nixtamalization

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English - English
A process for the preparation of maize (corn) in which the grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, and hulled
Nixtamalizacion, a Spanish loanword sometimes anglicised to nixtamalisation or nixtamalization, is the process whereby dry maize grain is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater, to cause the transparent outer hull, the pericarp, to separate and be removed from the grain. This process has several benefits including enabling the grain to be more effectively ground; increasing protein and vitamin content availability; improving flavor and aroma and reduction of mycotoxins. In the Aztec language Nahuatl, the word for the product of this procedure is nixtamalli or nextamalli (IPA: or ), which in turn has yielded Mexican Spanish nixtamal (IPA: or ). The Nahuatl word is a compound of nextli "ashes" and tamalli "unformed corn dough, tamal." The term nixtamalization (spelled with the "t") can also be used to describe the removal of the pericarp from any grain such as sorghum by an alkali process. When the unaltered Spanish spelling nixtamalizacion is used in written English, however, it almost exclusively refers to maize