Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
This video describes a simple process for folks interested in trying out making tortillas from dry corn. It will work with any dry field corn, flint, dent, popcorn, or flour corn. Typically we do not use the pickling lime/cal/Calcium Hydroxide for making our own tortillas, we use our own sifted wood ashes, but that process is a little more involved and the calcium hydroxide is more forgiving for your first attempt at nixtamalizing corn.
This recipe only required four ingredients; corn, fresh water, pickling lime (cal), and salt. The salt is in fact not necessary, or particularly traditional, but we find it enhances the flavor of the tortillas without compromising them in any way.
The basic process is to mix the corn with the water and lime, boil the corn till the seed coat (pericarp) slips easily from the kernels, then leave the corn to soak for a minimum of 8 hours. After soaking, the corn is rubbed to remove the softened pericarps, and rinsed several times to remove them and lower the pH and remove the unreacted alkali/lime. Then the corn is drained, the salt is added, and it is ground in the masa grinder. If you don't possess a masa grinder, a food processor or meat grinder can be used. Traditionally the corn would be ground by hand on a mano and metate stone grinding mill, but these are almost completely unavailable outside Mexico, and are rather labor intensive to use.
Once ground to sufficient fineness, the resulting dough is called masa. The masa dough is shaped into balls the size of the desired tortillas and baked/roasted on a hot griddle till cooked thoroughly.
All of the steps of the process can vary a bit depending on a number of factors, so they should be considered as general guidelines vs a hard and fast recipe. Different corns nixtamalize at different rates, and are perhaps best suited to specific cooking styles. This can only arrived at by a bit of trial and repetition.
This video describes a simple process for folks interested in trying out making tortillas from dry corn. It will work with any dry field corn, flint, dent, popcorn, or flour corn. Typically we do not use the pickling lime/cal/Calcium Hydroxide for making our own tortillas, we use our own sifted wood ashes, but that process is a little more involved and the calcium hydroxide is more forgiving for your first attempt at nixtamalizing corn.
This recipe only required four ingredients; corn, fresh water, pickling lime (cal), and salt. The salt is in fact not necessary, or particularly traditional, but we find it enhances the flavor of the tortillas without compromising them in any way.
The basic process is to mix the corn with the water and lime, boil the corn till the seed coat (pericarp) slips easily from the kernels, then leave the corn to soak for a minimum of 8 hours. After soaking, the corn is rubbed to remove the softened pericarps, and rinsed several times to remove them and lower the pH and remove the unreacted alkali/lime. Then the corn is drained, the salt is added, and it is ground in the masa grinder. If you don't possess a masa grinder, a food processor or meat grinder can be used. Traditionally the corn would be ground by hand on a mano and metate stone grinding mill, but these are almost completely unavailable outside Mexico, and are rather labor intensive to use.
Once ground to sufficient fineness, the resulting dough is called masa. The masa dough is shaped into balls the size of the desired tortillas and baked/roasted on a hot griddle till cooked thoroughly.
All of the steps of the process can vary a bit depending on a number of factors, so they should be considered as general guidelines vs a hard and fast recipe. Different corns nixtamalize at different rates, and are perhaps best suited to specific cooking styles. This can only arrived at by a bit of trial and repetition.
