Dried Hominy

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I bought a pound of famous beanman's dried hominy for around $8.    I cooked up half it, and cooked it and cooked it and cooked it, giving up after 3 or so hours.    It was very "toothsome",  dense and tough.    We tossed it and the remainder half bag, $4 worth.   

 

But since we love hominy, at least the kind in the can we were brought up on, I fell under the spell of a stall at our flea market that sells all things Mexican.     Bought another pound for $2.     Soaked a third of it overnight.    Simmered it for over 3 hours.    Sauted it up this morning and topped it with easy over eggs.     Still dense and tough, but edible.   

 

What am I doing wrong, or this extraordinary "chewiness" characteristic of dried hominy?    This morning while "chewing my breakfast", I started lusting for an Instant Pot, or else a can opener.

[Maison Rustique]

I've been cooking that "famous" hominy for several years and have never had that issue. Have you moved recently to a place where your water might be harder? Have you tried dried beans recently to see if you might have the same issue with them? 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

3 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:

I've been cooking that "famous" hominy for several years and have never had that issue. Have you moved recently to a place where your water might be harder? Have you tried dried beans recently to see if you might have the same issue with them? 

Same house for 40 years; no issue with beans.

ETask, does this hominy become tender for you?

Edited February 26, 2020 by Margaret Pilgrim (log)

[blue_dolphin]

2 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

I bought a pound of famous beanman's dried hominy for around $8.    I cooked up half it, and cooked it and cooked it and cooked it, giving up after 3 or so hours.    It was very "toothsome",  dense and tough.

 

I have also cooked that hominy.  I soak overnight and cook for 2-3 hrs.  I find it pleasantly "toothsome,"  a bit denser than the canned stuff but not at all tough. 

[heidih]

My take - we become accustomed to the canned hominy which in my experience one could almost sub with canned chickpeas. Thus when you get more chew it is not familiar. But the flavor should (oh heavens using that word) pop. Perhaps like people getting so into the sweetness of corn which is highly promoted and forgetting the essence of corn. 

Edited February 26, 2020 by heidih (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

So what i'm hearing is "it is what it is" and, like Popeye and Cage aux Folies, "I yam what I yam."

[SLB]

I don't think I've ever cooked that brand of hominy (I have a full bag from some bean club dispatch); but I have cooked other dried hominy (probably Goya), and it didn't take a million hours.  I do soak it though; I have no idea whether that is traditional.

 

I don't actually like canned hominy that much, it has always tasted too *gummy* to me.  

 

Try the pressure cooker, maybe?  Don't go far from the stove though, that stuff foams like nobody's business. 

 

[I guess now everybody uses an instapot for this, which may have new technology re blocked vents.  I have the old-timey Presto, with only audio cues.]. 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

3 hours ago, SLB said:

 

 

[I guess now everybody uses an instapot for this, which may have new technology re blocked vents.  I have the old-timey Presto, with only audio cues.]. 

 

I don't have either one.   

[Katie Meadow]

I've never heard of that Beanman's brand. RG has very dependable pozole. My method is stovetop, because I don't have an IP or any kind of slow cooker. There's no question that patience is a virtue. I soak RG pozole overnight, and then it simmers at least 3 hours in order to get it to pop. During my many years in New Mexico in the late sixties and early seventies I ate plenty of posole. The best was always cooked in one of those original crock pots by my best friend's father, who grew up in Taos. He cooked it all day in that thing with a modest amount of some type of pork and then added his own chile rojo made from dried red chiles. That way guests could just add the heat to their desired taste. His posole looked more like popcorn than like kernels by the time it was ready, and it's my gold standard. 

 

Several years ago I discovered  an unused Crock Pot in one of those classic sixties colors in my basement that I believe was given  to me by my MIL and that had previously  been sitting in her garage for years. (at that time she also gave me an old 6-form popover  pan, which I do in fact use.) I got very excited and dragged the crock pot up to the kitchen so I could try to duplicated that Taos posole. I took it out of the box, promptly dropped it on the floor, where it cracked, and that was the end of that experiment. Every time I think about it I get very annoyed.  

 

Yes, I could buy a new slow-cooker or find a classic crock pot on eBay, but the fact that the stars were aligned so perfectly for about ten minutes before they fell from the sky has make me unable to act in any way whatsoever when it comes to anything but stovetop pozole.