What is masa harina

Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Masa harina is a staple of Mexican cooking and a required ingredient when making authentic tortillas. The process of making this corn flour is fascinating, and so many delicious things can be made with it! Masa harina is dried corn dough or corn flour. Masa harina starts its life as dried maize corn. The corn is soaked in food-grade calcium hydroxide to make hominy.

These puffed-up kernels are then finely grated into corn dough. You can find both white, yellow and blue masa harina. The difference is that the white masa is made with white corn, the yellow is made with yellow corn and the blue is made with — you guessed it — blue corn.

The white and yellow are slightly sweeter and easier to find, but either can be used in recipes calling for it. Nearly all grocery stores carry at least one brand of masa harina. However, if you have trouble finding it, Hispanic grocery stores will have plenty of choices.

There are a number of differences between cornmeal and masa. There are few differences between them aside from color, but yellow and white might be slightly sweeter. You may also see it labeled as "instant corn masa mix. I would be remiss if I didn't start with the most obvious and common way to use masa harina: corn tortillas!

Make your own masa dough using masa harina, water, and salt, and then fire up the griddle to cook them up. Masa harina is also an essential ingredient in tamales , sopes , gorditas , pupusas , and empanadas. Browse our entire collection of Mexican recipes for more inspiration. What Is Masa Harina? By Melanie Fincher January 07, Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. Want to receive Mexican Please recipes via email when they are posted?

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Cozumel, Mexico — Photo by Chloe Miller. Still hungry?! To use masa harina, water needs to be added to moisten the corn flour to create a dough. This dough can then be patted thin for tortillas, and is left thicker when making pupusas and gorditas so they can be sliced and stuffed with savory ingredients.

The dough for tamales calls for more water, making for a moister texture. Masa harina is also an ingredient in atole, a Mexican drink that is made of thick corn spiced with cinnamon, vanilla, and sometimes chocolate. People traditionally drink it around the Day of the Dead and Las Posadas festivities. Cooking masa harina by steaming, heating on the griddle, or frying brings out the nutty, tangy nuances of the corn and makes the corn flour more palatable.

Because of masa harina's neutral taste, spices and other ingredients like beer, ground chile peppers, and paprika are added to enhance the eating experience. Masa harina can be used in any food that calls for pliable corn dough, whether it be the tamale, tortilla, or the tlacoyo, a fat corn cake stuffed with beans, cheese, ground meat, and other ingredients. Make sure when you are including this ingredient in recipes you're using masa harina and not basic corn meal, as it won't give you the same results.

Although this ingredient isn't well known in American markets, it's actually easy to find thanks to the large Mexican population living in the United States. It is sold at most grocery stores, especially Latino markets, and in areas where there's a solid Mexican population. Other companies sell this product too, namely Quaker and Bob's Red Mills, the latter offering organic golden masa harina.

You won't often find this product sold in bulk bins, but it may be available as such in Latino grocery stores and specialty shops. Masa harina should be kept in a cool and dry place; since it's an instant dough, if it gets wet or moisture gets into the grains, the flour will bind.

Place the unopened bag in the pantry or cupboard along with other flour and grains.