Making Fresh Masa

[rbenash]

Hello:

 

Here's the info on how I purchased a Nixtamatic. I never received enough interest from folks interested in a group buy, so figured I would follow up on how to get one yourself if you are so inclined.

 

Hello – finally able to purchase/import a Nixtamatic after several years of trying to find one. I contacted Nixtamatic a number of times but they would never respond. I think it’s due to a language barrier perhaps and maybe not wanting to deal with retail sails.

I simply searched for anything I could find to contact Boker directly who is a large hardware retail store near Mexico City.

Email them at:
telemarketing@boker.net.

 

Inquire about purchasing a Nixtamatic an sending to US. You will probably talk to a women named Rosy. She will quote you a price in Pesos including shipping. You then agree on the US Dollar Equivalency based on current exchange rates. In my case total plus shipping came to $510.

 

To make payment it was easiest to use POPMONEY in my case thru my credit union.

 

It worked similar to Paypal but doesn’t require a Paypal account and it was free versus trying to send a bank check to the Boker bank account in Texas.

 

Here’s where I sent payment via POPMAIL:

To A NOMBRRE DE BOKER S.A. DE C.V. (Checking)

Here’s the POPMAIL url: https://www.popmoney.com/

 

Rosy was very friendly I did have to use translation tools along the way but that was easy. She did not speak english, so couldn’t talk live.

Mention my name if you want as reference, but I don’t think you will need to.

 

Once all the details were worked out around payment, etc. The actual delivery to me in PA was very fast.

 

I did inquire about importing say 20 units or so as I was thinking there may be others that would want them and I would simply import and transfer at my cost.

 

The discount offered was minimal so I didn’t bother, and in various areas where I posted I didn’t get enough interest to make the hassle worthwhile.

 

Good luck – but if you are looking to purchase a Nixtamatic this is how you can do it!

[SherryCobySam]

After reading this in a couple of other threads, I finally bought an ultra pride. Tonight we made fresh masa and it came out amazingly smooth and perfect. We make tortillas and quesadillas at least once a week. Homemade Masa tastes so much better than Masa flour.

 

thank you for the idea!!  Now that I have the machine, I'm going to look into making dosa 

 

[rbenash]

Wow nice creative solution using the Ultra Pride wet blender.

 

The Nixtamatic had been available via Ebay purchase for the last year or so for those who are still looking for one.  

 

Don't see them now but do a search on sold listings and you will find the seller. 

 

I have used it (Nixtamatic) a number of times now using 50 lb of white dent from Honeyville Farms via Amazon also no longer listed.

 

But you can go direct to their (Honeyville) site.

 

I simply make up a batch of about 3-5 lbs and freeze it after grinding with the Nixtamatic.

 

I also freeze whole nixtamalized corn for various posole recipes with good result. For the cal I have just been using Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime listed on Amazon and

works great.

[SherryCobySam]

I have gotten organic yellow corn from Amazon and i just ordered some blue and organic white from the Roveyseed.com. They supply the tortillaria in queens, NY and they are very nice people. The idea to use the ultra pride came from this thread! I got a used one for $95 and shipping on Ebay. The friend who is teaching me is from Mexico. Her mom, who still runs her farm in Mexico, was in New York and came to my place  for a quesadilla dinner and wanted to know why we would ever use masa harina, when we could make it ourselves. I took it as a challenge. Cece has guided me and says the texture is spot on and our tortillas taste like Mexico.

Edited February 23, 2017 by SherryCobySam (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Last night's dinner was tacos.  The tortillas were made with Bob's Masa Harina...

 

 

As shown in more detail in the dinner topic:

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/156030-dinner-2018-part-1/?do=findComment&comment=2151559

 

Not bad but I think my masa was too dry.  There was no puff and only a bit of char.  I'm also afraid my griddle was too cool at 450 deg. F.

 

What temperature should the griddle be for tortillas?  Or if using the two temperature method, as I was, what should be the temperatures?

 

By the way I searched for the Rancho Gordo nixtamalized heirloom corn but found only white corn posole.

 

[rancho_gordo]

On 4/23/2018 at 10:30 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

By the way I searched for the Rancho Gordo nixtamalized heirloom corn but found only white corn posole.

 

So the posole is nixtamalized heirloom corn. It's just not ground. And you'd need a special grinder to get it fine enough for tortillas, which I haven't found on a home use level yet. 

I have to say I like that Bob;s Red Mill masa harina is organic but it's not my favorite. I wince as I say "Maseca...." which I really mostly dislike because they've taken over and pushed out a lot of small guys, not because the product is bad. They claim it's non-GMO corn. Who knows?

[rancho_gordo]

And if you have Mexican friends who look confused (or angry) when you call the grain posole, gently explain that that's how it's done in the US Southwest and that we have our own traditions with corn as well. 

prepared Hominy=posole=dried nixtamal. 

Posole is also a finished dish in the US. 
Pozole is only the finished dish in Mexico. 
Maiz para Pozole is the raw corn and nixtamal is the prepared hominy. 

There will be a test! 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

9 hours ago, rancho_gordo said:

So the posole is nixtamalized heirloom corn. It's just not ground. And you'd need a special grinder to get it fine enough for tortillas, which I haven't found on a home use level yet. 

 

Steve, this is eGullet.  I've this on my counter...

 

 

 

Tortilla press and chamber vacuum sealer shown for scale.  Think that would do it?  The problem with the Premier is it does not work efficiently for much less than a KG of material at a time and I eat maybe three of four tortillas for a meal.

 

How long does freshly ground nixtamalized corn last?  Can it be frozen?

 

[rancho_gordo]

I'm sorry. I'm somewhat confused. I'm old. Be kind.
By the way I searched for the Rancho Gordo nixtamalized heirloom corn but found only white corn posole. 
What were you looking for if not the posole? 
 

By "freshly ground nixtamalized corn", you mean masa, right? 
It's best the same day but loses a little something every day. I would guess 4-5 days in the fridge before it goes off. 
I have never froze it well but I have heard others think it's fine. 
I would make a batch and then make and cook tortillas. I've had them last well over a week once they're formed and cooked. Not as divine as right off the comal but better than using old masa. 

Sorry if I'm being dense. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

18 minutes ago, rancho_gordo said:

I'm sorry. I'm somewhat confused. I'm old. Be kind.
By the way I searched for the Rancho Gordo nixtamalized heirloom corn but found only white corn posole. 
What were you looking for if not the posole? 
 

By "freshly ground nixtamalized corn", you mean masa, right? 
It's best the same day but loses a little something every day. I would guess 4-5 days in the fridge before it goes off. 
I have never froze it well but I have heard others think it's fine. 
I would make a batch and then make and cook tortillas. I've had them last well over a week once they're formed and cooked. Not as divine as right off the comal but better than using old masa. 

Sorry if I'm being dense. 

 

Not being dense -- and I am reasonably sure I am far older and more confused.

 

My reference of "Rancho Gordo nixtamalized heirloom corn" was from this post:

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/61988-making-fresh-masa/?do=findComment&comment=1849918

 

I had assumed, apparently incorrectly, that the product was already ground.

 

By "freshly ground nixtamalized corn" I meant masa.  But I was trying to distinguish between freshly ground masa and masa made from mixing masa harina with water.

 

Do you think the Premier grinder I showed would be able to grind your posole finely enough to make tortillas?  Is the correct idea that one cooks the posole before grinding?  Thanks for your help.

 

[rancho_gordo]

I don't know about the Premier machine. I haven't had luck with it but I know others have and really like it. 

 

[edsel]

On 4/28/2018 at 6:36 PM, rancho_gordo said:

I don't know about the Premier machine. I haven't had luck with it but I know others have and really like it. 

 

I have the Premier grinder and have used it successfully to make masa from freshly nixtamalized corn. Lately I've switched to using a food processor. You have to do it in small batches and let it run a really long time. the corn eventually gets fine enough and sticky enough to form a ball in the processor. That's when you know it's ready.

[flippant]

I've got the Angel AG500 juicer, and as luck would have it, it lends itself very well to making masa. The juicer itself is essentially a 3HP motor, so it has no issues with the torque required. It's nowhere near as fast as the Nixtamatic, but for a home user it's fast enough. I was using a blender, but that necessitated adding liquid to get enough movement going and then balancing that with masa harina. With the juicer it is purely nixtamalised corn and salt.

 

The cleanup does take a while (fresh masa can be sticky!), so I normally do a double batch and then vac seal the masa in convenient portions. Heating the "old" masa in the bag to 40+ degrees and kneading it back into submission will make it easy to reform.

[Syzygies]

As Rancho Gordo is to beans, Masienda is to corn:

 

Masienda - masa supplies and ingredients

 

Started in 2014, they sell 15 varieties of Mexican landrace corn for masa, along with supplies.

 

As luck would have it, I recently gave away a never-used Indian wet grinder. I do have a commercial Vita-Prep blender, a Cuisinart food processor, and a Champion 2000 juice extractor with a nut butter mode. In another kitchen I have a long-discontinued Samap hand stone mill. I'm willing to buy either a metate and mano, or a Wonder Junior Deluxe+ Mill with masa auger (I distrust the less expensive equivalents). So I intend to figure something out, preferably stopping short of buying a Nixtamatic.

 

This is a classis "perfect is the enemy of the good" situation. The goal is to make the best tortillas one can eat all the time, not a once-in-a-lifetime bucket list cook like making potato chips. I'm reminded of grinding and extracting my own coconut milk. One has to source the right frozen coconut meat: Our fresh coconuts have insufficient fat, and frozen brands vary; country of origin is a good clue. Then extraction still doubles the work in a meal. The best Thai chefs I know, who cook Thai all the time, can't give up years of their lives to this, so they have definite preferences on which brand of canned coconut milk to use. There's something artificial about cooking Thai outside Thailand in any case; in Thailand one would go to the market and buy coconut milk from one vendor, paste from another, ... Canned coconut milk is not the same, just as masa harina is not fresh masa. Nevertheless, these cooks get to eat Thai all the time.

 

Prepping nixtamal is as easy as cooking beans from scratch. The crux move is grinding nixtamal into sufficiently fine masa. Here, I'm ready to place my bet that the winner is to grind wet in the Vita-Prep commercial blender, then thicken to the desired texture with masa harina, ideally something like Masienda sells. This is like cheating by adding white flour to whole wheat baked goods. Everyone does it.

 

I'll report back, after I've compared every approach I can, using various Masienda corn varieties.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Syzygies (log)