Making Fresh Masa

[Chris Amirault]

Got an Ultra Pride and am getting ready for the first experiment. Here's the prep.

Rinsed and picked-over corn:

Following Kennedy's directions (which parallel Steve's above), here's the corn after a few minutes in the lime. Crappy photo, but you get a sense of that rich yellow color:

After about 15-20 minutes, the corn looked like this:

And the skin came off easily:

Soaking overnight for a grind tomorrow.

[Chris Amirault]

I spent a bit of yesterday grinding nixtamal and making torillas -- one of the most satisfying cooking experiences of my life.

After an overnight soak, I rinsed the nixtamal thoroughly:

In my first crack at using the UltraPride, I put whole pieces of corn into the central bin, but they were a bit too large to get the machine grinding away. So I did a bit of basic prep:

A little pre-UP prep did the trick:

I pulled the masa out a bit early, but it was still well ground and ready for making tortillas:

Well, honestly, more like gorditas:

I think that the more coarse grind makes for thicker, toothier breads -- hence the gordita comment -- but, man, these are amazing. With some tweaking, I can imagine making world-class tortillas. Already, these are so good I'm tossing the bag of Maseca out.

[Chris Hennes]

How long did you grind it for?

[Chris Amirault]

15-20 minutes?

[Chris Hennes]

And in total, how much "hands-on" time did the process require, about? I mean, I love the idea of making fresh masa, but I'm not looking for any more all-day projects at the moment!

[Chris Amirault]

I started with two pounds of sorted corn.

Prep for soak: 5 minutes; monitoring the simmer and overnight soak was negligible; draining and rinsing: a few minutes; prepping the nixtamal for the UP: ten minutes total, but I think that doing a first quick pass through, say, a KA mill would cut that by 80%; grinding: 45 minutes in two batches but largely unattended.

[snowangel]

Chris, I know this is about masa, but you make tortillas (so to speak). What mechanism did you use to press them out?

[Chris Amirault]

Standard issue Victoria tortilla press, using Diana Kennedy's brilliant split-ziplok method.

[jsmeeker]

How long does the fresh masa last? What do you with the leftover protion that doesn't get made into tortillas or whatever or into tamale dough right away?

[Chris Amirault]

I made the entire batch into tortillas the next day, after it sat in the fridge overnight wrapped in plastic. I've seen bags of fresh masa kept that way for many days, and I've also seen frozen masa for sale in AZ supermercados. Having said that, I have no idea about quality degradation. Kennedy recommends freezing the prepared tortillas after they cool, but doesn't say anything about the masa itself, I don't think.

[esperanza]

Chris, I'm a little confused by your gordita reference. The tortilla on the comal in your photo doesn't look anything like a gordita--to me, it looks just like a normal tortilla.

And I have a question: what are the dark yellow flecks in your masa and in that tortilla? The flecks look like pieces of very coarsely ground corn. I've never seen that kind of fleck in any tortillas in Mexico, or even in the USA.

The soaking time for nixtamaliz-ation seems very short. Maybe a longer soak would make grinding easier? You shouldn't have to use the molcajete, if that's what that is in the photo. Most folks use a metate y mano and forego the mechanized grinder, or use the grinder and forego the metate y mano.

[Chris Amirault]

Chris, I'm a little confused by your gordita reference. The tortilla on the comal in your photo doesn't look anything like a gordita--to me, it looks just like a normal tortilla.

They were too fat -- it was a jokey criticism of the too-coarse grind, and not a claim of authenticity.

And I have a question: what are the dark yellow flecks in your masa and in that tortilla? The flecks look like pieces of very coarsely ground corn. I've never seen that kind of fleck in any tortillas in Mexico, or even in the USA.

Again, see above: they were, indeed, flecks of very coarsely ground corn. I simply hadn't let the machine run long enough.

The soaking time for nixtamaliz-ation seems very short. Maybe a longer soak would make grinding easier? You shouldn't have to use the molcajete, if that's what that is in the photo. Most folks use a metate y mano and forego the mechanized grinder, or use the grinder and forego the metate y mano.

This machine was intended for smaller grains (rice, dal) and the larger corn pieces are a bit too big at the start, hence the mortar and pestle (not a molcajete).

[Chris Amirault]

Made another few pounds of masa today following the procedure above, broken into three batches. A couple tweaks:

Four or five quick pulses in the Cuisinart is enough to crack the corn slightly, enabling it to grind easily in the Ultra Pride.

I kept track of the amount of extra water I added throughout: a scant 8 oz for the entire 2 lbs of corn (weighed dried). I only added it when the UP started getting jumpy, with the machine making a low thudding noise instead of a smooth grinding sound.

[rancho_gordo]

Somewhere else here I think I responded about my Nixtamatic but I'm not sure. Here's

of the Nixtamatic in action. It's loud but it works like a dream and it really grinds the nixtamal. I've used it a lot and I think I need to have the grinding plates sharpened, but otherwise this thing just goes and goes. I wouldn't recommend it to the casual user!

[Chris Amirault]

Crikey. That thing is potent. It looks like a machine I saw in the window of a store down in southern AZ, about $350. What'd it run you?

[Chris Hennes]

rancho, that's a hell of a toy: it's FAST! Chris, have you had any luck getting the tortillas thinner than your "gorditas" from last time? Do you know what's driving the thickness?

[Chris Amirault]

I ground the nixtamal to a finer consistency, so they were a bit thinner. However, that's not the delimiter in the system; rather, when I press them to a thinner, er, thickness within the ziplok bag, getting them onto the comal in one slim piece is a trick. I've been thinking about using aluminum foil on one side, so I can transfer the pressed dough directly onto the comal. If anyone knows a technique, I'm all ears.

[Chris Hennes]

Are they more fragile than those made with reconstituted masa harina?

[Chris Amirault]

Before cooking, when they're thin, yep.

[rancho_gordo]

The Nixtamatic was about $200 in Puebla, I believe and I think it was about $85 to ship. It also has a dry plate for grinding masses of mole ingredients, but I fear it will affect the flavor and use it exclusively for massa.

[Chris Hennes]

The Culinary Institute of America has just posted a YouTube video that (briefly) shows the making of fresh masa in Mexico, and then the formation of the tortillas. The first thing that struck me was how non-fragile the worker's tortillas seemed to be, and they are getting taken off the tortilla press and put on the cooking surface (whose name escapes me at the moment...)

[jsmeeker]

I think the word you are looking for here is "comal"

One thing I find interesting is that the person forming the tortillas doesn't seem to make any effort to make a nice, round ball of masa. Yet when they get pressed out, they seem pretty round.

[rancho_gordo]

I could be wrong but those aren't straight tortillas. They're for tlayudas. I thought there was something else in the masa. ANyone have Kennedy's Oaxaca book handy?

[kalypso]

Not sure they're tlayudas, could have been blandas.

Here's a couple of photos of tlayudas

It was hard to tell from the video if there was something else in the corn when it was ground. It looked like old field corn to me. I do have the DK Oaxaca book but am too lazy to go get it at the moment.

[rancho_gordo]

I was lucky enough to have Lorna Sass over for dinner last week and we made tacos, and the tortillas were from masa.

Remember, the camera adds 75 pounds!

Lorna's entire post is here.