Hominy Grits & Niacin

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Survivor_316

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I have searched for threads on this and @DrHenley has made many comments but I figure I would start a thread on it since it is something that is in depth. Hopefully we can help each other because I still have questions.

I have made hominy for the first time. It smells so delicious, I had to immediately put it in the dehydrator else I would eat it all! My main reason for making it is taste, but I don't always get enough niacin in my mostly vegetarian diet, depending on what I am eating in any given week.

First the information in case anyone needs it. From the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology:

"Pellagra is a systemic disease that results from severe vitamin B3 (Niacin) deficiency. Mild deficiency may go unnoticed, but a diet chronically low or without Niacin may result in the 4 D’s: diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia, and possibly even death. Usually diarrhea will occur before the other D’s. Mucosal inflammation may occur throughout the entire gastrointestinal (GI) system causing a sore tongue, sores in the mouth, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The dermatitis usually begins as a rash with defined borders that resembles a sunburn on areas of skin exposed to sunlight. The rash may become severe with darker pigmentation, blisters, and skin sloughing on the face, neck, arms, and legs. Neurologic features such as insomnia, depression, hallucinations, and memory loss (dementia) may present later in the disease process. Lastly, if pellagra goes untreated, death may result within a few years.


Many enzymes in the body require niacin to work properly. Niacin is found in many different foods including animal proteins (chicken, beef, fish, liver), fruits (avocado, dates, passion-fruit), and vegetables (mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus). It can also be made in the body from tryptophan, an essential amino acid. Essential amino acids cannot be made in our bodies and therefore must be consumed in our diets. Tryptophan is plentiful in most animal and plant proteins such as chicken, turkey, eggs, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, peanuts, and soybeans. Pellagra is common in poor parts of the world, such as Africa and India, where corn (or maize) is a staple food. This is because corn is a poor source of tryptophan and niacin."

I think the last sentence just refers to corn before it is nixtamalized. It also says:

"Typically pellagra presents in adults aged 20-50 years old. This can be avoided by consuming the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of niacin for adults of 14-16 mg/day. When pregnant or lactating, the RDA increases to about 18 mg/day. For those under 18 years of age, the RDA ranges from 6-16 mg/day. Patients with symptomatic pellagra should be treated with 50-100 mg of niacin or niacinamide (a different form of niacin thought to have fewer side effects) three times a day for five days. Large doses of niacin may cause flushing and nausea with vomiting, but improvement in skin and neurological conditions is usually seen within two days."

I have no symptoms of niacin deficiency, but my health has taught me that there is "normal" ranges and "optimal" ranges for most nutrients.

Vegetarian sources of niacin, with the exception of potatoes, contain less than 20% of the RDA. Niacin is water soluable, so you do not store it. You must get regular amounts of niacin in your food.

For those who eat meat regularly, liver, poultry, salmon, anchovies and pork are all great sources of niacin. In a survival situation where meat may be difficult to come by, it may be important to get niacin from vegetarian sources. Most of those higher sources are not easy to grow in Northern climates (avacado, peanuts, brown rice, seaweed) but some do give a decent amount (potatoes at 25%, mushrooms and peas at just under 20%). Your meals would need to be well planned to get enough of the nutrient.



Here is what I did, and I know it wasn't the perfect process:

In a stockpot, I put-
1 3/4 cup field corn
2 1/2 cups filtered water
1 1/2 Tablespoon Cal Lime

(I use Pomona's Pectin for canning to reduce sugar content, so I had cal lime on hand. It is something we keep a good supply of because of this, but next I want to try to make it with lye so I am not dependent on buying cal lime.)

I brought this to a slow boil and then turned it to a simmer. I screwed up and got distracted and let the water cook off, but thankfully the corn didn't burn. I came back, added water, and put it in the crockpot on the "keep warm" setting.

I have watched different videos. Some say to keep it warm overnight. Some say to just let it sit at room temp. I'm making another batch tonight, so I will attempt it with just letting it sit.

This morning, I had delicious smelling, beautiful hominy!

I gave it a good rinse and popped it into the dehydrator. Tonight I will mill it if it is dry enough and hopefully I will have some completely homemade hominy grits tomorrow.



Now, for my questions to anyone else who has done it: all of my hulls didn't break off. They are loose and soft, but I am having trouble removing them from the inside. Is this normal with homemade hominy? Will it affect the niacin content? Is it just the corn variety used?

Is there a difference between the hulking process and niacin content from hominy made with calcium hydroxide (cal lime) vs potassium hydroxide (lye)? I know native Americans used both, but I don't understand chemistry enough to know what the reaction is between each.


I look forward to anyone's thoughts on the topic. It really was an easy process and I don't know why I put it off so long.
 
I believe that the Indians first used lye on acorns to counteract the tannins when they were primarily hunter-gatherers. It also softened the acorns. When they learned agriculture and started eating corn it was hard corn (Indian corn), and they used the same process on the corn that they had used on the acorns, primarily to soften the corn. They had no idea that it was making it more nutritious.

There are ancient dishes that originally called for acorns and bear meat that are now made with corn and pork, prepared exactly the same way and have the same name.
 
I believe that the Indians first used lye on acorns to counteract the tannins when they were primarily hunter-gatherers. It also softened the acorns. When they learned agriculture and started eating corn it was hard corn (Indian corn), and they used the same process on the corn that they had used on the acorns, primarily to soften the corn. They had no idea that it was making it more nutritious.

There are ancient dishes that originally called for acorns and bear meat that are now made with corn and pork, prepared exactly the same way and have the same name.
How cool. Have you made those recipes?

This makes me hungry!
 
I want to make them with acorns and bear meat. Acorns are not problem but getting bear meat might take a while, LOL.
Bear do sometimes come through BOL2...I haven't seen one on a game cam yet though.
 

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