white hominy
Large white corn kernels cooked in an alkaline lime solution and hulled, so they burst open as they cook. Soft yet slightly chewy, with a mild, distinctly tortilla-like flavour.
Hominy is dried white corn, usually a large-kernelled variety, that has been nixtamalised, meaning cooked in limewater and stripped of its hull. As it cooks, each kernel bursts open like a flower and turns tender while keeping a pleasantly chewy bite. Its flavour is mild and recalls corn tortillas, quite unlike sweetcorn. In soups such as pozole it holds its shape and soaks up the broth. In the US it is sold canned in most supermarkets, while in Britain and the German-speaking countries it is mostly found canned or dried as maíz pozolero through online shops for Latin American groceries, occasionally in well-stocked international supermarkets. Canned hominy only needs rinsing, whereas dried kernels must be soaked overnight and simmered for several hours.
Substitute:
There is no real substitute, because its characteristic flavour and texture come only from the lime treatment. Canned sweetcorn is too sweet and falls apart. As a stopgap, cooked chickpeas give a soup a similarly hearty, firm bite, but they taste nutty rather than of corn, and the dish is no longer really pozole.