It doesn’t get much simpler than this.
We talked about the process for making hominy (nixtimalization) in the post for tortillas from Ceres, California. But here’s a very general sketch of why it’s required.
You can’t make dough out of corn and water without chemical intervention, because the starches are tangled up in cell walls of hemicellulose, which is basically a bramble of proteins and complex sugars linked together kind of randomly and imperfectly. Soaking the kernels in a calcium hydroxide solution breaks the bonds holding the proteins and sugars together, freeing existing starches trapped in the cells, allowing the sugars in the hemicellulose to form starches, and changing the structure of the proteins.
But again, that’s a very broad, high-level explanation. The details are a bit more complex. So, I guess maybe it does get simpler than this.
From the box of C.N. from De Soto, Kansas.
Hominy and Sausage
- Place hominy in baking dish.
- Lay link sausages or cakes of sausage over the top of the hominy.
- Bake in a hot oven until sausages are well done.
Baked Sausages and Apples
- Wash and slice apples.
- Place the apples in a baking dish.
- Sprinkle wit small amount of sugar.
- Place sausages over the top and bake in a hot oven until apples and sausages are done.
Catherine Nichepor