The Ancient Process Behind Making Tortilla Chips
The Process explained in great detail about how the ancient Mesoamerican process of nixtamalization, which consists of soaking corn in an alkaline solution to release the outer hull of each kernel, transformed the way this widely available crop was used.
Three thousand five hundred years ago, Mesoamerican civilizations discovered that soaking corn in an alkaline solution — wood ash or limestone dissolved in water — transforms the kernel. The hard outer hull dissolves. The proteins restructure. Niacin, locked inside raw corn and invisible to the human body, becomes bioavailable.
The narrator also talked about how nixtamalization has carried through the centuries through to modern day. This process is used en masse for foods such as tortilla chips, starting with masa.
Every tortilla chip still begins with that same chemical reaction. Dried corn kernels are cooked in lime water, soaked overnight, washed, and ground into masa — a dough that raw corn cannot produce.
