Traditional Mexican Culinary technique to make Corn Masa after Nixtamalization, grinded on a Metate
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- Traditional Mexican Culinary technique to make Corn Masa after Nixtamalization, grinded on a Metate;
Please allow me to show and share with you, how to make after a Nixtamalization an authentic Mexican Masa on an authentic Mexican prehispanic culinary tool, called ‘Metate’.
General Information:
Corn is native to Central America and some of the oldest corn seeds found in a cave are older than 10thousand years.
There are many different varieties and types of corn, I could not think of an color which you would not find in corn seeds, including black, purple, blue, green, red, yellow, white, pink and others
To make an authentic Nixtamal and Masa for Tortillas, we always use dry Corn seeds, not fresh Corn
Masa is the base to make corn tortillas but also many other things like Tamales, Tlacoyos, Sopes, Gorditas, Corundas, Huaraches, Atole drinks and many other preparations of Central American cuisine
The way to make authentic Masa is the same way the Nahua (Aztec) people had made it, the process is called ‘Nixtamalization’ and also the industry which makes comercial dehydrated masa, uses the same cooking process and technique
How nixtamalization was discovered is not known, but one possibility may have been through the use of hot stones to boil maize in early cultures, or when they used water from lakes with high amounts of minerals.
To cook the corn, don't use aluminum cooking ware that is not so great and in fact dangerous. Calcium Hydroxide + Aluminum = Hydrogen Gas and you don't want hydrogen gas in your kitchen with an open flame. Stainless Steel is the best or like traditional in the old days in a claypot.
How to make Masa from Nixtamal;
The most authentic Tool and already since prehispanic times to make masa, is of course a Metate grinder which is a tool made from natural rocks usually vulcanic. (The darker, the best, because it means its older aged volcanic rock material)
Once the old world got connected to the new world and different metals had been introduced to the culture, also tools changed, now we can find hand or electric corn grinder which would be my second choice after a Metate grinder.
Kitchen aid grinder or food processor would probably also work after lots of effort and time, but to be honest, there is never going to be a better masa than made on a Metate rock grinder, it's the authentic traditional ancestry way and the flavor and texture are just different but perfect when you use these tools, even it takes lots of work.
To make the masa all you need to do is grind the cooked corn, choosing one of the before mentioned tools, if the dough is too dry, add a little bit of the liquid from the cooking process. The more you grind, the finer or cursor gets the dough, the dough should always hold together like a playdough and should not stick on your dry hands.
Use you masa right away to make your tortillas or whatever you have planned to make with it. You should not store fresh made Masa for more than 24 hours, because it gets sour / bad fast.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge Chef! A traditional preparation of mole using the metate would be really great to see too!
Thank you for your kind words Maximas and yes soon I will also post some tradtional made Mole :)
Best wishes from Mexico,
Lic. Chef David Jahnke
Fascinating! I'm confused on the metate. You seem to be using well worn stones. How do those of us who want to try making fresh masa buy a useable metate?
Dear Jeniffer, thank you for your question, those 3 metates I have in the Video all come from different areas of Mexico but just one is antique and the black and light colored one are actually pretty new made pieces. But as long as you have cured the metate well, it wont be much different on the working technique you will use to make masa, you make it the same way on a new metate as on a worn metate.
Hope that helped and let me know if you have any other questions,
best wishes,
Lic. Chef David Jahnke
I enjoyed this video. I wish you would have had some close-ups. I subscribed. Thank you for posting this. Blessings, Health, Prosperity and Peace to you and yours and to all who read this!
😘👍😇💖
Dear Jane, thank you for your kind words and for subscribing, its very appreciated, sadly I dont have much equipment to make those videos, belive it or not but I am using my cellphone to record those videos and sorry for poor quality, hopefully in future I can get better quipment to serve you with more quality :)
Best wishes from Mexico,
Lic. Chef David Jahnke
❤
Saludos de San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico :)