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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

>  Maybe I 
> need to relearn some of those recipes and get reacquainted.
> 

I'm not sure 'recipe' fits well for the process.  Hominy is basically hard 
corn that has been soaked (or boiled) in some alkali solution until the hull 
of 
the kernal has been dissolved or at least loosened.

The three solutions that have been most often used are calcium hydroxide, 
potassium hydroxide, and soduium hydroxide made by adding calcium oxide, 
potassium oxide, or sodium oxide to water.

Sodium oxide is Red Devil lye and I wouldn't use it.  Too caustic!  Potassium 
hydroxide was made by pouring water through wood ashes.  It works well and in 
dilute solution is more or less safe.  But the best, says I, is calcium oxide 
which can be had as pickling lime or agricultural lime (or you can bake 
limestone excluding the air).  It is available in all the Mexican 'tiendas' 
you see 
springing up everywhere now of days as 'cal'.  Add a couple of tablespoons to 
a gallon of water and whatever will not form the hydroxide (and all the 
dross) will perciptate to the bottom of the vessel.  Pour the calcium 
hydroxide 
solution off the dreggs.  This is lime water.

Cover the corn with the solution and bring it to a boil, remove from heat, 
and leave it over night.  The next day rinse the corn in cold water to remove 
any lingering lime water and pieces of hull.

Voila, hominy!

>From here you can make a variety of things.  First and foremost is to put a 
little pepper on the hominy and eat it.  You can dehydrate the hominy and 
reconstitute it later.  Or else coarsely grind the dried hominy into hominy 
grits.

You can grind the fresh hominy with an equal amount of water to get 'masa'.  
One of those cheapie Corona mills is specially designed for this but you can 
also make a 'metate' (saddle stone) and it does just as well.   Use the masa 
to 
make tamales, or make it into tortillas.   You can do this by hand or with a 
tortilla press, but another way is to take two pieces of plastic wrap, put a 
golf ball sized bit of masa between them, and squash them with the bottom of 
a 
flat skillet.  The plastic wrap does not stick and can be resused.   Heat the 
'comal' or griddle and "bake" them until they are bubbly and begin to brown 
on 
each side.

This may sound like a lot of trouble, but it isn't really.  It becomes as 
routine as making coffee and cooking oatmeal.   </HTML>