Adventures in Nixtamalization

[khumlee]

My first tortillas do with ash wood.
1 part of ash wood 2 of corn and 4 of water.
very easy and tasty.
Thanks everyone to share your experences

[oxbowfarm]

So I've learned a bit more about ash nixtamalization via Facebook.

I've been posting on an off on Facebook about some of this nixtamalization experimentation. Today I got a motherlode of traditional knowledge about Mohawk traditional ash nixtamalization from Rowen White. Rowen is a Mohawk seed keeper and is also writing a book soon to come out about Haudenosaunee heirloom varieties and agriculture. I'm excited to see that one when it arrives. She also runs the Sierra Seed Cooperative. So I posted this picture of the beginning of a batch of Coroico hominy ( incidentally 1/2 gallon water, 1 quart dry Coroico corn, 3/4 cup sifted wood ash came out awesome!)


Rowen responded - "Wow you add the ash right to the corn? in our traditional way, we always made ash water, and then strained the ashes out and then added the corn. its beautiful to see all the ways in which you can make nixtamal"

Me - " Rowen, that is new information. I haven't run across the ash water concept till now. This seems to be working OK. Do you make cal water? When I switched to ash from cal I just kept mixing the whole thing together. When its done soaking, there is a layer of ash mud on the bottom. What I've been doing is stirring the whole thing up, then dumping it all in a colander over a bowl. Then I give it a strong rinse, and all the first rinse water gets tossed on the compost or on the lawn. The ash mud is a bit much to pour down the drain, I foresaw a clogged sink trap. After that first rinse its pretty much just like using cal. It definitely stains the kernels a bit compared to cal. When you make the ash water you just mix it up and strain or let it settle out? Room temp or hot water?"

Rowen- "I don't make cal water, i just add the lime to the water since it is water soluble. with the woodash I was always taught by my elders to make the ash water, since it is harder to wash the ash mud from the corn than just the ash water and the ash mud at the bottom can cake and be hard to wash out of the bottom of the pot with the corn in it.. I make the ash water with 1:1 or 1:2 proportions of how much corn. so if I want to nixtamalize 2 quarts of corn I use 2 quarts of ashes. If I have hickory ashes, I use 1/2 quart for every quart of corn. you can always dilute the water if it is too strong. first sift out any chunks of charcoal or unburnt wood. always use hardwood ash ( green hickory is best, oak second best) mix ash into large amount of water ( 14-16 quarts) and bring to a boil for 30 minutes. let cool. stir ashes and dump through a dishcloth or cheesecloth or a fine sieve. to test to see if your solution is strong enough, put a kernal of white corn in the solution and it should turn a bright golden yellow or orange. if your test kernal doesn't turn that color, its not strong enough and you will want to add more ashes before straining. then use the ash water in the same way you would make hominy with cal. it tastes way better with the ash, but cal is sometimes more convenient."

Me -"Rowen, another question. How do you and your elders store your ashes? Are you making special fires for your corn ash and saving that ash separately or just using the ashes from household fires? Do you make ash water each time or make a batch and save it for the future? I tried using the 1:1 ratio with the ash cooked in with the corn and it was WAY too strong. The kernels were slipping in a few minutes and the resulting hominy was extremely bitter and chalky with too much alkali, 2:1 was also too strong but not as intense. I will experiment next with making ash water, although I do not have any hickory to burn. I do occasionally burn oak, but all my firewood is currently white ash, since the Emerald Ash Borer is just 30 miles away, I am only cutting ash since they will all be dead in a few years. Thanks for all the help understanding ash nixtamalization. Incidentally, I have not found the ashes at all difficult to rinse out of the corn, but I am using ashes that I have pre-sifted through a very fine riddle, so that may be what's helping me."

Rowen- " I make fires specifically for the ashes for hominy. i think you will find the right strength with trial and error. recipes and ratios are hard when we are all using different types of woods etc. I make my ash water each time, and I keep my ashes in a mason jar, sifted. yes I have made ash water that has been too strong, but I find making the ash water makes the hominy taste better and less harshness in the final hominy. its all a beautiful dance. I am sorry to hear about your ash dying. it is so sad. it will greatly affect our Mohawk basket weavers, who exclusively use black ash for our traditional baskets. I will send you a picture of our traditional corn washing basket....mine is something I treasure."

So now I'm in for some more experiments in making and testing ash water nixtamalization. It is neat how much there is to know about this process. I have definitely notices the color change she is talking about with the white flour corn. The pericarp turns a noticeable orange yellow. When the solution cools this disappears.

[DarJones]

Good to see confirmation of my 1/4 Cherokee great grandmother saying to use hickory and oak. She always said it was the traditional way to make lye water. I go through enough oak in the wood heater in my greenhouse every year to nixtamalize tons of corn.

[12540dumont]

Ox, this is cool. Thanks! Dar, today I'm going to try corn flour tortillas...using Cherokee Flour Corn.

[oxbowfarm]

So, I've done a bit of experimenting with ash nixtamalization using ash water similar to Rowen's description of the process.

First off, I really did not want to make 4 gallons of ash water, which her recipe would have made. I still need to discuss that part of her recipe with her, because 4 gallons of water (16 quarts) seems like an enormous excess for cooking 1 quart of dry corn. So I'm wondering if the ash water recipe was for a big batch, like for a festival etc? I need to clarify that with her.

Putting pencil to paper, her ash water solution was a 1:16 ratio of ash:water by volume. The ash nixtamalization recipe I've used so far of 3/4 cup ash to 1/2 gallon of water translates to about a 1:11 ratio by volume. It is difficult to compare "ash" very exactly because the chemistry of wood ash has a lot of variables based on species burned, temperature of combustion, and storage conditions of the ash. Any changes in those factors can change the alkalinity of the solution a given amount of the ash in question can make. But Rowen's ratio and mine are in a very similar ballpark I think. It also may very well be, that since Rowen's method "processes" the ash for 30 minutes of boiling, more alkalinity may be extracted from a given volume of ash vs my direct method where the entire corn/ash/water batch isn't even heated for that long. So my extra volume of ash may compensate for less total alkali extracted? Hard to say.

After making the ash water, I don't think it will become a regular part of MY nixtamalization process. It ends up being a lot of items to clean up. I have not yet tasted the ash water nixtamalized corn, but I already like the taste of my corn done with the ash mud in the mix. In larger batches I could see the "hassle" balance tipping in the other direction, where dealing with the ash mud separately from the corn becomes easier the more mud and corn you have to contend with. In my little batches the mud rinses right out. And for convenience of cleanup, cal beats ash pretty handily whatever ash method you use.

Wanted to show a picture of the color change of the kernels Rowen was talking about. The color develops pretty instantly, by about 30 seconds in a strong enough solution they look like this. The corn in the spoon was dropped into the hot ash water for less than a minute.


What I suspect this is a chemical reaction of the hemi-cellulose in the pericarp and the alkaline( OH-) ions.  I'm fairly certain this color change reaction occurs on any corn you nixtamalize, but it is easiest to see on clear pericarp of course, and pretty invisible on any thing with a dark red/brown pericarp. Yellow endosperm also makes it harder to see, but you can see it on clear pericarp yellow corn if you look. It is just very obvious on white flour corn like this.

[khumlee]

After testing 3 kinds of corn, the first one usually made for polenta, the second is hickory king white and the third is gourd seed corn.
Actually the best one and easier to make tortilla is gourd seed corn, the tortilla were more soft and delicious !
Gourd seed corn is a flour corn, the nixtamalized grains are soft too
do you think flour Corn type are better for tortilla ?

[DarJones]

IMO, soft dent corn makes better tortillas. I've tried pure flour corn and it does not adhere as well. Gourd seed that I've seen was soft dent.

[oxbowfarm]

Feb 7, 2015 13:00:01 GMT -5 khumlee said:

After testing 3 kinds of corn, the first one usually made for polenta, the second is hickory king white and the third is gourd seed corn.
Actually the best one and easier to make tortilla is gourd seed corn, the tortilla were more soft and delicious !
Gourd seed corn is a flour corn, the nixtamalized grains are soft too
do you think flour Corn type are better for tortilla ?

From everything I can tell, traditionally tortillas are made from every texture of corn except sweet corn and possibly the smallest popcorns. From the experiences I have had making tortillas, (I am in no way and expert) the limiting factor in tortilla texture/flexibility seems to be how fine you can grind the masa dough. Traditionally masa was (and still is) ground by hand on a metate ( a European archeologist would call this a saddle quern). With a metate the grind can be adjusted to whatever fineness the operator wishes. Here in the USA, I cannot feasibly get my hands on a metate so I am forced to use a crank masa grinder. I'm still getting the hang of operating it, and have yet to get consistent results. My softest tortillas have been made with flour corn. I would not say that flour corn makes a more delicious tortilla than any other, but that is a pretty subjective thing.

I would have classified gourd seed as a dent, but I've never grown it. Its a southern corn.

[jondear]

So I finally got some pickling lime and nixtimalized some Hopi Blue corn. For my corn, which I finished drying in a low oven before storage in the freezer, I need more water than 2 quarts for a quart of corn. After simmering, it absorbed almost all the water. I added another quart and it was still in water this a.m.

I wanted to see how far I could go without purchasing any equipment. So I ground the masa with an old hand crank food grinder that used to be my grandmothers. It worked OK, but still seemed a little coarse after 5 grinds. To make the tortillas, I used a small ice cream scoop, two scoops maked a perfect size. I cut a one gallon zip bag, and pressed it under my large cast iron fry pan. That worked as perfectly as I could have hoped.


I made some tortillas for tostadas. I cooked them on a cast iron skillet. After they were all easy to handle, I deep fried them until crunchy. The first one I over cooked, because it was hard to tell being blue, when it was done.


I was more impressed with what I'm going to call masa dough empanadas. I used 4 scoops of masa and flattened using the same technique but used a large flat bowl for the press. It has a rim on the bottom that will only allow you to flatten them to ~1/4 inch. I then wrapped some seasoned shredded chicken,onion and cheese inside and folded it, pinching the edges together and deep frying. The corn flavor really was more pronounced on the thicker dough on these babies.


All in all, I'd rate my first time as a success.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Feb 7, 2015 20:42:18 GMT -5 DarJones said:

IMO, soft dent corn makes better tortillas. I've tried pure flour corn and it does not adhere as well. Gourd seed that I've seen was soft dent.

Have you tried with waxy corn? I seem to remember several people trying to grow and breed waxy corn here a while back. I haven't heard much about it lately. Any old threads on waxy corn someone could revive? Is waxy corn that would be useful for me to grow?

[rowan]

I grow a little waxy corn. I don't mind it to eat but it is more chewy that what people are generally used to. I eat it as a sweet corn but most Asians prefer it grilled or BBQd. I might try it grilled this year.

[DarJones]

I have not grown waxy corn mostly because it has a limited range of use. It is pretty much eaten fresh roasted in one form or another.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

ok. well it sounded as if waxy corn starch was slightly more sticky, and hence i thought it would be interesting to see how it performs in a tortilla. Similar to sticky rice was along my thinking.

[oxbowfarm]

Nov 1, 2014 19:24:49 GMT -5 12540dumont said:

The only thing that I have to add, is that if you are using a press, instead of centering the the ball on plastic, offset away from the hinge. The hinge side tends to press too thin. I always flatten the ball a little before putting another plastic circle on top and pressing. Not too hard....too thin = can't get it off the plastic.

Also, I don't add water before the second grinding. Grind twice before adding water. It's less messy. Dough should be nice and smooth...not crumbly!

I have had every color of corn tortilla in Mexico. I have also had corn tortilla made with wild greens added, and even spinach, and wheat.

Its been quite a while since I've posted on this thread, my nixtamalization adventures have continued apace though. My basic process is still pretty much the same, but I've upgraded my masa grinder from the generic $18 Chinese job to a fire engine red Mexican-made Estrella. I must say I do like a few of the features of the Estrella a lot better, the wing nuts are captive and there a many fewer parts to lose, the clamp foot impressed me initially as being much more heavy duty than the Chinese one, but it still wore out very quickly, so that was a dissapointment. The other major complaint I'd make about the Estrella is that the hopper is TINY. Unfortunately the hopper from the Chinese doesn't quite fit the Estrella, but I usually just pop it inside the Estrella's dinky hopper and use both at the same time so I can add an entire batch of corn at once vs feeding bits at a time.

I also have come to disagree with Holly about adding water between grinds, I find that if I add some water after the first grind (which I noticed in a couple of Mexican YT vids) the second grind goes MUCH faster and I feel like it is easier to get a finely ground masa that way. The water makes the masa feed faster and seems to lubricate the plates as well. Admittedly, Holly is right that it makes cleaning your grinder more of a pain since it squeezes into every nook and cranny (of which there are many on these grinders around the plates.)

[reed]

I have a small amount of mostly white flour corn from this year and I love hominy. I'm very careful about nothing nasty going into my stove and have plenty of ash wood to burn. I can produce very clean, very pure ash ashes, even the kindling.

For a first experiment if I start with just a pint of dry kernels, how much ash and water should I use?