Subject: Ash washing corn.

From: [email-masked] (David Adams)
Date: 10 May 93 14:00:57 CDT

Can anyone tell me how to ash wash corn grain to prepare it for grinding 
to make masa?  I understand that this is how poor people used to
process their own home grown corn?  Still do?

What does ash washing do?  I know it makes a difference in the taste
because I tried grinding up some purple corn I grew and it tasted 
awful!  I could chew on the corn dried kernels and the taste was 
fine, but when I ground them up and tried to make tortillas the 
taste just wasn't right.

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--David C. Adams  Statistician  Cray Research Inc.  [email-masked]

They moved all the streets around while you were sleeping last night.

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From: [email-masked] (John Sugg)
Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 11:29:00 GMT

>to make masa?

I expect that the ash washing soften the outer husk the corn and this
gave a slight lye taste to the corn. My grandmother use to make hominy
this way. She saved ashes from her wood fire in a ashes hopper and
would pour water through the ashes to extract the lye. With the lye
she would either make soap or hominy. For Hominy she would soak the
corn in lye water for several days then wash it through several waters
to remove the lye.

Regards
John Sugg

--
JOHN SUGG                                                               00010001
YELLOW HAMMER FORGE                                                     00020001
WAVERLY,ALABAMA USA                                                     00030001
                                                                        00040001
"TWO THINGS THAT WILL SEND A BLACKSMITH TO HELL;NOT CHARGING ENOUGH FOR 00050001
HIS WORK AND BEATING COLD IRON."                                        00060001

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From: [email-masked] (David Adams)
Date: 12 May 93 12:29:11 CDT

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (John Sugg) writes:
|
|
|
|>Can anyone tell me how to ash wash corn grain to prepare it for grinding
|>to make masa?
|
|I expect that the ash washing soften the outer husk the corn and this
|gave a slight lye taste to the corn. My grandmother use to make hominy
|this way. She saved ashes from her wood fire in a ashes hopper and
|would pour water through the ashes to extract the lye. With the lye
|she would either make soap or hominy. For Hominy she would soak the
|corn in lye water for several days then wash it through several waters
|to remove the lye.
|
|Regards
|John Sugg
|

So you don't have to boil it?  You just soak it?  How do you dry it 
after rinsing the lye off?  How many rinses are needed?

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  Old cowboys never die.  They just smell that way!

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From: [email-masked] (Scott Fisher)
Date: Thu, 13 May 1993 00:49:54 GMT

>fine, but when I ground them up and tried to make tortillas the 

Soaking the corn kernels in ash (actually in lime, which is what,
calcium carbonate?) dissolves the outer husk of the corn kernels
(you know, the stuff that gets stuck between your teeth and your
gums when you eat popcorn).  

Note, since we've got rec.food.veg on the list, that corn is
worse than most grains in the protein complementarity scale.`
That is, if too much of your diet contains corn without a
corresponding amount of legumes, you eventually get a disease
called pellagra.  Can't remember the symptoms but it's not
much fun.  (No, this isn't something that will happen to you
on Thursday if you eat corn without beans on Tuesday, it's
a many-months kind of thing, like most dietary problems.)

The obvious solution for this is to eat frijoles with your masa.
Either make pupusas stuffed with beans or roll your fresh corn
tortillas around some nice simmered beans, or make tamales with
beans in them. 

Pupusas are a sort of native American version of an Indian paratha,
a stuffed bread.  Make your masa, mash up beans and/or cheese (and
readers of non-veg newsgroups can use shreds of pork too), and
then make a thin tortilla from the corn.  SPread your filling on
the tortilla; make another tortilla, place it on the filling, and
pinch the edges of the tortillas together so that they form a kind
of hermetically sealed pita bread stuffed with beans, cheese, or
whatever you like.  Grill as for a normal tortilla, and serve
with salsa or curtido (a Salvadorena dish made from shredded
cabbage, salted and spiced with red peppers and garlic -- sort of
a Latino kim chi).  Great stuff, pupusas.

--Scott

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From: [email-masked] (Dave Platt)
Date: Fri, 14 May 1993 05:42:59 GMT

>much fun.

Dermatitis, gastrointestinal disturbances, and nervous-system
impairment.  No fun at all.

The problem with corn is that it hits you with a nutritional double-
deficiency.  It's low in niacin (an essential B vitamin) in absorbable
form, and in tryptophan (an essential amino acid which is a metabolic
precursor to niacin).  If you subsist on nothing but corn for an
extended period, you deplete your body's reserve supply of niacin and
develop pellegra.  Corn protein is also low in lysine.

Lye-treating the corn converts much of its niacin to an absorbable form,
and (oddly enough) makes corn's principal storage protein (zein) _less_
digestable.  This raises the relative digestability of corn's other
proteins, which have a higher percentage of tryptophan and lysine.
Alkali-treated corn yields almost three times as much lysine as
untreated corn.

[Reference - page 199 of "Blue corn & square tomatoes" by Rebecca Rupp.

>tortillas around some nice simmered beans, or make tamales with

Yup.  Lysine-rich beans and lysine-poor corn make a good combination.

-- 
Dave Platt                                                VOICE: (415) 813-8917
              Domain: [email-masked]      UUCP: ...netcomsv!ntg!dplatt
 USNAIL: New Technologies Group Inc. 2470 Embarcardero Way, Palo Alto CA 94303

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From: [email-masked] (David Adams)
Date: 14 May 93 11:55:21 CDT

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Dave Platt) writes:
|
|The problem with corn is that it hits you with a nutritional double-
|deficiency.  It's low in niacin (an essential B vitamin) in absorbable
|form, and in tryptophan (an essential amino acid which is a metabolic
|precursor to niacin).  If you subsist on nothing but corn for an
|extended period, you deplete your body's reserve supply of niacin and
|develop pellegra.  Corn protein is also low in lysine.
|
|Lye-treating the corn converts much of its niacin to an absorbable form,
|and (oddly enough) makes corn's principal storage protein (zein) _less_
|digestable.  This raises the relative digestability of corn's other
|proteins, which have a higher percentage of tryptophan and lysine.
|Alkali-treated corn yields almost three times as much lysine as
|untreated corn.
|

Does this mean that when I buy "High lysine corn meal" from the food
co-op, that it is really corn that has been lye-treated.

Also-no one as yet has offered a recipe for lye-treatment or ash-washing
other than to say "soak some dried corn in some lye water or ash water
for a few days."  Does anyone have any more specifics?  

|[Reference - page 199 of "Blue corn & square tomatoes" by Rebecca Rupp.
|
|Dave Platt                                                VOICE: (415) 813-8917
|              Domain: [email-masked]      UUCP: ...netcomsv!ntg!dplatt
| USNAIL: New Technologies Group Inc. 2470 Embarcardero Way, Palo Alto CA 94303

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From: [email-masked] (Dave Platt)
Date: Sun, 16 May 1993 20:50:14 GMT

>co-op, that it is really corn that has been lye-treated.

That's one possibility.  It's also possible that it comes from a
cultivar of corn which has been specifically bred for higher lysine
availability.  It's even possible (although unlikely I would think) that
you're actually buying a cornmeal product which has a small amount of
soybean meal added to it, to boost the lysine levels.
-- 
Dave Platt                                                VOICE: (415) 813-8917
              Domain: [email-masked]      UUCP: ...netcomsv!ntg!dplatt
 USNAIL: New Technologies Group Inc. 2470 Embarcardero Way, Palo Alto CA 94303