Extruded Corn Flour as an Alternative to Lime‐heated Corn Flour for Tortilla Preparation

Experiments were conducted to produce an extruded corn dough ( masa ) and meal with the same organoleptic properties as lime heat‐treated corn dough. Dry, raw corn kernels were ground in a cereal grinder. The resulting meal was combined with calcium hydroxide in a‘powder mixer and fed continuously through a Wenger X‐S Extruder along with a controlled flow of cold water. The dough and tortillas made in this way were compared with those made by traditional lime heat‐treatment methods for organoleptic properties and total lysine, tryptophan and protein content. No appreciable differences were noted at comparable use levels of calcium hydroxide. Better color and smaller tryptophan losses were obtained with extruded products using 0.2% calcium hydroxide than with the lime heat‐treatment method using 1.0% calcium hydroxide.