Hominy is corn that has first been dried, then soaked in lye in order to remove the bran and the germ. germ? bran? lye? The germ is the part that grows into the baby, the bran is essentially the hull of the kernel. I've never noticed the corn germ, personally, I'm too busy stealing its food. Lye is sodium hydroxide, sometimes known as Drain-O, other times known as Liquid Plummer. Now, don't ask me why lye doesn't kill us, I would assume that one uses a very dilute solution of NaOH in food preparation. (kids, don't try this at home, even if you use a diluted liquid plummer to soak your corn in, you'll probably end up dead, by and large). I know what you're thinking, this is some new fad food, or it was created by a biofuels manufacturer that is foisting some gasoline byproduct on an unsuspecting public. Nope. The Guatemalans have been making Hominy in this manner for over 3,300 years. You want fad-food? Try foam.
At least, this is what a little web research has taught me, because until yesterday I had no idea what Hominy was until I prepared it from scratch by opening some canned Hominy and stuffing it into my piehole. Believe me you, Hominy is good stuff, and so I will capitalize it all day long.
Hominy is famous, too, kind of. Remember Menudo? Ever wonder where they got their name? Menudo is a Mexican soup of tripe and hominy. Tripe, as you probably know, is the lining of a cow's stomach. It seems like a bad name for a band, truthfully, I guess they thought that we would like the sound of it. Menudo. Maybe we should take a lesson in marketing. What's the grossest thing we eat? Let's all move to Spain and start a band called The Hot Dogs.
Last night we had Corn & Hominy chowder. It tasted great, and the combination of Hominy with its progenitor, corn, is so wrong that its brilliant. Be sure to use fresh corn. There is no (good) substitute for corn you have removed from the cob yourself. It was a very easy chowder to make, just chop everything and boil it gently for 15 minutes. We also made corn bread from a box. This is a meal that should be served at the Corn Palace.
4 comments:
I should mention that this is a vegetarian recipe! Granted, I added some pancetta, myself, and used chicken stock, but a vegetarian version would be just as good.
My god! I had no idea that's how they made hominy. I am a little horrified but that won't stop me from continuing to stuff my face with grits all winter long. Yes, grits are made from hominy! I guess that makes them a third generation corn product.
I'm trying that recipe.
The last step in the preparation is to rinse out the lye. Like in lutefisk! (the work lutefisk should always be followed by an exclamation point)
The funny thing about hominy, is if you've lived in a Southern state, or, say, IOWA, you've eaten plenty of it. But if you're from too far north, its practically alien.
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