’re welcome! Yes, just cook as long as needed. It’s basically impossible to oversimmer the corn in my experience. (Pressure cooking can overdo things, though burst kernels are nice too.)
I was also confused the first time I did it, trying to imagine what two cans of hominy equated to in grams of dried corn to nixtamalize. I usually nixtamalize 500g corn and make what is most likely a corn-heavy posole but also probably a larger amount of posole overall. The winging it happens from the get-go
I ended up taking a different approach to grinding the corn. I used the (metal) food grinder attachment for my stand mixer, using the fine disc. It’s important to feed the corn in a little a time so it doesn’t bind. Once all the corn was ground I put it in the food processor without any water. It then ground to a fine powder in a minute! (see pic) Then I can add just enough water to get the right texture for the masa. I put half the dry ground corn in a vacuum packed bag in the fridge and was able to make tortillas as I need them. Worked great although I don’t know how it would compare to dried and stone ground corn.
Can someone give me some tips please?
I recently ordered your Conico Azul corn and tried to do the wood ash nixtalimization process. I used hardwood Oak ashes and followed everything exactly. I actually didn’t use quite as many ashes as was recommended but pretty close. Everything looked fine until I put the lid on to let sit overnight and then when I woke up this morning, about 10 hours soaking this is what it looked like. It just looks completely rancid and lost all of the blue color. I’m going to re-order and try again and I’m just wondering if you could give me some tips. it really doesn’t smell right either. Here are some photos. Thanks very much.
Hopefully this reaches you before you toss it. That looks pretty normal to me. The color of the water gets quite yellow, and the corn too, which can translate into a grey-green for a blue corn. I’ll hit reply now and then look for some pics to upload.
Thank you for the reply, Melissa! I didn’t get this until today. It looks like it went to my junk folder. I absolutely hear you, but no I think mine was just steeped for too long. I also did the Wood ash method… Which might be a bit different. Mine was literally crumbling by barely touching it. Yours looks perfect. Also, the smell just wasn’t right or the taste. I did this before with the yellow and got it right Last time which was my first time… Then tried it with the blue, and then that was my results. I re-ordered some blue and going to give it another try. I really appreciate the tips. I’m thinking it was a over steeping…, Maybe I’m wrong, but just going to give it another try. Thank you for the quick response and the photos. It’s a huge help.
Thx!!!
Melissa, could I ask you a question…
When I did this the first time last week with yellow corn, I don’t have a molilito mill… But I have a mock mill. I know they say you can dry out in the oven but I actually dried out in a freeze dryer…after the nixtalimization part. I don’t know if you know what those are. I have a harvest right brand. It worked amazingly well. Have you ever heard of anybody doing freeze drying to dry it out… Then I ground up in the mock mill
I think this might be better because you’re not introducing heat by drying out in the oven so would be more nutritious. It was amazing how easily The grain ground up after freeze drying it up, almost seemed like you could get a masa powder just by washing your fingers. I think I might try to do this againand share some photos.
Gotcha. The kernels tasting weird and crumbling at the touch when you want to rub and rinse them, is like you noted, probably too long a soak or too intense a boil/quantity of wood ash. (I haven’t tried anything but pickling lime that’s been in my basement for many years now.)
Your freeze drying method sounds super. I always end up grinding the nixtamal wet in a corona mill or food processor, which is a workout (whether for me or the food processor motor).
!
