Nixtamalization Project: An American Indian Process for Danish Grains David Levi, Nordic Food Lab, July 2011

Nixtamalization, from nixtamal, nixtamalized maize, from nextli, Nahuatl (Aztec) for ashes. Nixtamalization is the process of cooking and soaking maize in a strongly alkaline solution (nejayote), traditionally made with water and slaked lime and/or ash. Today [in Mexico], approximately 300 g of nixtamalized products including tortilla are consumed per capita on a daily basis. (Journal of Food Engineering, 98, 2010, 7683) Conclusions by the end of the project The second week brought some fantastic results. The fully nixtamalized emmer wheat produced truly delicious tortillas, and I'm sure great tortillas could be made with any of the traditional grains of Denmark. The nixtamalized branches are terrific. The fully nixtamalized barley and rye are also delicious, with similar nixtamalized flavors to the wheat while also exhibiting the best characteristics of their own breeds. The carrot nejayote reduction is fascinating and could prove a useful ingredient in a dish, particularly if one sought to surprise a diner with aromas typically associated with sweetness coming from savory food. All project notes Core question: Will nixtamalization affect the flavor, aroma, texture (of whole grains and/or flour), and/or nutrient profile of grains other than maize, and, if so, how? Bases used in this project: Lye (sodium hydroxide) a saturated solution is pH 13 Can be produced by combining soda ash and slaked lime Soda ash (sodium carbonate) Natural source: seaweed ash, esp. from genus fucus Forage in Copenhagen Saturated solution is ~ pH 10 Slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) Natural sources: limestone, wood ash, seashell ash, etc. Saturated solution is ~ pH 12 Specific nejayote ingredients used in this project: Juniper ash Fucus seaweed ash Storebought lye supplemented with calcium tablets Lab Notes Making nejayote Burnt mussel shells, though apparently used by the Mayans, gave us only a weak alkaline solution. Also, it stank. Maybe most importantly, it failed to react significantly with the sodium carbonate in the seaweed ash. Perhaps they were insufficiently incinerated? One of the major discoveries on the research end of this project was the reaction achieved by seaweed and juniper ashes. Not only is this powerful reaction easily achieved, it resonates with the history of the Nordic

region. Before the industrial Solvay Process, introduced in the mid-19th century, Norway was a leading producer of lye, and they did it, on a very large scale, exactly as I am doing it for this project. Alkalinity of aqueous solutions Fucus seaweed ash: pH ~10.5 Wood ash: pH ~12 Combined fucus seaweed ash and wood ash: ph ~12.8 (!) Since a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2(aq)] is pH 12, and we appear to be in the range of pH 12.8 with the combined ash solution, we have apparently produced quite a bit of NaOH. A saturated aqueous solution of NaOH would have a pH of 13.0, so we have gotten close. Pretty exciting. Ca(OH)2(aq) + Na2CO3(aq) -----> 2 NaOH(aq) + CaCO3(s) Since there is also a certain amount of potash (K2CO3), we surely also got a certain amount of potassium hydroxide (KOH), which, like lye, has a pH of 13. Nixtamalization Test #1: Standard Whole Wheat Boiled sous vide in nejayote ranging from pH 9 to 12 in gradations, where nejayote is always a combined solution of wood (juniper?) and fucus seaweed ash. 50ML wheat per bag. 150ML nejayote. On first inspection, the nixtamalized wheat appears a bit brighter in color and firmer in texture. May hold promise for popping. Also risotto. Differences in flavor or aroma are subtle if discernable at all. A bit disappointing. The big surprise is that all of the used nejayote has a pH between 6 and 7. Shockingly low. So in the next trial, we will go with high pH nejayote (12), using a little more (4:1 ratio rather than 3:1). Since the nixtamalized wheat was so nearly the same as the boiled wheat, any real motivation for nixtamalizing wheat will depend upon the virtues (or lack thereof) of the flour. All five wheat samples were dried in a dehydrator overnight. Ground in a thermomix. Wheat flour tortillas made with nothing else but water taste, smell, and feel exactly the same whether the wheat is nixtamalized or not. Strange. Final point on this wheat. Esteban noted that in the Chilean countryside, fresh wheat is traditionally boiled with ashes and turns yellow. Dave Arnold, in his Mesoamerican Miracle Megapost, also notes that nixtamalized wheat turns yellow, speculating that it is due to the modification of flavonoids (apigenin-c-glycosides according to my cursory research). I saw no suggestion of yellow in this wheat. Does it depend on variety? (Probably not... besides, I was using standard, presumably durum, wheat.) Is it because it was insufficiently nixtamalized? (The answer to this, I later learned, is yes.) Or is it that the yellow comes from some aspect of the nejayote other than alkalinity? Will have to run more wheat tests. Test #2: Barley, Oats, and Kamut Wheat Boiled sous vide in nejayote of pH 12, about 4:1 ratio of nejayote to grain.

Oats cooked, by far, most quickly. Kamut was slowest. All had a sulfur/egg smell. Discarded the sulfurous lye, made with the precipitate of an earlier batch of lye. Oats had the strongest, nicest flavor, closely followed by barley. Kamut was subdued, though pleasant. Barley had particularly good texture. Both oats and barley had a nice popcorny flavor. Unfortunately, everything was tainted by a strong odor of sulfur. This nejayote apparently sat with the seaweed ash for too long, and I'll have to dump it. Test #3: Rye Using pH 12 nejayote in a 5:1 ratio to the rye. Trying both sous vide and, for the first time, open pot. Had to wait a while to get the pots on. Decided to test the alkalinity of the nejayote with the still uncooked rye. After roughly 90 minutes, it's fallen from 12 to 10, representing a 100 fold decrease in alkalinity! After three hours, it has dropped to 9. Now it appears I will be leaving it overnight, uncooked. Hmm... OK, the pH of the nejayote of the uncooked rye the next morning was 6! It actually turned acidic. I replaced it with another 250mL of ph 12 nejayote and cooked it. Again, the nejayote was neutral after cooking. That's a lot of ionic action. Anyhow, the rye is much lighter in color and fluffier than the rye I simply boiled as a control. Yet, despite holding easily twice the water per kernel, it held its form better than the boiled stuff. The flavor was good but not very noticeably different from the boiled rye. Still not getting any tortilla like aromas or flavors. I decided to dry these two batches together and grind them into flour. Test#4: Oats This time, I am pre-soaking the oats in water, then cooking sous-vide in a 5:1 ratio (would like to do 10:1, but do not have enough nejayote) of pH 12 nejayote to oats. I am leaving the wood ash in one of the bags as it cooks, in keeping with most traditions. This should provide more calcium and, who knows, might be the missing link in achieving that distinctive tortilla like aroma. I sure hope so. OK. I think they came out better this time. It's also possible that my grain-addled brain has lost its ability to discern between these subtly differentiated starches. But these oats do taste very good. I boiled up some oats in regular tap water, and they seem, to me, considerably less complex, less rich, and lack the slight chewiness I like in the nixtamalized oats. I think the calcium made a difference. In fact, I like these enough to hazard serving them exactly as they are, with lavender sheep's milk sherbet and some herbs, probably including white stone crop, dill, and something else. I really want to serve this with white currants, but they have disappeared! Test #5: Barley in ashy nejayote Like the oats, these were pre-soaked in regular tap water. I liked the first round of barley despite the noticeable sulfur element, so I am looking forward to seeing how these turn out with nejayote that has no noticeable sulfur but plenty of juniper ash. Indeed, these came out quite nicely, and I am using them for the project presentation. Project Recipe Spoonful of nixtamalized barley with sweet citrus pine butter, rosehip rondelle, dill, and stone crop. Week #1 Conclusions Nixtamalization clearly works with the full range of grains, insofar as there is a clear chemical reaction between the alkaline solution and the grain. I would love to test the bioavailability of the niacin (B3) and the balance of amino acids, but this is considerably beyond both my ability and the capacity of this kitchen. I can

only, at best, test for taste, aroma, texture, and appearance. I do think that leaving ash in the nejayote (all nejayote used in the early tests were strained) improved the oats and barley, so this suggests that if the process could be made more efficient, those willing to nixtamalize may hold an advantage over those using nonnixtamalized grains in similar recipes. So there is promise here, promise which is not yet fully realized. Week #2 (When the results turned delicious) Maybe test cold versus hot nixtamalization. Is heat necessary? Cooking temperature had a significant effect on water and calcium absorption in grains. (Journal of Food Engineering 98 (2010) 7683) OK, no need to test that. Test #6: Wheat and Rye This time, we're going with store-bought lye, supplemented with calcium carbonate. The pH of the solution I'm using it at or close to 13. I'm boiling the grain in open pots so I can test the pH of the nejayote as it cooks, and add lye if needed to keep the pH high. This is being done outside, as the vapor will probably be quite noxious. When it is done, I will have it steep overnight. The nejayote with the wheat is noticeably yellow. I wish I could remember if that was true in the first wheat test. Certainly, that wheat did not turn yellow. Hopefully, this one will. The nejayote with the rye is not yellow at all before cooking. Yes! This is a radically different result. The pericarps are dissolved. The nejayote is gelatinous and yellow. The whole thing smells undeniably tortilla-like. I'm afraid all the earlier tests achieved, at best, partial nixtamalization. The only problem is that these grains are overcooked. I am repeating this test, seeking to cook them properly. Test 6.1 came out beautifully. The kamut, as I should have noticed (Esteban noticed), was already hulled, which is a bit disappointing, as the dissolution of the pericarp is one signal of nixtamalization. But regardless, these grains are very clearly and thoroughly nixtamalized. The nejayote is still quite alkaline, though it has dropped from nearly 13 to somewhere closer to 11 than 12 (let's estimate, roughly a thirty to fifty fold drop in alkalinity). Steeped grain in nejayote for 14 hours. Rinsed and briefly soaked (fifteen minutes) in fresh water. Dried. Let's see how this flour works. Ground the dried nixtamal in the Thermomix and sifted through a chinois. A bit coarse and uneven, but it should do. Realized later that the grain had, perhaps, not soaked enough, and indeed, I tested it and found the pH to be over 10, which is really too high. Easy enough to solve, though. Mixed in citric acid (I figure about 1%, but since I am not shooting for any particular pH, just near or below neutral, I eyeballed it) and got it right around neutral. Mixed in some salt and water, threw it in a hot pan and got a delicious tortilla! Then it occurred to me that it might come out better if it were kneaded and/or if the moisture had time to soften the somewhat coarsely ground wheat. So I kneaded a ball, let it sit in the fridge for fifteen minutes, rolled it out, and got an even better tortilla. Truly delicious. Right away, I'm thinking we could nixtamalize the grain for the branch breadsticks and/or bleskivers. It would add a level of complexity to the preparations, but certainly also to the flavor. And preparing large portions of grains should not be too difficult. The flour, once prepped, should keep as long as any other flour. It will be important to test for pH, but that is easy enough. The bleskivers have a very nice masa-like flavor. The consistency, however, is not right. They are a bit

doughy and dense. Is this because of the nixtamalization? Because of whole grain? Because the flour was more coarsely (and less evenly) ground and had not fully absorbed the moisture in the batter? Because I did not properly whip and/or fold the egg whites into the batter? Who knows. I'm afraid I cannot take this experiment further at this point, though the flavor difference in the bleskiver is not necessarily a game changer. Making nixtamalized fine white (more likely yellow) flour seems prohibitively difficult. The branches are really, really good. Better than the original, in my opinion. Lighter. More flavorful. Like a nice, branch-looking tortilla chip, but lighter, and with clear flavors of malt and emmer wheat. This is a real winner. A note on the recipe. Unless the proportions were not written out properly in the original recipe, the nixtamalized flour required much more liquid... like three times as much (I added extra beer, then water). Strange, no? Oh, and a note on preparation. I was able to get beautifully thin sheets of dough, as with the pasta maker, by using a rolling pin wrapped in clear film. Test #8: Alkaline Vegetables: Rhubarb and Carrot In the Merida region of Mexico, the ground is rich in lime (CaO), which reacts with water to produce slaked lime or calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2], commonly called cal. In traditional Merida cuisine, food is often cooked in earthen pits. This is alkaline cooking, though some dishes, notably Cochinita pibil, include considerable acid (like bitter orange), which at least somewhat balance the pH (important in cooking a pork dish, as the fat could otherwise saponify, especially when slow-cooked). One Merida specialty is green papaya cooked in cal. The idea of processing a fresh, crisp, acidic fruit in this way makes me wonder about rhubarb. Soaking rhubarb and carrot in lye at room temperature for eight hours. Rinsed and put into containers with regular water. The next day, that water was about pH 10. Changed water, will soak for the rest of the day. Hmmm... nope. The uncooked, lye-soaked vegetables are not, in any way, improved. More likely the opposite. Cooking rhubarb and carrot in lye until tender. OK, they turned mushy. Not tasty. The rhubarb is bad. The carrots are mushy, but have a nice caramel aroma. I tried drying them. Nothing special, aside from unsettlingly high pH levels. There is, however, one compelling outcome. The liquid (let's call it carrot nejayote) has an intense caramel aroma, but no sweetness. Rather, it has pronounced saltiness, from the sodium that precipitated out of the NaOH as it broke down into... whatever. I cooked down the nejayote to the point where it is semi-solid at room temperature. Amazing aroma (Trevor describes it as pecan-caramel) but no sweetness. The pH is still high (10+), but not high enough to be of concern, in terms of tasting it. I am, however, concerned about serving something more alkaline than ammonia, and so I mixed in citric acid. While it does seem, to me, marginally sweeter, it is still very good and a great juxtaposition of intense caramelization and minimal sweetness. Test #9: Barley The barley turned nearly as yellow as the wheat. The smell is delicious, similar to the wheat. Quite a different result than the (in retrospect) not really (or not fully) nixtamalized barley I served at project night. Test #10: Buckwheat The broth is black. The grain, or pseudo-grain in this case, looks nixtamalized. There has been considerable gelatinization and the buckwheat is translucent. But the smell. Ack. Not good. Like snails and chemicals. Unusable. Interesting to get such a different result from a pseudo-grain as compared to the true grains. Future investigation: Alkaline Fish. Haddock Lutefisk? Can't get haddock. Or pollack. Both are supposed to be good for making a low-odor lutefisk, while cod produces the notorious lutefisk odor. Cod lutefisk is the norm in Scandinavia, very well known and widely available and not worth reproducing here.