Tortillas, Frijoles Refritos, and Other Basics of Mexican Cooking

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Leave the ears of corn on the stalk until their husks have turned tan and paper-like and the individual kernels of grain on each cob feel very hard and dry. The harder and drier, the better: The best masa is made from corn which—prior to grinding—contains no more than 15% moisture.

When your corn has cured enough to pick, harvest the ears and store them in a crib, an open upstairs room, or some other place where they'll be protected from the rain yet exposed to a free flow of air. Whatever you do, though, don't try to speed up this final drying process by "baking" the ears of corn in the sun. That will only unnecessarily cause the grain to lose nutritional value.

Within a month, more or less (depending on where you live), of the time you shuck and store your corn, the individual kernels on each cob should be dry enough (bone dry!) to shell and make into hominy.

Hominy is nothing but kernels of corn that have had their hulls and germ removed. This can be done by boiling the grains in either [1] limewater or [2] lye water. I prefer to use the first solution because [a] it's quicker, [b] powdered lime can be obtained from most hardware stores, and [c] the limewater method, traditionally, has been used the most in Mexico.

CAUTION: Although countless generations of unschooled peasants have routinely and safely made their own hominy with both limewater and lye solutions, we "civilized" folks sometimes foolishly forget that either lye or lime can be caustic enough to dissolve an aluminum pan. Use either solution only in a glass, stainless steel, or unchipped enamelware container. And keep whichever mixture you use out of the reach of children and away from your skin.

To turn two quarts of corn into hominy using the limewater method, start by dissolving four heaping tablespoons of powdered lime in four quarts of water. Then cook and stir the kernels of grain in the solution over a low heat until their hulls begin to loosen (a few will float to the top). At that point, remove the container of corn and limewater from the stove.

CAUTION: When using either lye or lime to make hominy, it's very important that you allow your caustic solution to cool completely at this stage of the game before you begin to handle the corn you're processing. The steam from both lye and lime can "burn" you just as severely as the liquid or solid form of either substance.

After the pan has cooled, carefully pour off the lime solution and fill the container with fresh water. Then drain and rinse the corn several more times until the rinse water is clear and free from all traces of lime. During this part of the process, you can work the mixture with your fingers to remove stubborn hulls and the kernels' dark germs.

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