Posole

[Liza]

We've tried blue and white and traditionally it is cooked in water with pork and peppers, etc. It's supposed to plump or open up and become soft. We had it going for a good five hours and it was still like eating gravel, and extra crunchy gravel at that.

Does it need to be soaked? Did we get an unlucky batch of posole? Should we develop a taste for gravel?

[Jason Perlow]

I'm pretty sure it has to be soaked overnight just like garbanzos.

[Jinmyo]

Liza, was this frozen, tinned, dried?

[Priscilla]

Liza, wow hardcore, starting with dried hominy, no pun intended as I despise and decry wordplay.  The recipe for posole the soup I was taught by a Mexican lady, such an excellent cook, calls for tinned, one (big old) can each of the whole non-degerminated and the degerminated, or whatever.  Yep, Juanita's Brand, you know what I mean?

If you are cooking a dried pulse or grain that seemingly will never tenderize, worldwithoutendamen, I attribute it to age of the ingredient, and I don't know if it's mitigatable.  I mean, any overnight soaking question has gotta be just about moot, doesn't it, after 5 hours' cookage, for God's sake.  IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!!!

Priscilla

[Liza]

Jinmyo, it was dried. Like big ears of corn, it was.

Priscilla, thank you. I'm thinking of tossing the rest of it to alleviate any remaining guilt feelings.

[Jinmyo]

Oh, then you definitely need to soak it overnight. Same thing happened to me with beans many years ago. Cooking for a long time is not the same thing as soaking and then cooking.

[sladeums]

If it is totally in it's raw state it should be slaked and hulled before cooking...soaking may work, I haven't tried it, though.

check this link for Diana Kennedy's instructions on preparing dried hominy (it's in the instructions for the menudo recipe at the top of the page)

click me!

note that removing the pedicel is optional, but if you don't remove it the majority of the kernels probably won't "flower".

[Rosie]

Soak it overnight. Also, there is a very good recipe for a pork stew on the back of the package (Goya).

[jordan]

Do you live at high altitude?

[B Edulis]

Liza, I had the same experience with posole -- soaked overnight, three hours of cooking and still hard like rock. I've have the rest of it in my cupboard for a couple of years  -- I'm throwin' it out now.

It's canned posole for me.

[JSD]

Have you thought about using a pressure cooker?  I hate having to think ahead, and the pressure cooker really helps out when I don't.

[jogoode]

Hi,

I searched for some threads on posole and did not find an answer to my question. So here it is:

In my experience, posole is accompanied by a plate of onions, cilantro, lime, and chips that you mix in while you eat. (occasionally I see radishes) I understand that there are probably different versions, etc... And the only posole I've eaten has been served by restaurants in downtown Poughkeepsie (a city with a large Mexican population and a number of great restaurants that cater to Mexican customers).

Please tell me if these tasty extras are particular to the posole of a certain region or if they should accompany all posole.

[docsconz]

I cannot provide any information for this thread, however, I would further the enquiry to include techniques for making posole. Are there any special techniques? I bought some in New Mexico and so far I haven't figureed out what to do with it :

[sladeums]

The dish Posole is said to have originated in Guerrero (Posole Blanco and Posole Verde) and a more commonly seen version (Posole Rojo) was said to have originated in Jalisco.

The default condiments served with Posole would be:

cabbage or lettuce, lime, and onions.

In Michoacan they also serve dried oregano.

In Guerrero, Posole Verde can be served with avocado and chicarron are as well as the oregano.

Frequently you may also bolillos, cilantro or sometimes chiles (in those places that are so slack as to not have chiles on the table).

You mention tortilla chips - that I've not seen...and it may be a compromise for the cabbage which is there as a textural component.

Basically it comes down to whatever you like, there are no specific rules - but really, cabbage, lime and onion should be there...anything else can be included to satisfy tradition, personal taste or regional demand.

As for making Posole, if you have the raw version you should be slaking it, removing the pedicel and cooking the corn per your recipes directions.

If you were asking if there were other things to do with posole - I've also seen it included in turkey caldos and chicken guisados and also saw an interesting recipe for a side dish that was posole, corn and rajas - the posole was cooked in a bit of stock until the stock reduced and then the corn and rajas added.

there were other threads disussing posole here:

click me for 'Why is Liza's posole like gravel'?

click here to find out how Posole took over the 'Chicken Soups of the World' thread

edit: added info re history/versions

Edited April 14, 2003 by sladeums (log)

[fifi]

Posole refers to the corn preparation (hominy to us) as well as a stew like preparation that contains posole so I am not sure of the question. I posted a recipe for one preparation done with leftover BBQ that I had in Queretaro on the recipe archive. You can take that technique as somewhat typical. I don't know how to put a link here but you can search on "posole". There are some posole recipes in some of the better Mexican cookbooks. Think... Bayless, Kennedy, Martinez.

[Chef/Writer Spencer]

My sous chef's wife(who's from Michuacon, Mex) makes the greatest pozole. Hominy, roasted tomato base, long stewed pork shoulder and their bones, etc. She serves it with cabbage, raw onion, homemade tortilla, Mexican oregano. I like it with chipotle puree and queso fresco. It's the bomb. Pardon the sixteen something slang.

[fifi]

Yum, Spencer. I have never tried making it with the pork shoulder. I am going to try that next time I have a crowd to feed. I think I can guess at how to make the roasted tomato "stuff". Does she start off with the pork shoulder raw? Do you have any hints on details of the technique? That cook in Queretaro seemed to think if it didn't have the Mexican oregano that the heavens would fall in and the gods would desert us!

[guajolote]

MY friends from Guanajuato (state, not city) make their posole with pork neck bones.

[operaflute]

It won't open unless the little nub (pedicel) that attached it to the cob is removed.  Most dried corn still has that nub.

[heidih]

It s actually raining here in Los Angeles so on my weekly grocery run tomorrow I will go the canned route, grab chiles and pork and play around.  @operaflute have you seen this topic?  https://forums.egullet.org/topic/97935-posolepozole-cook-off-29/

 

[operaflute]

I had not! Thx! (I actually have a pot on at the moment, using fresh nixtamal from the grocery...)

[heidih]

Well the we expect photos, details for inspiration  I really really hope this is not behind a paywall. This posole article is embedded in my brain from 1994 By Patricia Quintana  (yes I am odd)  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-13-fo-49542-story.html

Edited December 9, 2021 by heidih (log)

[kayb]

Look in the Recipe Gullet for Castaneda Posole. The very best.

[operaflute]

@heidih No paywall, though it doesn't like ad blockers, which is fair enough.  Thanks for sharing!

Today's culinary adventure is a "while you work" sort, which means no food photography playtime for me today.  I will say it was inspired by getting sorrel from my CSA. (Really.)  I wanted to do something different than the classic cream of sorrel soup, yet it IS soup weather, by AZ standards.   There are clouds in the sky!  It might actually rain!

I'm using James Peterson's recipe (which, in turn, comes from Diana Kennedy) that includes all the usual things (pork, chiles - not many, the corn) plus sorrel, ground pepitas, and tomatillos, (surprise - got those from CSA, too!)

I'm going to have to gobble it down before rehearsal tonight, which is a shame.

@kayb Hm - not coming up for me on a search...

[kayb]

When I'm on my laptop as opposed to my phone, ill post a link. If it'll ever get cold here, that's on my list.