Nixtamal. Such a cool word! It is to Mesoamerica what hominy is to the United States: corn treated with an alkali substance to render it more nutritious, easier to grind, and, to many, tastier and more aromatic — think about the smell of a Mexican corn tortilla and that’s nixtamalization you are smelling.
Nixtamal or hominy are featured ingredients in a number of traditional dishes throughout the US and in Mesoamerica, primarily the American South, Mexico and Guatemala. Most of you know about hominy grits, which are regular grits made with nixtamalized corn; I like them made with white corn.
You will also see hominy in many soups and stews, most of which date back 500 years or more. The most famous soup with nixtamalized corn is pozole, which is arguably the national dish of Mexico, and which has a wide variety of styles; here is my recipe for red pozole, pozole rojo, and here is my rendition of white pozole, pozole blanco. Menudo also features hominy.
Primarily, however, you use nixtamal to make masa, dough for tortillas and tamales, as well as other tasty corn-based treats like masa empanadas or Central American arepas. Nixtamalization is what allows corn to become an actual dough that will stick to itself.
What follows is how to make nixtamal, or hominy, at home. Why bother? A variety of reasons, really.
- First, industrially canned hominy is nasty, a far worse product than what canned beans are to dried.
- Second, homemade masa dough is amazing, as much of a revelation as is making pasta from freshly ground flour.
- Third, when you make your own masa dough by nixtamalization, it will stick to itself better than industrial masa harina, which is dehydated masa.
You also can make cool little masa dumplings with fresh dough, like the chochoyotes in my venison mole. This won’t work with masa harina.
Making nixtamal is easy, once you are set up for it. First, you need dried corn.
Keep in mind that while any dried corn can be nixtamalized, not any dried corn makes good masa dough. More on that later. But if you just want corn in a stew or soup or whatever that tastes better than regular ole’ corn, any field corn will work. So far as I know, sweet corn is not nixtamalized, and it’s almost never dried anyway.
I get my field corn from a variety of sources, all online. Mexican corn from Masienda, a Los Angeles-based company that imports heirloom corn from Mexico; I get red bloody butcher corn from Breadtopia, and Oaxacan green corn from Heirlooms and More.
I am also growing field corn in my garden this year. My advice for good seed for field corn is to look up Native Seeds Search, the Seed Savers Exchange or Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. Just a note: field corn takes all season to grow, so plant it in spring according to how corn is grown where you live; check your local Cooperative Extension if you’re not sure.
Step One
Measuring. While you don’t need to do this, it makes for better nixtamal if you do. The standard ratio for nixtamal starts with the weight of the corn. Then, 1 percent of the corn’s weight in cal, which is calcium hydroxide, sold as pickling lime
or slaked lime in some places and cal in Latin markets.
Note: You can use wood ashes for this, but I see no reason why, as you need a lot more to get proper nixtamalization, and it’s super messy.
After that, if you want to get technical, double the weight of the corn in water. I rarely do this, instead covering the corn by a depth of 1 inch. You do not want a ton of water in the nixtamalization process, or else the cal with be too diluted to work.
Different cooks do it differently, and there are multiple ways to get to nixtamal. Here’s mine.
Step Two
Boiling. Bring the water to a boil, or, put the corn in the pot and cover by an inch and then bring it to a boil. Stir in the cal at some point before it boils.
You should see the corn immediately change color, usually there will be some sort of switch toward yellow. Weirdly, red corn turns black. Cook the corn for at least 20 minutes — you are really simmering the corn strongly, not keeping it at a rolling boil.
Stir the pot every five minutes or so, to keep the cal well distributed.
After 20 minutes, you are good for whole-kernel nixtamal, for pozole or whatever. And any corn will work for that purpose.
But if you are making nixtamal for masa dough, you need, ideally, dent corn, which is starchier than other varieties. I have made masa dough with flint corn, which grows in Northern climates and has a much harder outer coating. It’s not as good as dent corn, but it’ll work.
For masa dough, you need to cook your corn for closer to 40 minutes, but you will need to do a bite test. After about 20 minutes of strong simmering time, fish out a kernel and bite it in half: It should be al dente, and you will want to see the center look white and starchy, but the outer layer start to get sort of gelatinous-looking. Normally this will take 40 minutes, longer for flint corn.
When you are ready, turn off the heat. If your pot is heavy, like enameled iron, move it off the burner so it cools faster. If it’s a regular steel pot, keep it on the burner for some residual heat.
Step Three
Waiting. You need the corn to set for 8 to 12 hours at room temperature. If the corn has soaked up a lot of water after the boil, pour in enough so the corn is covered by about 1/2 inch. Cover and let the pot set overnight. It takes that long for the calcium hydroxide to fully do its work.
After you’ve let the corn set, you will see your pretty corn swimming in a sea of sludge: That’s the pericarp, or outer coating, that has sloughed off. That’s good.
Step Four
Rubbing and rinsing. You now need to rub off most or all of the remaining pericarp with your hands. Do this about 5 minutes or so, all in the sludgy water. Now, if you are making masa dough, save about a cup of that water, more if you are working with more than 2 pounds of dried corn. You’ll need this later.
Set the corn in a colander and rinse it well. Really well if you are using it whole-kernel for soup. You will notice that the sludge will collect in your sink’s screen. Periodically clean the screen. Leave a bit of the sludgy stuff on if you are making masa dough, get it all off of pozole or hominy grits.
You now have nixtamal.
I’m guessing step 5 is grind the Nix into a very fine (wet) paste and then (step 6)dry the paste low and slow? After it’s dried use whatever method available to turn the dried paste into something like a flour. Make the tortillas or whatever with the flour. Sound right?
Scott: Yeah, you grind the wet corn as best you can. Ideally you grind it fine so you can use it in tortillas right away, but getting a fine grind on wet things can be tough without a specialized grinder, like a Victoria hand grinder or an Ultra Dura or a molinito. So you can get it as ground as you get when wet, then dry, then pulverize into flour when dry.
Hi…..great article. I have a No. 10 and a No. 32 Enterprise cast iron meat grinders. The No. 10 will grind a whole prepared whitetail in about 20 minutes without breaking a sweat…..in normal Autumn weather here in Ohio. Is there any reason one of these would not work on this corn in its softened state? Maybe using the medium plate? Otherwise I have the dehydrator and the Vitamix dry grains container. Thanks very much for your expertise.
Dean: It will definitely grind the corn well coarsely, but you can’t really grind anything to a powder in a meat grinder. Maybe start with that and move to the Vitamix?
Thank you for the thorough instructions for making nixtamal. I made a large batch of around 5 pounds and then dehydrated it to use as needed. I would mention that with a larger quantity, I should have taken it outside to a water source for rinsing because I soon realized it was best not to put that sludge down my kitchen drain. Just a thought. Also, do you have a favorite white corn variety for making hominy?
Hi Hank thank you for your thorough and detailed explanation.Please i tried your method for the pop corn type corn, because i cant find the flat corn and it simply did not work after 30 minutes of boiling and filled water 2 inches above because the boiling evaporated the water almost immidiately.So the Result was i rinsed it and after grinding it is still has dry lumps and not even cooked. Please what do you advise me to do? thanks
Albert: You need to simmer until the kernels are about half done, so if that means adding more water, you need to do that.
I’m looking forward to making this. Can it be freeze dried….making ‘corn nuts’?
JM: I don’t know, sorry.
Hi Hank,
I love this article! It is so in-depth. I live in Vermont and am super interested in giving It a try to make my own Nixtamal for tortillas. I have some room in my garden for the corn for this purpose, and wondered what characteristics I would be looking for when seeking heirloom corn varieties that will grow up here.
Joni: I think in Vermont you will want to grow flint corn. Flour corn is traditional for tortillas, but it can be hard to grow in the north.
You might want to look into Mandan Red Clay (or Lavender Mandan). It is a flour corn originating from the Mandan tribe in North Dakota. It’s a very early variety only 4-5ft high and often makes only 2 cobs but can make up to 6-8.
Can I make nixtamal using popcorn kernels?
Chanel: I believe you can, but I have never tried it.
Please, I found this sentence confusing because it can mean at least two things:
“…if you want to get technical, double the weight of the corn in water…”
Does it mean use twice as much water in weight as the weight of dry corn? Such as: 500 grams of dry corn, 1000 grams of water? (And 5 grams of calcium hydroxide?) And another question, if I may:
What if my corn is very old, say 10 years. If I pre-soak it first before cooking I get softer corn. Do I soak it in plain water or water with the appropriate amount calcium hydroxide? Or so I skip a pre-soak altogether and just cook longer with calcium hydroxide?
Eelbrood: Yes on that first question. As for 10 year old corn, wow. I’ve never heard of someone trying to cook that. Good luck there. But if I were to try it, I would indeed soak in regular water overnight, then proceed as normal. It might take more than 1 hour to get to that al dente stage, though.
Hello Hank,
Our family is very interested in wild foods. I’m not sure this post is particularly about wild foods, but it is important to me. I would say the point of teaching how to nixtamalize with wood ash is that someday, and in some locations, commercial lime/cal/pickling lime isn’t/won’t be available, whereas wood ash is (theoretically) always attainable. Do you have the data for making nixtamal with wood ash? Also, I am concerned that your post doesn’t tell the reader to wear gloves or to rinse the cal/lime solution off before putting your hands in there to rub the skins off. I would guess that the pH of the water is (or should be) pretty basic, which can burn the skin just as acid can.
JHH: I don’t really know a ton about using wood ash because the cal is such a better method, more precise and easier. And it’s been used for several thousand years. As for the gloves, no one uses them. The water is fine. Remember we are not putting lye into the water. There is a gigantic difference between lye and pickling lime (cal).
I too stumbled on this educational site from wanting to make corn nuts. I am in a small town in Mexico. The tortillaria sells tortillas, masa and nixta. I haven’t been able to find a translation but I am guessing it may be lime or treated whole corn. There is a corn liquor called Nixta, but I doubt that it is liquor. Further research is in order.
Brian: Yes, nixtamal is treated whole corn. Calcium hydroxide is added to it during the cooking process. That is the subject of this article.