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Unlike a really great pasta dough—which you can whip up with some flour and water (and maybe an egg yolk or two)—you cannot combine cornmeal and water and expect an amazing tortilla. There’s nothing quite like the aroma and flavor of a freshly made tortilla. Once you’ve had one, it’s hard to go back to those plastic-wrapped store-bought stacks. The good news is, it’s super easy to make fresh masa and tortillas—from scratch—at home. The secret to those perfect tortillas that fulfill all of our taco-loving dreams—elastic, springy, chewy, aromatic—is masa, also called “wet milled corn,” which is made from dried kernels that have undergone the nixtamalization process. Nixtamalization transforms ground dried corn from a coarse cornmeal into a smooth and workable dough that has a gluten-like elasticity. This process is made possible by soaking the corn in a highly alkaline solution of water and <a href="https://masienda.com/shop/chef-grade-cal">cal</a> (aka calcium hydroxide or food-grade lime), which chemically transforms the corn. After soaking, the corn—now called nixtamal—is rinsed well and stone-ground to release and knead together the starch, proteins, oils, and emulsifiers present in the kernels. We’re swapping traditional stone mills with modern kitchen equipment: a blender grinds the nixtamal (with a bit of water added to help form a vortex and ensure a super smooth mixture), and then a stand mixer kneads the dough to the perfect consistency ready to make <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-shape-your-homemade-masa-tortillas">tortillas</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-shape-your-homemade-masa-tamales">tamales</a>, or <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-shape-your-homemade-masa-pupusas">pupusas</a>.