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Corn masa shelf-life

41K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  gallon 
#1 ·
When i was a kid visiting my grandparents for the weekends, my grandma used to make us homemade traditional Polenta. I recently re-discovered the dish and thought i'd share this excellent prep food with the members here.

I was recently at the local SUPER Walmart and noticed they were selling 25lb bags of corn masa (de maíz) for $13! The good part about corn masa is its almost unlimited use in cooking. It's perfect for making tortillas, and you can also use it to make tamales, enchiladas, sopes, huaraches, quesadillas, gorditas, empañadas, flautas, Fritos, tortilla chips and many other Mexican and Central and South American dishes▬most of which are my personal favorite foods.. As well as corn muffins, grits and corn cakes. MMmmmm!!

The negative part about corn masa is that long-term storage time slightly affects the stability of of both vitamins and minerals. I ASSume it would remain stable longer if properly stored using o2 absorbers in 5-gal pails..

Anybody else stocking up on corn masa? How are ya storing it?
 
#6 ·
I used to, but I just found ground wheat to be much cheaper and we cook with it more frequently because I can get it to rise without much work. I still have probably 30 pounds put away in a 5 g with seal lid and o2's, still tastes great.

I get ground wheat at the Indian stores for 6$ for a bag that weighs 20 pounds. Got an awful lot of that stuff.
 
#7 ·
The negative part about corn masa is that long-term storage time slightly affects the stability of of both vitamins and minerals. I ASSume it would remain stable longer if properly stored using o2 absorbers in 5-gal pails..

Anybody else stocking up on corn masa? How are ya storing it?
Up here in the corn belt, a 50 pound sack of corn is about $8.75. I would store that the same way as wheat berries, in mylar with O2. Use the same grinder as with wheat berries. Whole oat grain is about the same price. Am looking into a source for rye, but may need to find a specialty farmer for that.

Agreed that corn is great and universally useful.

Didn't the pioneers in the east have a bread made with wheat and corn? Something called anadama or some such? It worked for them.
 
#14 ·
Up here in the corn belt, a 50 pound sack of corn is about $8.75. I would store that the same way as wheat berries, in mylar with O2. Use the same grinder as with wheat berries. Whole oat grain is about the same price. Am looking into a source for rye, but may need to find a specialty farmer for that.

Agreed that corn is great and universally useful.

Didn't the pioneers in the east have a bread made with wheat and corn? Something called anadama or some such? It worked for them.
From what I've read whole oats can't be consumed by humans unless dehulled. How do you process it so it can be eaten by humans? Grinding it up won't remove the hulls.

For oats I usually just buy the big bags of the old fashioned type from Quaker and put it up in Mylar with O2 absorbers.
 
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#22 ·
If you mean flour tortilla mix, you're better off just storing the ingredients to make it. Flour tortillas are nothing but flour, fat, salt and baking powder. The fat and baking powder in the mix are going to shorten the storage life of it. You can store the ingredients to make baking powder (cream of tartar and baking soda) seperately and they last forever. Then just mix them at the last minute as well as adding whatever fat you have at hand. Doesn't matter if it's veggie oil or animal fat.
 
#10 ·
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#11 ·
I think masa is a whole grain product. Most commercial cornmeal is refined and has had the oily germ removed (which is why it keeps so well - kind of like white flour). This is why I keep my masa in the freezer, along with my whole grain cornmeal. It is possible, though, that processing the corn with the lime might act as a preservative.
 
#21 ·
I've made it with the lye process. There are instructions online that are easy to find with google. I don't think baking soda is alkaline enough though. At least I don't remember running into any masa processes that used it. It's a very fuel intensive process and probably not worth it for the relatively small amount of niacin that it frees up. There are other sources of niacin.
 
#15 ·
What I've got is ground up and white.
Yeah, my masa is fairly white, too. My corn flour is actually more yellow. My whole grain cornmeal is a deeper yellow with brown bits throughout. Yes, this is what I am doing this morning ... pulling my corn products from the freezer and comparing them. What a gripping life I do lead. :headshake:

I wonder if you can buy masa that is actually whole grain? I've looked around online and can't really find anything conclusive.
 
#18 ·
Thanks Cam. Yeah, I think I agree with you that groats are the intermediate form that is useful. In the spirit of economical long term provisions I am interested in the bulk oats at 8 bucks for 50 pounds. Looks like some kind of hulling machine is needed to get the oats into consumable form. So far I have learned that the hulls are not digestible, so that would be some very serious fiber. As I dig around I find a lot of machines for sale, all in China so far.
 
#20 ·
Unlike corn meal which stores very well long term when properly packaged, masa seems to have a shorter storage life. I assume there are oils in it that aren't removed in the processing since masa by definition is a whole grain product.

In all fairness, my masa was packed before I knew of mylar, so there may have been O2 infiltration issues. But the other foods packed the same way showed no signs of oxidation. Whereas the masa went rancid pretty quick. 3 years was about tops. After that, rancidity was becoming very apparent. Mylar might or might not buy you another year or two, but I wouldn't bank on it. It's one of those foods that are going to need regular rotation.

It's a shame that it doesn't last longer. As the OP mentioned, it's extremely versatile. And having the niacin freed up by the liming process, it's also quite healthy.
 
#26 ·
Liming corn was originally done to remove the hard husk. They didn't know about nutrition and freeing the bound up niacin back then. The Indians used wood ashes, which make lye. Other cultures used other alkalines. This makes sense as a way to make dried whole corn more easily edible.

What I've always wondered, and I've tried to research it without finding answers, is can a person "lime" ground corn? Seems like that would be a great way to make fresh (wet) masa. It would also take a LOT less fuel to do. I just have no clue how to go about it or if it's even feasible.

Even the corn chip companies lime whole corn. I guess that should tell me something. If there was enough energy savings in it, they'd lime ground corn if they could. So I assume it's not feasible. But I can't help but wonder about it anyway.
 
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