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. 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.
How much ash do you use if using wood ashes? Weight per weight of corn would be the most useful measure.
Can I use regular feed corn, sold dried for feeding horses? It seems to be flint, not dent.
Kathleen: I am not sure, I will have to check. Off the top of my head it is 10x the amount of Cal, though.
I stumbled here whilst looking up how to make my own corn nuts. Thank you for the great write up and information.
I’d never heard the word nixtamalization before this attempt to learn how corn nuts are made. So my question is, after you simmer and let it sit over night and rub the pericarp off, is that the point where you’d dry it to bake or fry into corn nuts?
I have about three tons of 1950’s dried corn. So far no luck getting it to sprout, so I’m interested in trying to make some into corn nuts. Easy to store and tasty snackin’!
Blue: Um… if your corn is from the 1950s it will be inedible. As for the corn nuts, I have never eaten one, so I am not sure how they are made. Sorry!
Well, last night I went ahead and used your nixtamal recipe on my old corn and today I made corn nuts. They came out great! I suppose it’s possible that there’s not much nutritional value in the corn, but can’t be any worse than Doritos :-). Thanks again for the helpful instructions.
Wow, a testament to the power of grains (in terms of storage). Perhaps you can find a small farmer who needs to feed chickens or pigs? It’s probably organic…
Will a grain mill work for grinding the masa.?
Is it possible to let the Nixtamal dry completely overnight.?
Pat: If you have a grain mill capable of grinding dry corn into flour, then it should work if you nixtamalize the corn, then rub off the pericarp, rinse it well and then dry it thoroughly.
Interesting…so is Maseca brand masa ground and then dried? We grew some Oaxacan green dent corn a few years ago in our school garden and I nixtamalized it last night. It made great tortillas today!
I stumbled on your site yesterday, gotta say I like what you do!
Chris: Yes, exactly. I also grew Oaxacan green corn last year. It does make decent masa.
Thanks, Hank, for this nixtamalization recipe. I cannot get dried posole locally here in central Florida, but we do have lots of hispanic groceries that sell dried corn. I will try my hand at it soon and make my version of feast day posole. No pig head, as in Oaxaca, but pig’s feet will do just fine!
#1 Can you use baking soda? I’ve used it with my glass gem to make a quick hominy. #2 By wood ash are you referring to making lye and using that?
Thank you 🙂
No. 1: Not to my knowledge. No. 2: Actually you use the ash itself.
I use wood ash, and I will explain why. I heat the house with a wood stove and grow my corn. Slaked slate is something I would need to buy in. For me it is simply about self-sustainability. Love your site and your recipes
Do you dry the nixtamal before grinding or is it ground wet?
SM: It is ground wet.
Can the nixtamal be dried whole, stored air tight, and ground later for masa/tortillas?
Chris: In theory yes. It would be hominy then.
I see this error in many articles… nixtamal should be simmered lightly, water should not boil, still raw, leave it in the alkaline solution overnight, then grind to make tamales, tortillas, e.t.c. if you cook it longer, it is pozole, ir hominy… they are not the same… nixtamal is not pozole/hominy.
Oscar: I learned how to make nixtamal from Mexican chefs, as well as from an entire book dedicated to making nixtamal. They all boil the corn. All of them. And yes, the corn should not be cooked all the way through, it should be half-raw. Bite into a kernel and when it’s chalky in the center and cooked along the outer edge, turn off the heat and let it sit overnight. And every variety of corn is different, so you have to check timing each time.
Hi, how do you usually dispose of the waste water/alkaline solution? I read this is harmful for.the environment and that when making this in large scale there is legislation against dumping it in the sewage system. I would like to set up a Tortilleria and this seems to be the greatest challenge… Thanks in advance
Joao: I just pour it down the sink. But I am not even making nixtamal every day, let alone on a commercial scale.
Was just wondering if you ever tried this with fresh “field” corn, not dried. My girlfriend is from Colombia and swears that’s how her family makes it but damned if I can find a recipe for that.
Sharon: You need the corn to be at least mature, as in starchy not sweet. You’d nixtamalize as normal, but not boil for as long, maybe only 20 minutes. Then let it sit overnight, or 8 hours. See if that works? It’s what I would do first.
This is so well written and clear ! I am dying to make my own masa dough and was amazed that it is such a long process. First – got to find that dent or field corn !
Deer corn sold at hunting stores is just field corn at high prices ? sold to hunters. I live in rural areas and can easily buy corn in any quantity ( up to 500, 000 pounds or so ?) but deer corn will suffice you will not want cracked corn. So look at that.
Hank, can I use a meat grinder for grinding corn?
Chris: Yes, but it’s not fantastic. It will get you part of the way there, but you’ll still need to grind it finer.
Hey Hank, another great article! Hope you and Holly are staying safe and healthy right now. I’ve made nixtamal before using cal and using wood ash, but never heard of anyone saving the water to use in their masa. Do you think that would be okay to do when using ash? I strain all the ash from the water before ever adding the corn to simmer, so there wouldn’t be any actual ash in there.
Where can I learn more about making this with wood ash?
Awesome article, Hank! Thanks, as always. One note, my two cents: I DO see at least “one reason why”, in favor of wood ashes…the continuance of tradition! Here in Northern New Mexico, it is traditional to use Cedar (Juniper) ashes to nixtamalize the flint/ dent corns. One local expert on corn and the acequias, Miguel Santistevan, taught me and the high school agriculture class I teach, about this and other traditions. He can be found via his Sol Feliz Farm, near Taos, NM. I have not yet had the opportunity to nixtamalize my own masa/ posole, but I plan to grow my own next year, and to use wood ash to do it. 🙂
By the way, one more resource bears noting (and nice work shouting out Native Seeds S.E.A.R.C.H.); that is the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance.
Super cool, and necessary article. We will achieve the food sovereignty revolutions one tortilla at a time!
Bryan: Absolutely agree. And I’ve done it with ashes, it’s just that I’d rather do it with the slaked lime. But yes, it is a very good skill to have in your back pocket.