Title: Corn Nixtamalization Recipes and Recommendations for Efficiency  — Porvenir Design
Headings: Corn Nixtamalization Recipes and Recommendations for Efficiency
Corn Nixtamalization Recipes and Recommendations for Efficiency
Laura Killingbeck, Food System Designer
Nixtamalized Corn with Wood Ash
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Grinding Nixtamal into Masa—Tools and Scale
Nixtamalization and Efficiency
Honey Gold Cornbread Recipe
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Grow Your Own Corn

Content: Unfortunately, in many areas, genetically modified, chemical-dependent corn monocultures have given this plant a dicey reputation. But older corn varieties, grown organically on small farms and cooked using traditional methods, are a beautiful expression of corn’s real and wonderful legacy in the human diet. Many small farms are able to integrate some type of field corn into their planting rotations. This corn must be grown to maturity, dried, husked, and shucked before the corn is ready to enter the kitchen as a sack of dry corn kernels. Once the corn is in this form, it requires further processing. At this point your two options are to grind it into flour, or nixtamalize it into a dough often referred to by its Spanish name, masa. Nixtamalization is a process of cooking the corn in an alkaline substance, usually hardwood ash or lime. This removes the pericarp (seed husk) of the kernel, which is unpalatable. Mature corn pericarps also inhibit the absorption of niacin in the human body. When people eat large quantities of mature corn without nixtamalization, they can suffer from serious nutrient deficiencies.