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Nixtamaliztion - Critical Knowledge for Preppers
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So the question is, hundreds of years ago, how did the Indians know that treating corn with lye would make it more nutritious? Or in other words, how on earth did they come up with that in the first place?
I found the answer while doing research on the Choctaw Indians, who migrated up from Mexico. Before they had agriculture, they were hunter gatherers, and their primary source of starch was acorns. The knowledge of the dishes based on acorns and bear meat was handed down through the ages, and how they switched the ingredients to corn and pork, but kept the basic recipe the same.
Most acorns are not edible because of the tannic acids in them. BUT if you soak them in lye, the lye neutralizes the tannic acid and makes them edible. How they figured that out, nobody knows, but it's easy to imagine how somewhere, somehow hundreds of years ago, ashes from the fire and water and acorns somehow got mixed together at some point and eaten.
So along comes corn, and we're talking about hard maize corn. Since soaking acorns in lye softened up acorns, they just did the same with corn to soften it up, even though it is edible if you boil it long enough. And VOILA! Nixtamalized corn!
Purely by accident they unlocked the nutrients in corn and were spared from pellagra.
I found the answer while doing research on the Choctaw Indians, who migrated up from Mexico. Before they had agriculture, they were hunter gatherers, and their primary source of starch was acorns. The knowledge of the dishes based on acorns and bear meat was handed down through the ages, and how they switched the ingredients to corn and pork, but kept the basic recipe the same.
Most acorns are not edible because of the tannic acids in them. BUT if you soak them in lye, the lye neutralizes the tannic acid and makes them edible. How they figured that out, nobody knows, but it's easy to imagine how somewhere, somehow hundreds of years ago, ashes from the fire and water and acorns somehow got mixed together at some point and eaten.
So along comes corn, and we're talking about hard maize corn. Since soaking acorns in lye softened up acorns, they just did the same with corn to soften it up, even though it is edible if you boil it long enough. And VOILA! Nixtamalized corn!
Purely by accident they unlocked the nutrients in corn and were spared from pellagra.
Do recommend the Victoria grain mill
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