After a recent trip to Tennessee, I came upon a cookbook for mountain folk, that had a recipe calling for hominy, and I knew that hominy was somehow related to grits. Also, I knew that country folk, in primitive conditions, could prepare grits, so I had to find out how they did it, given what resources they had at their disposal. After navigating the word "nixtamal," and realizing that the USA is the only country that uses the word "corn" instead of "maize," and negotiating the fact that fine folk that contribute to Wikipedia have a broader scope (MesoAmerica) than just what my grandmother used to do, the mystery is uncovered:
Primitive Methods to Make Hominy and Grits[a]
Ears of corn are harvested, allowed to dry, and the kernels are removed from the cob,.
The ashes remaining after burning hardwoods[b] are saved and used to make hominy. The ashes contain alkaline[c] chemicals referred to as “lye.”
The ashes are put into a pot with an ample amount of water and brought to boiling.[d] This solution is now very alkaline.
The dried corn kernels are put into the boiling solution. Depending on what end-product the cook wants, the cook time can range from five minutes to an hour. At the end of the cook time, the kernels are steeped in the cooking liquid from a few minutes to as much as a day.
The alkaline solution is actually food-grade lye[e]. It does four things to the kernels:
· The hull of the kernel (its outer covering) is dissolved;
· the grain absorbs fluid from the cooking liquid that is full of either calcium or potassium[f] and the starch in the kernel becomes like gelatin, thus causing the kernel to become larger from the water absorbed;
· the nutritional value of the corn is greatly increased (from more niacin and more digestible protein) and toxins are removed; and
· the germ[g] of the corn kernel is removed. This last result makes the grain capable of being stored for long periods because it keeps the kernel from sprouting.
After steeping is complete, the kernels are removed from the pot and the liquid is separated into its liquid and solid residues, and each discarded in a way that does not attract vermin.
The kernels are now thoroughly rinsed with water to remove the lye solution which has an unpleasant taste. At this point, the kernels can be allowed to dry or can be used at once to make dough for tamales and tortillas by grinding the kernels. Note that some corn is white and some is yellow, which influences the color of the flour.
The term hominy may refer to whole, coarsely ground, or finely ground grain prepared in this process. When the hominy is ground, it is then sifted over a screen. The fine pieces that pass through become cornmeal and the coarser pieces that remain are used to make grits. These traditional grits take at least twenty minutes to cook.
A farmer could take his dried corn to the miller. The miller would grind the corn with his grist mill, often located by a stream or river. To pay the miller for his service, the farmer would give the miller a percentage of the meal resulting from grinding.
The Aztecs and Mayan Meso-American civilizations discovered the process of preparing the corn in a lye solution in antiquity, dating back to before 1200 BCE. Curiously, when Europeans noticed how the Native Americans were thriving on the corn plant, they took some corn and introduced it to European farmers. However, the alkaline-solution process was not transmitted with the crop specimens. When European peasants attempted to subsist on the corn crops, they nearly starved because they did not know to process the kernels in the alkaline solution to release the niacin and protein. Corn was an inexpensive crop to grow, so immigrants to the American South in colonial days relied on it, but many did not know the alkaline-solution technique, and therefore, many of them were extremely malnourished. The disease pellagra, stemming from a chronic niacin deficiency, became wide-spread. In the 19th century, the SC legislature enacted a law that all corn meal processed from local crops be enriched, thus diminishing the prevalent malnutrition.
[a] This essay is excerpted from the Wikipedia page describing “nixtamalization.”
[b] Oak, maple, ash, cherry, elm, hickory.
[c] Water-based liquids have a pH value: they are either alkaline or acidic, or somewhere in between. A common alkaline is baking soda. A common acidic substance is vinegar.
[d] If wood was scarce, the corn could be soaked in the water for two or three days in lieu of the boiling process.
[e] Other types of lye are used to make soap and harsh cleaners.
[f] Depending on the wood used.
[g] The endosperm.
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