I’ve made the Nourishing Traditions (NT) cornbread several times and really like the recipe. The key is that I use masa harina rather than using the technique of grinding whole dry corn kernels and then soaking them in yogurt and lime water. I’ve heard horror stories on the discussingnt Yahoo group about following those directions.
(NT) cornbread several times and really like the recipe. The key is that I use Additionally, I’m not convinced that the NT method of “nixtamalizing” corn is quite in keeping with tradition. It doesn’t sound like any practice I can find in the Handbook of Indigenous Fermented Foods or anywhere else. The traditional process is said to greatly increase the nutritional value of corn, increasing the protein value and also other nutrients. Societies that use corn as a staple and neglect the nixtamalization process tend to have problems with pellagra or kwashiorkor.
Nixtamalization sounds complicated. I made hummus once from dry garbanzos, and decided it was too much work rubbing off the outer skin. Nixtamalization sounds about the same. Imagine my delight when I discovered that you can actually buy nixtamalized corn in little packages in the store. It’s called posole or hominy.
So rather than try to adapt the NT cornbread recipe, I tried Sue Gregg’s blender cornbread recipe. In place of whole kernel dry corn, I used the packaged posole/hominy. Because the hominy is not pre-ground into meal, I get the full nutritional value of freshly ground meal. The only thing I might change in this recipe is to add a little baking soda. I used yogurt in this recipe and it’s a bit on the sour side. ½ teaspoon of soda should neutralize the sour.
I know this is an old article but I will post anyhow.
You are correct the easiest thing to do is buy the masa the problem is most of the masa on the market is from Genetically modified corn & laden with pesticides.
There are very few people who sell Organic Masa Harina
you pretty much have to buy it on the internet at a high price.
I would think that making it from the whole dried corn kernals is much safer than from corn meal. To me it seems to much of the lime water would be absorbed in the meal.
To me the dangers out way the benefits so I will either cough up the dough for the Organic stuff or just go without it.