What is hominis?

Answer 1

Hominy is a food made from corn.

To make hominy, you start with an ear of corn. When corn gets ripe, the kernels dry out, and you can shell the kernels. Often, white corn is used for hominy, but many people prefer yellow corn; there isn't much difference in taste, but they look different colors.

Soak the kernels in lye. Pioneers would make their own lye by soaking ashes in water, especially ashes from burning green oak. These days, you can buy granular lye crystals at the hardware store, as people use it for opening drains. Be sure to use rubber gloves, because lye causes nasty burns.

When you soak the kernels in liquid, they will soak up, and if the liquid is lye, the "skin" on the kernel loosens, and can easily be slipped off. The innards of the corn kernel is hominy. You would drain off the lye, and rinse the hominy in water until it's all removed. If you're in a hurry, a bath of vinegar will neutralize the lye, resulting in salt water, which is easier to rinse off.

One can warm up the hominy in a water bath as with any other vegetable, and serve it, buttered, with salt for nice side dish. Hominy is also used as an ingredient in soups and stews, added to corn bread, and can be ground up and served as a porridge known as "hominy grits", a food beloved in the south and reviled by some northerners.

Answer 2

"Hominis" is the genitive singular form of the Latin word "homo," which means "man," "person," or "human being." In scientific or taxonomic contexts, "hominis" may refer to a species classification or part of the binomial nomenclature for humans (Homo sapiens).