All About Corn

Last Thursday I returned to Chapultepec Park, one of the largest and most visited urban parks in the world.

I walked to the opposite side of the first section of the park to an historic building called "Molino del Rey" (the King's Mill).  

The structure was part of a complex of buildings dating back to the 16th century used for the milling of wheat.  In 1847 one of the last battles of the Mexican American War was fought here, and this is the only building which survived the bombardment.

Mexico City now has around 170 museums, making it second only to London.  The "Molino del Rey" is the site of one of the newest museums... "Cencalli" (The House of Corn).

I certainly would not rank this new museum as one of the "must-see" sights of Mexico City.  But I did learn quite a bit about corn, a crop which was first domesticated in Mexico around 8000 years ago.

The ancestor of corn was a grass called "teocintle".  The early inhabitants of Mexico domesticated it and through breeding developed it into the crop that we now know as corn.

It was a crop which was adaptable to different climates and soils and uses, until today there are thousands of varieties of corn.

For thousands of years corn was ground by hand on a stone known as a "metate.  The hand-held stone is known as a "metlapil".  In rural areas corn is still ground by hand, and even Alejandro remembers when his mother had a "metate".  The "masa" or corn dough would be patted by hand into tortillas.

A decorative "metate" and "metlapil" carved from basalt.  These won an award in a national contrest of popular arts.

In the 20th century, the production of tortillas became industrialized, with machines in "tortillerías" (tortilla stores) mass producing tortillas.

The pre-Hispanic peoples of Mexico developed a process called nixtamalization in which the kernels of corn are soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution of lime water (not the fruit but the mineral) prior to grinding.  This not only makes the corn easier to grind, but it has been discovered that it has many health benefits.

The nixtamalization of corn increases the digestibility and fiber content of the the corn, and increases the calcium, protein, niacin, thiamin and riboflavin which the body can absorb.

The tortilla is better for nutrition and health than any commercial bread.

The importance of a good tortilla

Mexicans consume an average of 8 to 10 tortillas per day, or about 264 pounds of tortillas per year.  Tortillas provide between 50 and 70% of their daily caloric intake, 50% of their calcium and 35% of their protein.  In recent years, the consumption of tortillas has diminished, being substituted by products with refined flour.  This has coincided with increased obesity among the Mexican population.

So, the moral of the story is, eat tortillas instead of bread!