Nixtamalization
Alkaline Blanching
Nitrogen to Niacin
Soaking corn kernels in an alkaline solution, like lime or wood ash, before cooking. This alkaline treatment releases niacin (vitamin B3) from the corn, making it bioavailable.
Lime and ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the maize. The tryptophan in corn proteins is made more available for human absorption, thus helping to prevent niacin deficiency. Tryptophan is the metabolic precursor of endogenous niacin (Vitamin B3).
Nixtamalized corn has several benefits over unprocessed grain: It is more easily ground, its nutritional value is increased, flavor and aroma are improved, and mycotoxins are reduced by up to 97–100% (for aflatoxins).
In the first step of nixtamalization, kernels of dried maize are cooked in an alkaline solution at or near the mixture's boiling point.
Some of the corn oil is broken down into emulsifying agents (monoglycerides and diglycerides), while bonding of the maize proteins to each other is also facilitated. The divalent calcium in lime acts as a cross-linking agent for protein and polysaccharide acidic side chains.
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Nixtamalization
convert Carbon, Nitrogen & Sulfur from Plant Biomass (weeds, tumbleweed, grass) into bioavailable Niacin & MSM pulp.
all the green plants & even the dried up weeds, all of it is loaded with Nitrogen locked into complex compounds.
needs a Alkaline Blanch, briefly immersed in boiling water.
if the world goes upside down for a little while, this is both a simple food manufacturing process & medicine.
out of yard weeds, a little fire & water & wood ash.