Let's hear it for Hominy!!

[Billnpatti]

Properly prepared, menudo is delicious. Some folks do not like it because of the "poop" taste of the tripe. :barf: That is remedied by simply thoroughly cleaning and soaking the tripe before cooking it. If the tripe is not properly cleaned, I can't stand it either. I just don't have a sweet tooth for poop. :nono: :shake:

The other reason some folks have for not liking tripe is the rubbery, fatty texture. I resolve that by cutting the tripe into small bite size pieces so you don't end up chewing on a piece of tripe about the size of your hand.

The last solution is to make Gringo Menudo by simply substituting pork and/or chicken for the tripe. It has all of the delicious taste of properly prepared menudo without the tripe.

Damn! Talking about it is making me hungry. Now I have to go make some menudo. :haha:

 

[satx78247]

ImVho, there are TWO kinds of menudo: AWFUL & GREAT.

Frankly, I don't know a single person who is "neutral" on menudo. - We either LOVE it or "wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole".

yours,satx

 

[crockett]

I'm interested in the pc aspects and I'm learning here. So grits are the whole kernel ground into bits and then by winnowing the hulls parts are blown away?
And Hominy is the whole kernel with hull removed? And the "quick cook" grits are actually hominy that's ground up? And masa flour is hominy finely ground?
BTW- I am reading the Lewis & Clark Journals (Devoto Edition) Some of the far western tribes were unaware of hominy according to L&C.

 

[George]

So grits are the whole kernel ground into bits and then by winnowing the hulls parts are blown away?

Don't know about being thrown away, but grits are a particular coarse grind of corn or some other grains, coarser than cornmeal. If the grain is oats, they are called oat groats.

And Hominy is the whole kernel with hull removed? And the "quick cook" grits are actually hominy that's ground up? And masa flour is hominy finely ground?

Yes, but not just having the hull removed. The treatment loosens the hull, but also changes the rest of the kernel, making it softer, swells it up and bleaches out the color so it is mostly white. In the east this was traditionally done with lye or ashes, in Central America it was done with lime. Both processes make the corn healthier, making niacin available. Yes, quick grits are dried and finely ground hominy. Masa is the same, but ground as fine as flour.

Spence

 

[omarick1948]

I don't care how drunk I got the night before Menudo is a no go just can't do the tripe.

That's OK...Just have a couple eggs instead!.. :rotf:

 

[omarick1948]

Properly prepared, menudo is delicious. Some folks do not like it because of the "poop" taste of the tripe. :barf: That is remedied by simply thoroughly cleaning and soaking the tripe before cooking it. If the tripe is not properly cleaned, I can't stand it either. I just don't have a sweet tooth for poop. :nono: :shake:

The other reason some folks have for not liking tripe is the rubbery, fatty texture. I resolve that by cutting the tripe into small bite size pieces so you don't end up chewing on a piece of tripe about the size of your hand.

The last solution is to make Gringo Menudo by simply substituting pork and/or chicken for the tripe. It has all of the delicious taste of properly prepared menudo without the tripe.

Damn! Talking about it is making me hungry. Now I have to go make some menudo. :haha:

When I was in the freight business, I used to haul tons of "Tripe Bleach" to a lot of packing house. It was used for cleaning and bleaching tripe. If your tasting "poop"...stop! Your eating too far back on the critter!

 

[jackley]

2 lbs hot breakfast sausage
1 large onion diced
2 16 oz. jars favorite salsa
2 16 cans hominy drained
fresh cilantro


Brown the sausage with onions throw in the salsa and hominy top with cilantro. Eat till you founder.

Enjoy

Jerry

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Sorry but Grits ARE made from ground hominy.

The kernel portion of maize does NOT come away from the endosperm through "winnowing". Winnowing is the separation of chaff from grain, not parts of the grain from other parts.

To remove the husk the husk MUST be treated with an alkali solution. It is then called Hominy, and from that point it is maybe be used or ground into grits, or even finer into meal or Masa flour.

Spence10 wrote:
Don't know about being thrown away, but grits are a particular coarse grind of corn or some other grains, coarser than cornmeal. If the grain is oats, they are called oat groats.

UH...no...a "groat" is one of several cereal grains that are yet to be ground or cut. Oats and rye are groats when taken directly off the stalk.

Wheat is sometimes called a "groat" but is more often called "berries" aka "wheat berries" though some say "kernel" when talking about wheat, and barley is often called a "corn", which is why early books mention barleycorn and Indian corn so there would not be confusion.

Maize is in kernels as are the seeds of the oil palm.

LD

 

[George]

UH...no...a "groat" is one of several cereal grains that are yet to be ground or cut. Oats and rye are groats when taken directly off the stalk.

You may be right. But the jury is still out. :wink:
dictionary.com
groats: hulled grain, as wheat or oats, broken into fragments:
Old English grot meal; akin to grits

British Dictionary
groats: the hulled and crushed grain of oats, wheat, or certain other cereals:
Old English grot particle; related to grota fragment
n. hulled grain coarsely ground or crushed; oatmeal; early 14c

Oxford English Dictionary
late Old English grotan (pl) related to grot, grit, grout
Hulled (sometimes also crushed) grain, especially oats

Grits/groats are confusing. But they taste great. :haha:

Spence

 

[tenngun]

'All that sold in a shambles is good to eat' St. Paul. " a well regulated militia' words from the past can be a pia to translate. Local definitions may have been changed just 50 miles away. Speaking the Kings English in norththumbria might not even be understood by some one from lands end.

 

[George]

Well, you've finally convinced me, tenngun. You've come close, before, but I now see the light, it's absolutely impossible to ever figure out what the old boys did, how they lived, what they ate, how they talked or anything else. It was a crazy idea from the beginning to think we could ever actually discover any truths from yesteryear, too many choices, too many contradictions, to much has changed, too many paths to follow, it's all hopeless. Too many damned Romans.

You interested in buying any guns, clothes, gear, books or anything else left over from this failed endeavor? :wink:

Spence

 

[Gene L]

As I said before, my friend Rich grinds corn into grits...not hominy, just corn he travels a good ways to find the best.

I think "hominy" is a Native American word for dried corn, but I don't know. This may be a source of my confusion as the two seem to be sometimes used together. I used to think grits were made from hominy until I bought some locally milled grits which were made from corn. Hominy, which has been prepared beforehand takes a few minutes to prepare. There is a dearth of information on the web about corn grits, including some misinformation. "Old Fashioned Grits" are the corn type.

Hominy has been prepared. Corn grits take at least 20 minutes to cook. Maybe a lot longer if you want to do it the best. Half milk and half water will improve grits a LOT.

However, the point isn't worth researching. "Hominy grits" may be made from hominy, or it may just be influenced by the Native American usage.

 

[Black Hand]

I think "hominy" is a Native American word for dried corn, but I don't know.

Hominy is corn that has been lyed to remove the hull and to increase its nutritional value. It is not the same a dried corn, though hominy does start as dried corn.

Look up nixtamalization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization).

As best as I can tell, grits are made from dried & ground corn, hominy grits are made from dried hominy corn. Similar, but not the same...

 

[Gene L]

You've got it, Black Hand. My mom used to make hominy in a rather involved process using oak ashes and a way to drain the lye off and wash the corn back in the Old Days. And I guess the husks.

I didn't know it increased the nutritional value, but it certainly increased the individual kernel size.

 

[George]

As best as I can tell, grits are made from dried & ground corn, hominy grits are made from dried hominy corn. Similar, but not the same...

Exactly. The term 'grits' just refers to a certain size of ground grain. If the grain is untreated corn, they are called corn grits. If the grain is nixtamalized corn, they are called hominy grits.

From the Falls Mill site:

"Grits are small broken grains of corn. They were first produced by Native Americans centuries ago. They made both “corn” grits and “hominy” grits. Falls Mill produces “corn” grits."

And, describing the making of corn grits:

"The kernels of grain are run through the mill stone where they are ground to a certain texture and then sifted through two wire mesh screens. The three products sorted are white corn meal, white corn grits and the bran that pops off."

And, describing the making of hominy:

"Hominy
Is made from field corn that is soaked in lye water (potash water in the old days) and stirred over the next day or two until the entire shell or bran comes loose and rises to the top. The kernel itself swells to twice its original size. After the remaining kernels have been rinsed several times, they are spread to dry either on cloth or screen dryers."

They don't make hominy grits, but if they did, the hominy would then be ground in the same way.

Spence

 

[sidelock]

I can't eat GUTS.

 

[crockett]

Well, I have to side with Loyalist Dave on all this hull or no hull business. What got all this started was I sometimes cook grits and sometimes just cook plain old corn meal. Whenever I cook the grits the pot has sort of a glue clinging to the inside but this never happens with corn meal.
This led me to think the frontiersmen must have preferred corn meal as it is easier to wash out the pot. I asked if others ever experienced this same thing. I thought the only difference between grits and corn meal was the size of the particles. That's when I found out corn meal is the whole kernel ground up and grits are hulled hominy ground up. When the hull is removed it changes the nature of the thing- that is, the "glue" of grits appears. I found out you can't finely grind corn kernels and make tortillas- they fall apart. You need the hominy (with the "glue") and grind that into masa flour.
BTW- reading DeVoto's Lewis & Clark right now. The men parched corn (whole kernel) and them pounded into bits and boiled. I think that is "pinole".
I have this theory that the "boiled corn" might have at least on occasion been boiled corn meal. On the whole kernel corn you would have to soak the stuff and then boil it awhile. Since a lot of the trappers headed to the Rocky Mountains cooked dinner pretty quick- I'm thinking the "corn" might have been corn meal. If some guys set up a tent and unpacked the animals, etc. while someone else collected fire wood, got the fire started, then boiled the corn- seems whole kernel corn would not have enough time to cook. But as I as- just a theory.

 

[George]

I've read about three ways hominy was made in the old days. In late18th century the Shawnees were making it by boiling corn with ashes mixed in the water. In mid-19th century the Hidatsa were making it by steeping some ashes in the pot to make lye, pouring off the water/lye and saving it, discarding the ashes and cleaning the pot, putting the corn and retained lye back in the pot and boiling it. In 1920 in the hills of eastern Kentucky my father's family built an ash hopper, a V shaped wooden container with openings in the bottom. They put rocks, then grass, then hardwood ashes from the stove in the hopper and left it in the rain. As water seeped through the ashes and out the bottom, it became lye, which was collected, boiled to concentrate, then put in the pot with corn and boiled till the hulls loosened.

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

BTW- reading DeVoto's Lewis & Clark right now. The men parched corn (whole kernel) and them pounded into bits and boiled. I think that is "pinole".

Pinole was parched corn that was pounded/ground and mixed with maple sugar. Alternately, cornmeal could be parched and mixed with sugar.

It could be mixed with water and drunk, boiled into a porridge or eaten dry. There was a quote where a handful with water could sustain a man for a day.
http://tacticalintelligence.net/blog/how-to-make-pinole.htm

 

[omarick1948]

One of my other favorite things to eat for a side or main dish at camp or home is Hominy. The founder and mother of the famous Grit! Goes way, way back in history, so let's read some ways of preparing it.

A couple of my favorites include: Fried in the drippings of pork chops, Use in soups and stews and Mexican Menudo (Tripe and hominy soup w/ tortillas) ..... Not the 90's boy band.

Wasn't this the original topic? ... Grits :dead: