Finally made the hominy

Well I finally got the hominy made that I had planned on making back in December. Hominy is very easy to make, it is just time consuming. I make lye hominy as opposed to using lime. I just think it is better for you. The whole process makes the B vitamins in the corn more readily available to the human body. This information I got from the book "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallen. I will try to give the recipe and instructions for making lye hominy. First and foremost you must make sure you are using pure lye, not drain cleaner. I prefer Red Devil brand, which is pure sodium hydroxide. Keep in mind this chemical will burn the skin if you get splashed. When lye is added to a small amount of water it reaches boiling point almost immediately. OK, thas the warning, here the instructions.

Rinse 4 quarts of dried hard corn, this needs to be white or yellow old fashioned field corn, not popcorn or dried sweet corn. Add the corn to a stainless steel or enamel cooker. The corn when cooked will more than double in volume, so take this into account when you choose your kettle. Add cold water to cover the corn by a couple inches and then add 1/8 cup of lye. Put the kettle on the stove and boil for about 40 minutes. When the corn starts cooking you will notice the water has made the corn look kinds yellow funny colored, its OK this will happen, its normal. Stir the corn with wooden spoon to keep it from sticking to the bottom of your kettle. Take off burner and let sit for about 20 minutes or so. Then tilt the kettle so the faucet will run water into the corn and let the water run an overflow the kettle draining the lye water out and down the drain. Do not get this water on your skin, it is lye water and it will burn. If you do get splashed by accident, immediately rinse the water off with plain vinegar to neutralize the lye.When you run the water in the kettle for a good bit you will notice the water is more clear and not the brown looking stuff from before. You are essentially diluting the lye water. At this time you can pour about 1 pint of plain vinegar into the kettle with the corn and stir it a little bit, this will totally neutralize the lye. When the water is cool enough to put your hands in, work the corn between your palms to get off the skins and hopefully the little brown or black tips. If the tips don't come off, don't worry, they are just corn too. At this point you can float the skins and tips off the corn water, then rinse corn and return to kettle. Cover with clear water and put back on the stove and cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour till corn is tender. Have your jars ready with lids and rings. Ladle corn into pint or quart jars to no more than 1 an 1/2 inches of the top. Fill the jars on up to within 1/2 inch with cooking liquid or water. You can add 1/2 teaspoon salt to pints and 1 teaspoon salt to the quarts. Put lids on and put in prepared pressure canner. Process pints for 60 minutes, quarts for 70 minutes. Remove from canner to cool. Now enjoy your nutritious homemade hominy. Dang I'm tired from all this typing. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella