The Nixtamatic - A review of the Ford F150 of the corn grinder world

My freshly-unboxed Nixtamatic

    As I mentioned earlier, I've been making tortillas in various forms for nearly 15 years.  

(Coincidentally, it was twelve years ago today, that the very last bites of food my Dad ever ate were from a taco I made for him on a homemade tortilla.  I will always remember seeing his eyes widen as he chewed and hearing his raspy, "Oh, it's good!"  He died four days later of a long-term illness, and it remains a treasured and bittersweet memory. But, I digress.)

    So, anyway ... the hardest part of making tortillas (or any corn-based product) is grinding the corn.  When I started experimenting with making tortillas from actual corn (instead using a dried corn flour product called Masa Harina) I rejected using a metate - I just knew it would kill my back. Besides, where would I keep a very large stone mortar and pestle? Here's a longish video demonstration if you'd like to see it in use. Skip to about the 4-minute mark and watch for a few seconds to see the motion:

    Pretty cool, huh?  But definitely not for me.

    I started out milling the corn with my food processor, but it's a terrible way to grind masa - it dulls the blades and results in a wet concoction that is more batter than dough, and you have to amend it with masa harina to soak up all the excess water. That felt like defeating the purpose of making masa in the first place, so I bought a Victoria molino for $50 that I ended up using for the next six years.  But hand cranking partially-cooked corn is enough work, that it limited the amount of masa that I was willing to make.   I tried out the Wonder Mill Junior Deluxe, and while it's a very nice dry grain mill, no amount of retrofitting makes it actually good for masa-making (it's even more work than the Victoria!).

    Amazon has tons of electric wet mills for sale, but they were $200-$300 and had terrible reviews, so I doubted their durability.   There were a few mills intended for dosa- and idli-making that looked like good products, but they had a very small capacity, requiring grinding in waves or produced a very wet dough, a problem with the food processor that I wanted to avoid.  

    The next step up was the Nixtamatic. One thing I liked about that unit was that it was specifically designed for masa.  It was just expensive enough at $500 that I questioned whether it was a good idea for a hobbyist like myself. Plus there were no US-based distributors, so I would have to import it myself by purchasing it directly from the company and having them ship to me. But, due to the distance and language barrier, support for the product would be limited and expensive. But they've been in business for many years, so if I do need support, it's there.

    Then my beloved Masienda released the Molinito, an $1800 grinder with stone burrs. The damn thing weighs 100 pounds (45 kg) and is about the size of a really large microwave, but taller.  I kinda wanted one, but that was just a huge amount of money, and really out of our budget, and I'd have to give up a lot of counter space. And, the shipping from Los Angeles to Minnesota was pretty expensive - about $200 all by itself.  Here's a little video (skip to about 7:00 to see it in action):

    This puppy is rated for commercial use, so it really felt like overkill, but if I didn't end up using it, I could probably sell it. But still... it was huge.   Then came bonus time this year, and I found out that Masienda was discontinuing the Molinito.  Aside from it being so expensive, I also had strong misgivings about buying an expensive discontinued product - how would they support it once they ran out of replacement milling stones, for example?   

    I decided that the Molinito was not in my future, and went back to the Nixtamatic.  There are very few of them in the United States, and what reviews exist are mixed.   Steve Sando (of Ranch Gordo beans) got one back in 2008, but says he doesn't use it much anymore.  At least two guys on Reddit deemed it crude, and mistakenly stated that the burrs were made of badly-cast aluminum.  Others complain that it doesn't grind finely enough. Some people seem to like it, but no one is raving about it.  But, it's been around for at least 20 years (if not longer), and it's still being made and sold, so it's probably a decent product, right?   It's also a mere 31 pounds (14 kg) so if I need to move it myself, I can.   

    So, I ordered one. The shipping was painfully expensive (almost as much as the unit itself) because transporting a 40-pound (18 kg) package from Southern Mexico to the Northern US is just not cheap. UPS got it to me in only two days, and I don't have an unboxing video, but they did a GREAT job packing it - it was double-boxed, with sturdy baffles between the layers of cardboard.

    Now, let's talk about what it is, so any of my readers who are considering one have their expectations set appropriately: it's basically a Victoria Molino, but with POWER. If the Victoria is a 1-speed bicycle, the Nixtamatic is a Ford F150.  It has a hopper with an aggressive auger ("worm") that pushes the corn between two rotating grinding plates, and the output is exactly the same quality as what comes out of the Victoria. If you want it more finely ground, you must put the masa through again and as with the hand mill you have to kind of push it through that second time. It's easier to clean than the Victoria though, and it's FAST. It grinds 2 pounds (about a kilo) of nixtamal in less than ONE MINUTE.  Holy sh-t.

    Yes, the hopper is made of sand-cast aluminum, but that's not a bad thing - it's massive and would be very heavy if it were steel or iron. But the grinding plates themselves are made from cast iron (a magnet sticks nicely to it).  I'm not going out on much of a limb to assert that they've always been made from cast iron.  No one would ever use aluminum to grind, well, anything - it simply isn't durable enough.  

It lives on a wheeled stainless-steel table.
Out of the way when not in use,
easy to get it to an electrical outlet when it is.

    You can make tortillas with one pass of the Nixtamatic, but you'll get a puffier tortilla that has more pliability upon reheating if you grind the masa a second time.   But if all of the tortillas will be eaten in one sitting, I wouldn't bother running it through again.  A single grind results in tortillas that are delicious and pliable enough to not break when they are fresh.   

    Here's a short video we made showing it in use. Yes, it's just as loud as it seems in the video (you can keep the sound off if you like):

        One of the benefits of easy nixtamal-grinding is that I'm making a lot more masa-based recipes. In the month we've had the Nixtamatic, we've made tamales, tetelas, empenadas, tortillas, and arepas.  Before we got that beast, I made tortillas maybe once a month.  Now I'm grinding corn every week.

    And yeah, I love it.

    If you want to acquire a Nixtamatic of your own and don't live in Mexico, reach out to the company directly and fill out their online contact form here: https://www.nixtamatic.com.mx/contacto.php. They will provide the price and shipping estimate (based on your zipcode). I paid via PayPal, though they may be take other payment methods.  You can also call them directly, but if you are calling from within the US, you will need to append "011-52-" in front of the phone number listed on their site.   If you don't speak Spanish, when they pick up, say "Buenos días. ¿Hablas inglés, por favor?" and they will transfer your call to someone who speaks English.