More and more, tortillerias here in the states and in Mexico are switching from fresh masa, made from nixtamalized corn, to instant masa harina, which is made by just adding water. While the masa harina is fine and preferable to most store-bought tortillas, as with most things, doing it the old fashioned way tastes better. But as I discovered, it's no easy feat.
The first step is to boil dry, starchy corn and add CaL, or the mineral lime, to the water. It turns the corn a beautiful, lurid yellow. I boiled for an hour and then let it sit overnight.
The next morning I rubbed the corn vigorously as I strained it and most of the slimy skin came off. So far so good and so easy. But how to grind it into that lovely dough we call masa?
I started out with the meat grinder attachment to my Kitchen Aid mixer. This made little corn sausages, not masa. Then I was told that you could do it in the bowl of a food processor. I was doubtful, even when I heard this came from TV's Alton Brown. It doesn't work. But it made a nice mash for me to feed the chickens.
The next step was to use a metate, as millions of Mexicans have done for centuries. How hard could it be? Well, step one is finding one in the United States. Molcajetes are easy enough to find on eBay but metates are rare. But I did finally find one in Texas.
I'd watched a lot of Mexican women use these and I really thought I'd get the hang of it pretty quickly. Friends, life is full of jokes and the thought that I could master a metate on a lazy Sunday morning is one of them. Other than being dog-tired, my real concern was not letting my sweat drip into the masa! Finally, after what seemed like hours, I had a sad little lump of masa, not fit to show off. The metate is a thing of beauty and I think it will sit nicely in my garden as an objet d'art. If you are as stubborn as I am and are going to continue searching for one, be aware that American Indians refer to their mortar and pestles as metate and mano, much like the Mexicans use for molcajete and mano. An Indian metate is what a Mexican would call a molcajete.
I had one last trick up my sleeve. I had a plate grinder I'd bought years ago hiding in my pantry. With the nixtamalized corn I had left, I put it through the grinder to see what would happen. Guess what? It worked. It took two passes and it was a lot of work but it made fine masa. But it was hell to clean it up and in the end, instant masa harina isn't looking too bad to me.
It's not likely I'll do this again soon but it was a great learning experience and I have a deeper appreciation for what indigenous women have done for years to keep their families fed.
Awesome, now I don't have to try making it only to discover I'd rather just buy the masa harina.
Posted by: lorien | August 06, 2007 at 08:20 AM
Years ago, standing over the miserable amoeba-shaped tortillas piled in my then-Midwestern kitchen, I learned to respect the skills of people who cook their food in ovens made of mud and dung. Culinary hubris at its finest. My cooking knowledge has exploded since then but I have never again made the mistake of taking for granted what other people--however "under-privileged" they may seem--make look so easy.
Posted by: VMB | August 06, 2007 at 06:13 PM
Please tell what is "nixtamalized" corn.
Thank you.
Posted by: Tana | August 06, 2007 at 11:43 PM
Nice. I love the stubborn determination all the way to tracking down a metate in Texas, preparing the corn and spending hours sweating into the corn.
But best of all is your great attitude when it didn't work out as hoped.
Inspiring dedication and even more inspiring acceptance of life's quirks.
Posted by: Jim | August 07, 2007 at 02:37 PM
Tana:
Here's a link to the appropriate page in the repository of all human knowledge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization
Posted by: tom | August 07, 2007 at 04:58 PM
The whole process was fun and I hope one day to be taught by a Mexican woman how to use the metate properly. I know they use it also for chiles so maybe that will be my next experiment. It looks 'tres jolie' in the garden, however!
Nixtamalization is the process of removing the skin of the corn with CaL, or lime. For some reason, I thought this would be the troublesome part and the grinding would be a breeze.
I really had thought of Maseca, the instant masa harina, as the devil but I do see where they fit in the scheme of things. I think the best thing would be to have a tortilleria that would sell masa or even a public mill for grinding your masa. I have a hunch these things aren't going to be happening in the states anytime soon.
The next question is would you pay for organic, non-GMO masa harina? People say they would but I suspect the price would be substantially higher than Maseca and I don't know if the flavor would be all that much different.
Posted by: Steven Sando | August 08, 2007 at 07:57 AM
The whole process was fun and I hope one day to be taught by a Mexican woman how to use the metate properly. I know they use it also for chiles so maybe that will be my next experiment. It looks 'tres jolie' in the garden, however!
Nixtamalization is the process of removing the skin of the corn with CaL, or lime. For some reason, I thought this would be the troublesome part and the grinding would be a breeze.
I really had thought of Maseca, the instant masa harina, as the devil but I do see where they fit in the scheme of things. I think the best thing would be to have a tortilleria that would sell masa or even a public mill for grinding your masa. I have a hunch these things aren't going to be happening in the states anytime soon.
The next question is would you pay for organic, non-GMO masa harina? People say they would but I suspect the price would be substantially higher than Maseca and I don't know if the flavor would be all that much different.
Posted by: Steven Sando | August 08, 2007 at 07:59 AM
Do you not know about Primavera masa? It's USDA organic (and therefore GMO-free) and freshly milled in Agua Caliente (Sonoma County). A 2001 article from the Chronicle talks about their work ( http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/07/18/FD182361.DTL ).
I get it at the Berkeley Farmers Market on Saturdays. They might also have other outlets.
When not able to get fresh masa from Primavera, I buy it at Mexican groceries in the East Bay or S.F. Mi Tierra on San Pablo near University in Berkeley is a reliable weekend source for La Finca's fresh masa (para tortillas o para tamales). La Palma on 24th St. in the Mission is apparently a reliable source in the City.
Posted by: Marc | August 18, 2007 at 01:57 PM
Well, we have non-GMO corn masa, too. I just wanted to do it at home. It's a special order item but we make our Rancho Gordo tortillas and the chips from real masa.
Double check on La Palma. I had a customer tell me the masa was made from masa harina. Hopefully they're wrong.
Posted by: Steven Sando | August 18, 2007 at 05:05 PM
Steve,
Sorry I forgot about your company's tortillas. Now that I think back to my visit to your stand at the FPFM, I recall seeing them, but I'm guessing that your stand's amazing array of beans interfered with my brain's memory-making abilities that day, blocking out the torillas.
For readers interested in finding out more about the fresh masa vs. dry masa battle, "Que Vivan Los Tamales: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity" (in Steve's Book List on the left) has a bit of discussion on the topic (including fascinating details about the invention of tortilla making machines), as does a September 2006 article at Grist.
Link: http://www.grist.org/comments/food/2006/09/13/masa/index.html
Posted by: Marc | August 21, 2007 at 10:05 PM
Primavera masa is the best. I insist on non-GMO corn which means organic, and that's what they use. Only $1.50/lb for the finished masa. The masa harina is not very good, not organic, and does not work well for pupusas and other applications besides basic tortillas. Honestly, there's no comparison. Bob's Red Mill masa is better quality but not organic and not a sub for the real thing either. The non-organic ones give me a stomach ache but I can eat Primavera's all day.
They're 45 mins away from me, which is closer than almost anyone else in the country but still too far for a weekly fix. You can't freeze masa and the texture goes after a couple days (it's still good for a week at least but harder to work with). I was getting it special ordered to my local Whole Foods but WF decided to stop that service.
So now I want to make my own. I bought a 5 lb bag of organic whole dried field corn from Azure Standard for $3. I found your post because I'm looking for Cal in Sonoma County. But now I'm bummed that the food processor didn't work for you. I was inspired by Alton Brown too. I have a pretty good processor though and maybe that will make a difference. AB's masa did look right in his show. I doubt he faked it.
Whether it works or not, I'll blog it :-)
Posted by: Cyndi | August 27, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Just need to make a slight correction. There are lots of people producing non-organic, non-GMO corn.
Hope the Alton Brown works for you.
Posted by: Steve Sando | August 27, 2009 at 06:44 PM
Cyndi had trouble updating her post so I'm doing it for her:
Hi Steve,
I'm trying to do a followup comment to your masa post but the software won't let me. It fills in my info automatically and lets me preview, but when I try to post it says it "can't accept this data." I tried it without the URL and that didn't work either.
The page is:
http://ranchogordo.typepad.com/rancho_gordo_experiments_/2007/08/making-masa-fro.html
And this is my comment:
Well, I made the masa. Twice. The food processor worked very well for me and the masa I got came out great. Here's the blog post, with tons of pictures, for anyone who is interested.
http://norwitz.net/blog/2009/09/04/masa-from-scratch/
Looking forward to hearing what you think.
Cyndi http://norwitz.net/
Posted by: Steve Sando | September 08, 2009 at 05:08 PM