On Saturday mornings, I try to make a big pot of something that will last a few days, because Mary works such wacky hours and we usually don’t have dinner together. Today I made posole.
(Note: we’re vegetarians, so I didn’t make it with pork, just Impossible Burger. I didn’t add jalapenos, since my wife has a more delicate palate.)
This got me to wondering, though: why do we USAians associate hominy with the South, and why don’t we eat more of it, since we’re swimming in corn in this part of the world? Hominy is just nixtamalized corn, very healthful, since it enables better digestion of tryptophan and assists in the production of niacin, but it’s an Aztec/Mayan food. Are Southerners more obliged to contributions from our Mexican neighbors than is commonly acknowledged?
Also, Minnesotans should be pre-adapted to like hominy — lutefisk is just nixtamalized cod, after all.
Looks good.
There are a lot of different recipes for posole soup.
I would cut the amount of meat down and use chicken or turkey instead. Cut the salt way down.
Add oregano or marjoram and cumin.
Close to my recipe. No pork, no added salt, much more onion, oregano and chipotle spice.
As a European I had to look up Hominy and nixtamalization. Never heard of preparing food stuff like that. Don’t think I’m gonna find that stuff in the local store..
Interesting that after introducing maize into Europe but not bothering to learn about nixtamalization from the Indians, pellagra became a problem in areas where it became important.
From what I’ve read, I think that settlers in the southeastern US adopted hominy and nixtamalization directly from the indigenous peoples of that area. Those people may in turn have adopted it from indigenous people in modern Mexico, perhaps along with the spread of maize/corn cultivation northward.
I can’t answer the question of why hominy is associated with the South so strongly, but I suspect it has something to do with the poverty of the farmers. As my mom would say, they didn’t have much but they had something to eat and that would be what they could grow|…corn bread, grits, and beans. We never had hominy because my dad didn’t like it, but we had tons of grits, which is made from hominy. Per Wikipedia, grits originated with the Muskogee who lived in the Southeast before the relocation. Corn was not just an Aztec/Mayan food, of course.
Literally understood none of that.
I was introduced to pasole by Mexican co-workers, and then got a very bare outline of the recipe to make it. They had chicken as the protein, which had been marinated with chili de arbol so it was spicy and red.
The toppings usually include sliced radish, jalapeño, cabbage, and the crucial squeeze of lime that makes the flavors pop. I omit the jalapeño as the red pasole broth is already quite spicy though it’s a slow mellow burn rather than a fiery heat like jalapeño.
This type of flint and dent corn is well known in the areas of the US that have adequate rainfall and length of growing season, ie the SE quadrant.
Grits made from hominy corn are also a common food in this region, though grits can be made from any type of grain.
Grist mills grind grits. Cooking the grits yields a porridge, and grits are also used to thicken stews and make puddings.
Oats are the groats used to make rote Grütze (red groats) which is a dessert pudding made from berries. It’s especially tasty mit flüde (with cream) though it’s very hard to pronounce.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B8dgr%C3%B8d
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a jalapeño that could reasonably be described as “fiery”. They’re all bright and fresh tasting now without much heat. Appetizer jalapeños.
I usually eat my red pasole with tostadas that are topped with more veggies, a bit of crema, and a drizzle of delicious creamy green salsa that is definitely hot.
Ingredients ; 1 large poblano chile ; 2 serrano chiles ; 1 large tomatillo ; 6 sprigs cilantro ; 1 medium clove garlic.
Boil with a small amount of water until it’s all softened, then puree in a blender. Add salt, lime juice, and either sour cream/more crema, or an avocado if you want a vegan option. It should be thick, but liquid enough to run off the spoon.
Its bright, fresh, and burns so good!
I’d never heard of posole until today, and now I want to make some. Probably hard to find whole hominy around here though. Masa harina is the best I’ve been able to do.
I might speculate that especially in southeastern US climate, corn outperforms other traditional starchy food crops, such as European cereals or potatoes. (Historically, it was also easier to grow than European cereals in remote farms during the pioneer settler stage, with only primitive unspecialized farming equipment.)
That could explain why corn remained more popular as human food after the pioneer settler stage in South, particularly among poor rural folk. Otherwise, it was deemed inferior for cultural and nutritional reasons as soon as people could afford wheat. Eventually, however, hominy and grits became associated with Southern regional heritage, and thus secured their own cultural niche in an ever-more-affluent population.
Meanwhile, the market for corn as animal in the US feed grew enormous. Corn was and is grown in most of the lower 48, but production was increasingly concentrated in the Midwestern Corn Belt. The land is flat and fertile, and the climate is just warm and humid enough for corn to perform well. The hilly stony lands of upland South were poorly suited for industrial era farming, and were largely returned to forest. The flat fertile lands of deep South were largely prioritized for more tropical crops.
I grew up in rural Ohio, and canned hominy was readily available at the grocery, so I never thought of it as “southern” food, like grits (Cream of Wheat was the closest we got to any sort of grits). I always liked the chewy texture of it (we only ever had it in milk w/ butter, salt and pepper). Oddly, when I first came to CA and looked for it, all there was was white hominy, and I’d always eaten yellow hominy. Only recently have I been able to find yellow.
There’s a little Mexican restaurant in Las Cruces that does the best pozole. Deep red, rich, complex sauce, flavorful pork bits and chilis as only Hatch can produce. I think it’s the original batch they made 60 years ago and they just keep adding to it. They also operate the tortilla bakery next door.
Aztec cuisine tends to be frowned upon by the Police, if not kept vegetarian… sound choice.
Apparently, the original Aztec recipe for pozole included long pig, cut from sacrifices. I’m making some today using only short pig meat.
Three Dog Night liked this food, too: “comin’ down in three part hominy” (oh, such a ‘corny’ dad joke, I apologize)