Cereal Chem. 70:257-259   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Wet Milling of Maize Grits.

S. R. Eckhoff, W. V. Jayasena, and C. K. Spillman. Copyright 1993 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Maize grits obtained from the standard dry milling of whole corn kernels were studied as the raw material for wet milling. One size of corn grits (those that pass through a no. 5 and over a no. 10 screen), two levels of SO2 concentration (0.1 and 0.2%), and four levels of steeping time (4, 6, 8, and 10 hr) were used. The steep time could be reduced to 6 hr, and the SO2 concentration could be reduced to 0.1% in the wet milling of corn grits without any significant reduction in starch yield or increase in protein content of starch. Starch recovery of up to 88.9% (db) was achieved from the grits in the study, compared to a 87.4% (db) recovery from the control samples (48 hr, 0.2% SO2, whole kernels). The protein content of starch was as low as 0.5% for the 10-hr steep. The highest and lowest values recorded for apparent viscosity of starch among treatments were 462 and 377 Brabender units, respectively. Both of these values were significantly lower than that of the apparent viscosity of starch obtained from wet milling of whole kernels, which was 490 Brabender units.