If you ever eaten doritos (and other chips) from Mexico you’ll notice they taste different and better. Alex and I prefer them to the ones here in the states. I was eating some a couple days ago and noticed the bag said “Nixtamalizado,” then yesterday I came across an article talking about how tortillas that go through this process are much better than store bought ones (duh) So, I went into a tiny research hole, especially since we have been making our tortillas at home just like my grandmother use to prepare her masa (dough) using this process. While doing some reading I found this beautiful lithograph showing the Nixtamalization process. And of course we have the entire book within the American Indian and Indigenous Studies collection American Indian and Indigenous Studies collection at The Newberry.
The process of nixtamalization was first developed in Mesoamerica, where maize was (and continues to be) originally cultivated. For the preparation of maize (corn), or other grain, the corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (but sometimes wood ash lye) washed, and then hulled. This process is known to remove up to 97–100% of aflatoxins from mycotoxin-contaminated corn. Nixtamalized maize has several benefits over unprocessed grain: it is more easily ground; its nutritional value is increased; flavor and aroma are improved; and mycotoxins are reduced. Lime and ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the maize.
Language lesson: the náhuatl nixtamalli or nextamalli (Mexican Spanish nixtamal) word is a compound of nextli “ashes” and tamalli “unformed corn dough, tamal”
“Las Tortilleras,” from Voyage pittoresque et archéologique, dans la partie la plus intéressante du Mexique by Carl Nebel, 1836, [Call number: Ayer 656.4 .N4 1836]
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