My Grandma made hers outside over a fire in a huge cast iron kettle and the lye was also homemade from woodash. She was old school, born in 1891. It sure was good and made good grits when dried and ground too.
My grandmother learned to make hominy from her grandmother, a full-blood Tsalagi (Cherokee) woman. She taught me to make it with wood ashes lye. We used this hominy to make corn soup - really good with frybread!
Yum. I love hominy! My favorite way to use it is to make pozole - porky stew with hominy, chilies and vegetables. I've always used pickling lime (calcium hydrate) instead of lye.
Fantastic! I'm from California and I've always loved corn meal mush. I didn't have grits until I was stationed in Virginia, Florida, Georgia, & North Carolina as a Marine Corps officer. Outstanding stuff! I didnt know that hominy was made. I love learning this stuff! Thank you...viewing from Bellflower, California, USA 😎🤠
So informative! I feel empowered and now know that field corn can be an integral part of my homestead/survival strategy. I love learning from you guys!
thanks for demonstrating how to use baking soda. I learned to make hominy with wood lye and later commercial lye. I'm going to have to try it with baking soda.
Thank you so much for this. I love hominy & grits & have watched my Grandmother do this but I have never done it since. She used the lye & was very careful around me but she did it just as you described. Now I have to find some corn - a gallon will not be enough in my house. We eat grits every day.
Thanks. I was making pozole and bought hominy (dried corn) in bulk without realizing it had to be de-shelled(?). As soon as I put the baking soda in, the skins turned yellow and started sliding off. You saved me a trip to the store!
Wanda I just watched a video on making tortillas & it showed it starting from field corn.. I am going to have to try this. Thank you for sharing. :) He used pickling lime to make his corn soft to get the skins off from it .
I use baking soda brine over night to tenderize meats. Steaks, Pork Chops ect, the steaks and chops are so tender, juicy and full of flavor. The trick is? after the over night brine, Risens it off good. pat dry the steaks and chops > i like to use chicken broth, on chops, beef broth on steaks. Then them butter it, then your seasoning let set out 1 hour or more so it can suck up the seasonings Then there ready for the pit to smoke and grill
Thank you so much for this recipe. I will definitely be trying this one. Hominy is one I always wanted to make, but was afraid of the lye. Looking forward to other recipes with the hominy.
Don't be afraid of the lye. The extreme alkaline water solution unlocks the nutrition from the corn and removes the outer shell. People have been using lye in this and other processes for thousands of years--YOU CAN TOO!!!
I had bought the lye to make hominy, but I didn't think about the fumes in the house. I've made lye soap inside and don't remember any fumes. My garden gave me about 3 cups of dried field corn. I add hominy t my green chili stew.
We do grind it straight from the cob to use. But if you want a flour that will stick together to make tortillas or flatbread, making hominy first and dehydrating helps.
If you want to use wood ash in the summer, save some ash in sealed Mason Jars for the summer in the winter. Natives still use wood ash, because it tastes the best, my people been using wood ashes for hundreds of years...
Very informative video. Have been developing a desire to shell/mill my own corn to flour like I am now doing for 100% whole wheat bread. However, after a couple of years reading about the loss of nutrients and fiber in AP flour vs Whole Wheat, can the same logic be applied to Hominy where the husk and germ are removed? At my advanced age, probably any nutritional loss is meaningless, however, for those who are younger is this an issue?
Wanda, when you changed the water in the pot did you pour out the old and re-cover the Corn with hot water or cold that had to be brought back up to a slow simmer? also did you add fresh Baking Soda to it each time or only the first time? Do all the husks float to the top and separate easily? so you don't have to mess around with sieves and colanders? (I thought you were joking about dehydrating the Corn kernels, lol 😄) All this messing around to re-hydrate the dried field corn which you then DEhydrate? I thought for sure it was an April Fool kinda thing.
I am guessing she cooked it and instead of canning it she decided to dehydrate it. Seems much simpler. If she canned it it can just be reheated and eaten but, if it is dehydrated she can cook it or grind it to a fine flour. I grind my own corn for tortillas and except for eating the hominy I follow pretty much the same routine as explained here.
This northerner is wondering why you process corn into hominy instead of just cooking the cornmeal and corn. I love corn and cornmeal and have eaten lots of grits that I bought at the store. Are store bought grits actually hominy grits? Does this process make it more digestible? thanks. love all your videos.
This process is called nixtamilation, and it releases the niacin in the corn, making the corn more nutritious. Amazing how many centuries ago, untaught people developed this process.
Yes, but so some lime has chemicals in it. Baking soda does the same thing and is safer. This is how we did it 25 years ago. Also many tutorials online using baking soda or lime.
Hi. I have never eaten hominy. My folks may have tried to force feed it to me but I don't remember ever liking it. But, I love corn and my digestion does not like whole corn and I may be able to digest hominy better. Q: After the corn is nixtamalized and cooked down several times as you have shown, is the hominy soft, chewy, crunchy? How long should it be cooked before it can be eaten. Probably easiest to explain the chewiness of the hominy...know what I mean?Thanks. I like the video and hope I like the hominy.