INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

(This isn't an exact recipe as such. However, it should be close enough
that you could make hominy without much difficulty by following it and
using your own good judgment.)
One late afternoon, sitting on Mr. and Mrs. Matt Burnette's front porch,
the subject of hominy came up. They have made hominy many times and
remembered their parents and grandparents making it.
Originally, one necessary ingredient was lye. To get lye, they used a
section of a hollow tree, set it on a base that slanted, and filled the
hollow part of the tree section with ashes from the fireplace. The very
best ashes were green oak ashes. Water was then poured through the ashes.
When the water trickled through at the bottom, it was caught in a bucket
and poured back through the ashes until the lye water was as strong as they
wanted it. They used this lye water to make hominy and homemade soap.
The next step was to soak dry corn in the lye water until the skin and the
little "nib" at the point came off. This might take a day or two and the
hominy was stirred occasionally during the time.
When the skin would come off, the corn would be swelled to a certain extent
to break those skins and then it was washed thoroughly, many, many times to
remove all the lye.
The last thing to do then was to cook the corn until it was tender, cover
it with a generous amount of butter, salt to taste and "dig in."
I asked Miss Addie Wood about more exact measurements and she said she had
made some hominy and canned it about a year ago.
Folks today usually use soda to soak the corn. Both Miss Addie and the
Burnette's told me this
Miss Addie said she did about a gallon and a half of corn and used about
two boxes of soda to soak the corn in, the soda being dissolved in enough
water to cover the corn. From there on, the recipe is the same. Stir
occasionally until the skins come off the corn, which takes a day or two,
then wash it well to remove all the skins and soda. Then cook the corn
until tender. Posted to TNT - Prodigy's Recipe Exchange Newsletter by
"Stephanie Manley" <medea@flash.net> on Mar 17, 1997

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