Text 16968, 101 rader
Skriven 2007-06-19 19:08:00 av JOAN MACDIARMID (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: TORTILLAS   70617
=========================
 Hi, Glen,

 DD> 2 c  Masa Harina

 GJ> Isn't this the same as corn meal?

 JM> Not in the USA, at least. Corn meal is more
 JM> coarsely ground and milled.

 GJ> Please refer to my reply to MLoo, to explain my puzzlement.

 We have several points of misunderstanding. Our
 cornstarch is a very refined thickening agent similar
 to what the Ozzies call cornflour. Our corn meal is
 rather coarse-milled grain from a particular plant
 indigenous to the New World.

 DD> 1. Mix the Masa Harina and the water; knead to form your masa
 DD> (dough) 2. Pinch off a golf-ball sized piece of masa and roll it into

 JM> At least the size of a golf ball is standard

 GJ> But the size of the ball would depend on the size of your press.

 The size of the ball was dependent on the given recipe for the given
 purpose.

 GJ> Tortilla presses come in all sizes.  In Monterrey there were hardware
 GJ> shops with a range of presses on display, from tiny ones only suitable
 GJ> for communion wafers, to huge ones half a metre or so in diameter.
 GJ> The one I bought is 17 cm (7") diameter, and weighs 3 kg. Mine is
 GJ> suitable for corn tortillas; I was told that presses for flour
 GJ> tortillas have slightly lower stops for the pressing plate, so that it
 GJ> makes thinner tortillas.

 DD> Note: Do not confuse corn flour with corn meal. Corn meal is made
 DD> from a completely different process, and it simply will not work for
 DD> tortilla making.

 GJ> I find that statement confusing.  I have always thought corn meal and
 GJ> masa harina were the same, made from maize, and the fine, white corn
 GJ> flour was made from wheat.

 JM> huh? What you call cornflour, we call cornstarch,

 Or, hmm, maybe yours IS made from wheat. Our thickening
 agent really is made from maize-corn, though.

 JM> I think. It's a way more refined product used
 JM> for thickening gravies. Americans do use corn meal
 JM> for some purposes, but as I mentioned above, this is
 JM> rather less finely milled and appreciated for its
 JM> slightly gritty texture in cornbread or polentas. I

 GJ> I have had that in the past, and tried making tortillas with it,
 GJ> unsuccessfully, as it turned out.

 Right. You want a flour made of whole corn, more
 finely milled than cornmeal. But not as highly refined
 as cornstarch which you Ozzies refer to as cornflour!

 JM> think masa harina is whole-grain corn ground to
 JM> the texture of flour. The Mexicans use it routinely,
 JM> but USan's not so often, so it's harder to find here.

 JM> Maybe you could make masa harina from corn meal
 JM> by milling it in a food processor or blender to
 JM> a flourlike state?

 GJ> I can get masa harina.  I think it is the right stuff, but the cook is
 GJ> the one at fault for any failures to produce perfect tortillas.

 Of course, I can buy them cheap enough at Wegmans,
 so I don't worry about all this. They keep well, too.
 Maybe you should look into the distributorship of tortillas
 from, say, Mex-America, to the Australian market.

 GJ> As an example of what I find confusing:

 GJ> MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
 GJ>
 GJ> Title: Chili Fried Gulf Oysters

 GJ> 3/4 c  Cornmeal or "masa harina"
 GJ> Corn flour

 Aha! I see your confusion. The entry doesn't say cornmeal
 is equivalent to masa harina corn flour, but that either
 would be equivalent in THIS recipe involving a coating for frying.
 All things considered, I think we should keep the name
 "masa harina" because it describes a particular product
 and does not get into the linguistic confusion of all
 these other corn/maize/wheat products.

 Truly we are divided by a common language!

 Joan

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