| Cooking with Ash Thanks for all the IM'd messages and emails pertaining to this one...I did not know that it was going to cause this much curiousity and so I thought I would share the little bit I know about cooking with ash. This really got my curiosity going when Mrs. Consuelo first shared this method with me. I spent a lot of days in Master Chef Martin's library, talking with him and others about cooking with ash water. This is in part of a paper I began to write years ago documenting my research. I do not know where the origination of cooking with ash stems from. When I initially researched it, I found that adding ash in your cooking water with corn adds to the nutritional value of the product. It was prominently used by Indians throughout North, Central and northern South America. The logic behind their reasoning was that it made it easier for the skins to seperate from the hulls in corn, and made a stronger flavored product. Unquestionably, the Indians had no idea about the nutritional value of foods, but studies today reason that the use of the ash undoubtedly, made the Indians healthier people. Ash water infuses the kernels of corn with calcium and trace minerals, makes niacin more available, protein more digestible and alters the amino acid balance of the protein to increase its quality and nutritional power. The Indians didn't need science; they had what I refer to as "nutritional wisdom" Dr. Doris Calloway did a report on the practice in the Hopi and Papago tribes in Arizona in the mid-70's. Dr. Calloway found that the Indian varieties of corn make a flour that was richer in calcium and protein than todays commercial products. Her tests through the UCLA's nutritional department showed remarkable increases in vital food elements when cooked with ash. Calcium and phosphorus are essential to a healthy diet. Our body needs a good amount of calcium each day but the intake of most staples, like meat, grains and beans are quite low in this essential mineral but can be quite high in phosphorus. Too much phosphorus can lead into being not such a good thing tho', because the phosphorus can tie up the calcium and prevent it from being utilized. Unfortunately, the "American Diet" consumes twice as much phosphorus as calcium. These two essential minerals should be somewhat equally proportioned.. If you are eating a high phosphorus meal I would recommend the eating of greens, dairy products or some other foods that are rich in calcium, if you do not, the blocking of the calcium will keep on going on, leaving the person with a calcium defeciency...what did the Indians know that we don't? Again, who needed the science and who possessed the 'nutritional wisdom'? Corn is very high in the phosporus versus calcium ratio and the adding of the ash process makes it more reasonable as far as the calcium defeciency is concerned. Dr. Calloway's research found that the Indian tribes of Arizona burned saltbush, juniper tip, dried bean plants and even corncobs. Other studies have found that the different tribes throughout the Americas used a variety of different ashes for the processing of their corn. One tribe in northern South America was even reported as using snail shells for their ash. I thought that was pretty interesting. No matter what kind of ash was used the process of making the corn into hominy was basically all the same. Ash into hot water, water strained. Whole dried corn was placed in this alkaline solution and boiled up to one hour. Then the corn was washed away of the alkaline and the hulls. While moist the hominy was mashed and made into flour used to make tortillas or other breads. Nutritionalist Anita Hirsh came up with the idea to experiment with adding ash water into corn flour recipes to see if it altered the nutritional value of her breads. Absolutely. In one blue corn bread recipe that Ms. Hirsh experimented with the nutritional value of the calcium rised substantially in one 100 gram serving, rising from 3.5 mg to 154 mg, in another one of her experiments the calcium went from 2.5 mg to 254 mg... Wow!! In her report Ms. Hirsh also stated that when she made her blue corn bread with and without the ash, that the blue corn color faded with the use of plain water, but the bread made with the ash kept the bread a brilliant blue...hmmmmm....points to ponder.... Well, I just thought I would share this with you, it has been a long time since I took you guys to Science Class, so I thought this would be fun and informative...I could go deeper into the nutritional aspect of my research and the findings of Dr. Calloway and Ms. Anita Hirsh, but it gets pretty deep and confusing, especially if I start going into the amino acids and the transitions they take place when cooked in an alkaline solution...if someone is more interested in this send me an email or IM and I can try to answer any questions you may have... Happy Day... Peace, Hugs and Cookies, chefmike |