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Let’s talk Nixtamalization! (Wait, come back, I was just kidding. I've got a lot of hominy facts to share. We’ll talk about nixtamalization later.)
Instant Pot Hominy, cooked from dried, is a recipe I’ve been working on for a while. (If I can call it a recipe - it's more of an ingredient in other recipes.) I love posole, the Mexican soup based on hominy broth. I make Rick Bayless’s Pozole with all the trimmings for parties all the time. It seemed like a great recipe to adapt to my pressure cooker. 3 to 5 hours of simmering hominy? I can speed that up, I’m sure.
Except...I couldn’t get the hominy tender. 45 minutes? No, not enough. I kept locking the lid, re-pressurizing the pot, and cooking for another 10 minutes…and the hominy finally got there after about 90 minutes of cooking. With time coming up to pressure and cooling off, I might as well have simmered from the start.
The break I needed came with my Rancho Gordo box, which included a package of posole corn…and instructions to soak overnight. Soak the corn, like beans, to tenderize it? Of course! (It turns out my friend Laura over at Hip Pressure Cooking had already figured this out.) After soaking, and some testing, I can now make hominy from dried in about an hour or so - 40 minutes at high pressure with a quick pressure release.
And now, it’s time for nixtamalization! For centuries, Mexican and Native American cooks prepared corn by boiling it with slaked lime to soften the skin before drying it. This process frees up the niacin in the corn, making it digestible by humans. When nixtamalized corn is eaten with beans, you get a complete protein; the trinity of corn, beans, and squash were the staple foods of the Mayans, Aztecs, Zapotecs, and the many other and other pre-settlement Mexican cultures.
Unfortunately, when corn was adopted by European settlers, they ignored the nixtamalization process; the result was niacin deficiency and outbreaks of pellagra. (In modern times we get plenty of protein in our diets, so you don’t have to worry. If you can find prepared hominy, great; if not, regular dried corn will work.)
Why go through all this? Because, like cooking your own beans, home-cooked hominy just tastes better than canned. What should you use it in? I love hominy in Posole, and it pairs well with other Southwestern soups. I have a new soup coming next week that could use some fresh-made hominy. Sure, you can buy your hominy in a can. But, once you’ve tried homemade hominy, I’ll bet you don’t want to go back.
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Instant Pot Hominy (From Dried)
- Total Time: 9 hours
- Yield: 6 cups cooked hominy 1x
Description
Instant Pot Hominy. How to pressure cook dried hominy. (Make sure to soak it overnight!)
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried hominy (about ½ a pound), soaked overnight
- 4 cups water
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ an onion
Instructions
- Soak the hominy overnight: Rinse the dried hominy and put it in a large container. Cover with 8 cups water. Let the hominy soak for at least 8 hours, or overnight.
- Pressure cook the hominy for 40 minutes with a quick pressure release: Drain and rinse the hominy, then pour the drained hominy into the pot. Stir in 4 cups of water, sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt, and float the half onion in the water. Lock the lid on the pot, and cook at high pressure for 40 minutes (“manual” or “pressure cook” mode set to high in an Instant Pot), or for 35 minutes in a stovetop PC. Quick release the pressure. (If the pressure release starts foaming and spitting, carefully close the vent and let the pressure come down naturally for 5 minutes before trying the quick release again.)
- Use or store for later: Unlock the lid. Discard the onion - it gave its all to the broth. If you’re using right away, drain the hominy and add to your recipe. If you’re saving it for later, store it in 2-cup containers in the cooking liquid. (2 cups of dried hominy yields about 6 cups of cooked hominy)
Notes
- Speed Soak: If you forgot to soak the hominy overnight, you can quick soak it in the Instant Pot. For step 1, put the hominy and 8 cups of water in the Instant Pot, lock the lid, and pressure cook for 1 minute. Let the pot sit for 1 hour after pressure cooking to speed soak. (Don't quick release the pressure, either; let it come down naturally during that hour of soaking.) Unlock the lid, drain the hominy, and continue with step 2.
- Storage: If you’re not using it right away, refrigerate the hominy for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 6 months
Tools
- 6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)
- Prep Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Mexican
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My other Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Recipes
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Leon Evans says
Very successful
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks!
Danielle says
I had to look up how to cook the dried hominy, and was hoping to find a way to adapt it to my new 'instapot' knock-off that I got for Christmas. I was STUNNED to find a 'recipe', including how to hydrate them! I am GOBSMACKED! Thank you so much for posting this!!!
Janet says
I order from Ranco Gordo all the time and I was excited to find this recipe. I forgot to soak my hominy so your instructions were really helpful. Thank you!
Eric M. says
Mike:
I'm so happy I stumbled across your recipe. I had just received my first ever package of dry hominy, from Rancho Gordo. I'm also a huge fan. Your recipe (including the hominy prep) turned out perfectly, and you were absolutely right, once you go dry you don't want to go the squishy canned hominy again.
Sadly, I haven't been able to obtain more Rancho Gordo Dry Hominy.. they've been out of stock for quite a while. I was able to score a bag of "Goya White Hominy Corn" so I tried to re-create your recipe using that. It wasn't as successful and too soft. I'm not sure why, perhaps this Goya corn is not as large (it looks smaller). On my second go, though, my guesses were perfect! I did the quick soak of 1 minute high pressure but only 35 minutes of rest, not the full hour. Quickly rinsed in cold water and set aside, and tested the toothiness at this point and it was nice and nutty. Then I threw together a simpler soup of onion/garlic/carrot/celery, hominy, garlic+veggie+chicken "Better than Bouillon" broth, cumin, thyme, oregano and some andouille sausage. I sauteed the usual veggie mix and then cooked the soup on high pressure for 15 minutes, let it sit for 15 minutes after it was done, and then released the pressure. Bingo, I got the same nice nutty chewy texture this time!
Hope this helps other who are in the same boat with their hominy. Happy Cooking!
Janet says
Your recipe sounds delicious, thanks for the tips. I just stocked up on Rancho Gordo hominy, it's the best for making pozole. 🙂
Michele says
I’m going to try halving this recipe, I.e. cooking just one cup of dried hominy in the Instapot. Any thoughts on how much water? I’m thinking 3 cups water to be on the safe side.
Mike Vrobel says
Yes, that sounds right to me.
Eileen says
I put a little olive oil in the pressure cooker and there was no foam. My hominy seems a bit hard after 40 minutes, but I'll be simmering it all day in pozole and predict it will come out perfectly! I've never cooked hominy before so I was thrilled to find your recipe. Thank you!
Helen says
Oh yes! I just bought an Instant Pot, and found your website when trying to figure out why the official manual says I must use 18 oz of liquids at all times, but the official recipe book in the box included several recipes with much, much less liquid....
I bought the pot primarily because I like shredded chicken, eastern North Carolina pork bbq (vinegary), and beans and lentils of every type (soups, chilis, stews, side dishes) and every cuisine. But I hadn't thought of hominy! I love hominy, particularly yellow hominy, which can be hard to find in the can. I have made it stove-top from dried a few times, but I love the idea of using the Instant Pot -- think I'll make it more frequently.
Thanks for the great site!
PS, my mother served us hominy and sausage on special occasion breakfasts when we were kids: brown Italian-style ground sausage meat, add in cooked hominy and simmer until warmed through, add a little bit of milk and butter at the end to make it creamy, salt and pepper to taste.
Mike Vrobel says
You’re welcome!
Beth says
My grandmother made this too she added greens, usually said chard to the homing and used sausage, ham or bacon , in th e hominy. The greens don't cook as long as the rest.
Hollis Scott says
I am a retired restaurant baker in Bay area restaurants. I cook a lot and have hundreds of cookbooks. I randomly googled "cooking hominy" and your recipe came up. I made it exactly as you said with Rancho Gordo Hominy.
I have never made home made hominy before. This is divine! Your recipe works perfectly. I was making the hominy for another meal for the next day. Even though I had finished dinner, when the hominy was finished cooking, I couldn't help eating it. Warm from the pot with a little grated asiago made a comforting dessert.
Tee hee!
By the way, this is the first time I have ever written a review to a recipe. This is the ultimate compliment!
Mike Vrobel says
Thank you!
Jeff Winett says
I made this today for the first time, and first looked at the packaging date of my un-opened bags of Posole corn. "2014". While not sure of my outcome for such a dated bag, the recipe worked amazingly well. I cannot emphasize how many times over the years I have tried to make Hominy from dried, with lesser than results each and every time. This recipe is worth its weight in gold!
Mike Vrobel says
Thanks, Jeff!
Amy Hernandez says
We're finishing up the last of a batch of pozole verde that my husband and I made this weekend, using canned hominy from the Mexican grocery, and I was thinking about how most corn these days is the "roundup ready" stuff. We're trying to be healthier, so I went about searching for organic hominy. Well, let me tell you, the canned stuff isn't cheap! BUT, in my search, I found some dried hominy and became interested in the possibility of using THAT instead, since it's considerably cheaper for the organic version. I google searched how to make pozole from dried hominy and there was your recipe!
One question, though.. does the corn have to be hominy (which I assume is already nixtamalized), or can it just be white corn? I have a source for dried white corn for $0.91/lb for a 25-lb bag.. so I want to be sure BEFORE ordering if it's the same thing or not.
Mike Vrobel says
I have only tried hominy (which is nixtamalized ). I think dry corn will work the same, but I can’t say for sure. If you try it, let me know how it goes!