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APRIL | MAY 2022 • MONTANA SENIOR NEWS HOME & LIFESTYLE PAGE 17

Capital We Are
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TRANSFER & STORAGE
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Local Moving Specialist
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Helena • 406-442-3970

Photo by Steve Heikkila.

pellagra, caused by a niacin deficiency, and of pozole eating and tortilla eating, and CATARACT SURGERY
this disease is more common in maize-eat- tamales, and all of the other things you can Dropless
ing cultures due to the low bioavailability of make from nixtamalized corn. But that’s not INTRAOCULAR INJECTIONS
niacin in corn. When Europeans were intro- the end of the story. Macular Degeneration • Diabetic Eye Disease
COMPREHENSIVE EYE CARE
duced to corn, they adopted the grain but Now onto grits. That’s right. Grits! Routine Eye Exams • Emergency Eye Care
not the bothersome nixtamalization pro- I promise this is going somewhere. Did Glaucoma Testing & Treatment
cess. Turns out this wasn’t a very good idea. you know grits are a Native American LASIK & PRK • Botox Injections
This unfortunate omission was responsible dish? I’m talking about that corn porridge OPTICAL
for a pellegra epidemic in the United States that American Southerners love to eat for Eyeglasses • Contact Lenses
in the first half of the 20th century. breakfast, in lieu of hash browns, with Mark F. Ozog, M.D..
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The first case was diagnosed in Atlanta eggs and country ham and red-eye gravy. Board Certi ed Ophthalmologistt
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in 1902. The patient was a poor Georgia Those grits. Native Americans were eating
farmer who reportedly subsisted on a diet those grits long before Europeans arrived 406-453-1613 • 1-800-541-2417
mainly of “Indian corn” (that obviously in North America. 1417 9th Street South, Suite 100, Great Falls
had not undergone nixtamalization). By Grits are made from hominy, and “hom-
1940 more than 3 million Americans had iny” is a Powhatan (Virginia Algonquian) Old Facts in a New Format
been afflicted with pellagra, and more than word. It was first recorded in English in
100,000 died. This occurred mainly among 1629 by Captain John Smith, leader of the A It Was:
the poor in the south, who subsisted on a Virginia colony (Jamestown). And what is A Common Thread
corn-heavy diet. hominy? It’s maize that’s undergone the
And yet poor people in Mexico during process of nixtamalization. By Roberta A. Beute
this same time period, who also subsisted And thus nixtamalization was practiced Many facts, kept from public
on a corn-heavy diet, didn’t experience not only in Mesoamerica, but by native probing, become available as
this pellagra problem. The difference? peoples throughout North America well into “public domain”.
Nixtamalization, my friend. modern day Canada. And Nixtamal is called
NIXTAMAL, POZOLE, AND HOMINY pozole in Spanish because of the Aztecs. is book is a product of that,
showing history as it was before
What’s in a name? I’ve been making And nixtamal is called hominy in English the United States and Canada had
pozole for years. It consists mainly of a because of the Powhatan. Cool, huh? a de ned international boundary.
broth containing chicken or pork, hominy, ABOUT THIS POZOLE ROJO RECIPE
and dried (pozole rojo) or fresh (pozole Typically Pozole Rojo is made with pork, Available through Amazon & Local Book Sellers.
Check out the comments and
verde) chilies. Imagine my confusion when but I made mine with chicken because it’s a enjoy this slice of Montana history.
I learned that this ancient recipe was named bit healthier that way. Whereas pozole verde [email protected]
after the corn used to make it: pozole. (green pozole) is made with fresh green
“Double-you-tee-eff?” I immediately chilis and perhaps some tomatillo, pozole
thought, “Pozole is a kind of corn? All these rojo (red pozole) is made with dried chilis.
years I’ve been making it with hominy!” My version features ancho and fiery arbol
Silly me. I was the victim of a linguistic chilies. You can use whatever dried chilies
confusion, my friend. It took me a while to you prefer or can get your hands on. This is
figure it all out. When I did my insomnia Mexican comfort food at it’s finest.
was cured. Here is the deal.
Nixtamalization is frequently described CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
as a Mesoamerican thing. The word nix-
tamalli (origin of the word nixtamal) is
from the Nahualti language, which was the Flower
language of the Aztecs. It’s still spoken by
over a million native people in Mexico to Farm
this day. The word pozole is also from the
Nahualti language. There is archaeological One Company, One Solution The Best in the Bloomin’ Business
evidence of nixtamalization being practiced Heating & AC • Electrical • Plumbing
Roofing • Sheet Metal
in Guatemala and Mexico going back to at atklemens.com • 814 12th St N • Great Falls 406-454-0247
least 1200 BCE. Hello! That’s three millennia 1500 5th Ave SW • Great Falls
406-452-9541