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How to make hominy without lye or wood ash.

 
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Good afternoon folks! How's everyone? I wanna create hominy without any ash or lye. Which ingredients I need to create a better tasting hominy dish without lye or ash? I'm new to cooking hominy and I just harvested corn this year. Please shoot back if you need me. Take care.
 
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One can use baking soda by turning it into washing soda before using it like a weaker lye. Put it in a pan on medium to high heat and stir occasionally until it stops bubbling (as CO2 offgasses and the bicarbonate converts to carbonate).

One can also use calcium hydroxide, known as lime or cal, which is the traditional alkali in Mexican cuisine. It can be made by heating limestone in a fire, but you can also buy it.

Some sort of alkali is needed in order to make hominy. In my experience using wood ash or sodium carbonate, it is not perilous, but it is recommended to wash your hands after touching it and not have them in extended contact with the solution. During the washing stage, where the skins are rubbed off, there is a need to touch the corn (I use my bare hands) but the alkali is much diluted with water during this step.
 
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M Ljin wrote:... Some sort of alkali is needed in order to make hominy. In my experience using wood ash or sodium carbonate, it is not perilous, but it is recommended to wash your hands after touching it and not have them in extended contact with the solution.  


This is not just for the flavor. It is called "Nixtamalization" and is a chemical reaction with the corn so "It is more easily ground, its nutritional value is increased, flavor and aroma are improved, and mycotoxins are reduced by up to 97–100% (for aflatoxins)" (Wikipedia) and it allows humans to better absorb tryptophan which is needed for Vitamin B3.  Eating a high corn diet without pretreating it, risks a disease which is essentially Vit B3 (niacin) deficiency.

If you only plan on eating corn once a month, this is possibly not an issue, but if it's to be an important part of ones diet, it would be good to prepare it the traditional way it was prepared for health reasons.
 
Blake Lenoir
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Good evening! Where could I find alkali? How I use baking soda in place of ash and lye?
 
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