Fresh Whole Hominy

Fresh whole hominy says "corn" in elegant waves of flavor, texture, and satisfaction.

Time: 4 to 5 hours to clear the limewater, overnight to soak the corn, and 5 ½ hours to cook the hominy

Pre-Columbian Americans regarded everything they grew and cooked as sacred and alive, and considered everything within their cooking sphere bound by nature and magic. At the moment a breeze swept ashes into a pot of corn simmering in spring water on the fire, magic became a prime ingredient. The water that cooked this corn, known as limewater today, gave the kernels fresh dimensions beyond the familiar flavor of sweet corn--it brought forth floral notes and layers of mineral and clove. But that's not all. The corn ground easily into meal and made flatbreads that were soft and pliable, not brittle. And those who ate the corn felt like a million bucks. That's how we like to tell the story.

Today, corn cooked by this method is called both nixtamal (a Mexican Spanish adaptation of an Aztec term), and hominy (anglicized Algonquin). Since you asked.

Its precise origins aside, early nixtamal cookery involved wood ash, water, and maize. Properly concentrated, wood ash and water form a naturally caustic chemical called potassium hydroxide (colloquially, potash) that dissolves pericarp (the cellophane stuff that gets stuck in your teeth when you eat popcorn) straight off the kernels. The kernels are left plump, naked as a baby, and infused with an intoxicating flavor that is part corn, part exotic spice, and part mysterious scents that seem to alert your primal sensors to anticipate exceptional nutrition. It is an authentic American flavor very few of us have experienced. But you can experience it now.

Fresh hominy can be used whole, as in hominy fried in brown butter and herbs, or ground into masa to make tortillas. It can be included as a bright accent in soups and stews or deep-fried to a supple yet crisp result. It also freezes well, maintaining its unique and exceptional character.

Equipment Mise en Place
For this recipe you will need a medium enamel- or porcelain-coated pot (such as graniteware), a fine mesh strainer, a 4- to 7-quart slow cooker, a wooden spoon, and a footed colander.

Ingredients
10 cups spring or filtered water
1/4 cup culinary lime
1 ½ cups (9 ounces) Anson Mills Henry Moore Yellow Hominy Corn

Directions
1. Pour the water into a medium enamel- or porcelain-coated pot and bring to a simmer over high heat. Add the culinary lime and stir with a wooden spoon until dissolved. Remove the pot from the heat and let stand. Cover the pot as soon as the water cools a bit. (It's best to set the pot next to the slow cooker so you can decant the limewater into the slow cooker without agitating the solids that settle on the bottom.)

2. After 4 to 5 hours there will be a thin, crisp lime skin on the surface of the water. The liquid beneath will be clear, and a layer of cloudy lime solids will be hovering over the bottom of the pot. Set a fine mesh strainer over a 4- to 7-quart slow cooker. Lift the pot with limewater, tilt it gently, and pour the liquid through the strainer, leaving the cloudy solids in the pot (the lime skin will remain in the strainer). Allow the solids to settle again, then decant more limewater into the slow cooker. Repeat this process until only about a cup of cloudy solids and water remain at the bottom of the pot. Pour the lime skin and solids down the drain and rinse the sink well. Add the corn to the slow cooker. Let settle, then skim off and discard any floating kernels. Cover the slow cooker and soak the corn overnight at room temperature.

3. Set the slow cooker on low and cook the corn for 5 ½ hours. (The liquid should climb to the gentlest simmer very slowly, so slowly you that won't even notice it happening.) To check for doneness, using a wooden spoon, lift 2 or 3 kernels out of the water, rinse them under cold running water, and taste them. If done, they will be soft and ever so slightly chewy with a gel-like texture, but with no hard, starchy centers.

4. Turn off the slow cooker and, using potholders, set the ceramic insert in the sink. Run hot water into the hominy to flush out any bits of pericarp (the cellophane-like skin that encases the kernels when they're raw), stirring with a wooden spoon, for about 5 minutes. Turn the hominy into a footed colander and rinse under hot running water, rubbing the kernels between your palms (photo 1). If you're using the hominy to make Spring-Water Masa Tortillas, go straight to the recipe, as the hominy must be used while it's still hot. Otherwise, cool the hominy, then turn it into an airtight container or large zipper-lock bag, and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes about 4 cups

Cooking Remarks
Native Americans perfected the art of slow cooking. The delicacy of their clay pots demanded an equal delicacy of technique, one that kept things well under the boiling point. When we began working on this recipe, we had a tough time keeping our stovetop consistently supportive: the water alternately crept up to a boil or languished below a simmer. Unexpected evaporation required constant vigilance and fresh infusions of water. Cooking times were unpredictable. After a point, we went American old-school and bought a brand new slow cooker. Suddenly, everything we'd been fretting over came down to a single, simple formula: limewater and corn cooked on low heat for 5 ½ hours. No stirring, no liquid adjustments, no problems. With a ceramic insert and high and low heat settings, the slow cooker is a modern-day clay pot, and its timer function makes it babysitter extraordinaire.

One addendum we must make after posting raves about the slow cooker: some older slow cookers we've encountered seem to have compromised thermostats and, thus, longer cook times. But don't worry: unless your slow cooker is truly geriatric--or simply broken--it will usually, in our experience, get there in the end. Watch for that subtle little simmer.




Lime is caustic and should not come into prolonged contact with your skin. If you touch culinary lime in dry or liquid form, rinse the area with cold water. Rinse utensils and pots, and clean the sink and counters where culinary lime has been present.


Clean-up Remarks
Lime stains. Anyone with a shower stall knows that. Even the ceramic insert of our slow cooker developed a fine lime ring that resisted scrubbing. So we turned to our favorite household cleaner, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Don't laugh. This noncaustic, nonabrasive sponge can wipe a stain off of anything with very little effort.