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lynneharvey

Oct 24, 2012, 6:29 AM

Post #1 of 27 (5285 views)

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Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Hi everyone. My name is Lynne and I live in Scotland. First tasted mexican cooking about 10 years ago and always choose to eat mexican when I'm travelling in the States/USA (unfortunately I've never been to Mexico!). I love it and because I'm a coeliac, its great for me too! We have two, yes two stores that I know of in the whole of Scotland, so produce isn't easy to come by. I have found an online store and have managed to buy a comal (don't know if it good or not), corn tortilla press and the Masa flour to make the corn tortilla. I mixed the flour and water and salt and the first batch were edible, but didn't really work. My second batch, which I worked the dough a little more and were a little more moist, were better but didn't puff up or bubble. What am I not doing? Don't want to have to buy shop bought corn tortilla anymore. Hope someone can help me a little

mazbook1

Oct 24, 2012, 6:40 PM

Post #2 of 27 (5247 views)

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Re: [lynneharvey] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Making good tortillas is an art, rather than a science. However, corn tortillas aren't supposed to puff up or bubble, only wheat flour tortillas (made with shortening, often lard) do that. Homemade or commercial, corn tortillas are flat, relatively thin and can't be split after cooking. The very thick ones, opened and used for stuffed gorditas, are the only ones that do that, and I "think" probably have the addition of a small amount of baking powder added to the masa. Never having made stuffed gorditas at home, I don't actually know this for a fact, though. Our gorditas here in the north of México are just thick tortillas with a pinched up edge (sort of looks like a mini pie crust) that once cooked are loaded up on top with the ingredients that would be stuffed inside an opened up, stuffed gordita.

Rolly

Oct 24, 2012, 8:11 PM

Post #3 of 27 (5243 views)

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Re: [mazbook1] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Here are a couple of gordita picture stories.
http://rollybrook.com/gorditas_stand-1.htm
http://rollybrook.com/gorditas.htm

Rolly Pirate

Nancy in Pátzcuaro

Oct 24, 2012, 9:34 PM

Post #4 of 27 (5235 views)

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Re: [Rolly] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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At the risk of making things way more complicated, there's an extensive thread on eGullet about making tortillas. It's several pages long and there's a huge amount of information and advice. I started reading the thread at 10:30 one night and was almost ready to dig out that bag of Maseca and start making tortillas until I realized just how late it was and how cranky my husband would be about the mess in the kitchen right before bedtime!

Here's the link-- http://forums.egullet.org/...ng-tortillas-at-home

You don't have to join eGullet to read the posts, though you do have to join if you want to post. Many of the participants are food professionals so sometimes it's a little intimidating, but I always learn something. There's a Latin America section where I found this, plus many other areas to explore.

I hope this helps. Tortillas seem so simple, don't they? But unless you've grown up making them they can be tricky. The message I got from the eGullet thread is to keep trying because in this case practice really does make perfect.

N.

(This post was edited by Rolly on Oct 24, 2012, 10:42 PM)

lynneharvey

Oct 25, 2012, 1:26 AM

Post #5 of 27 (5226 views)

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Re: [Nancy in Pátzcuaro] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Thank you all for your posts and advice ... I will be reading the suggested links and will keep persevering, I'm NOT beaten yet! ... Last night I made crispy tacos (store bought) with pulled pork and cheese quesadillas (homemade) and guacamole (homemade) and red chili sauce (homemade) ... yum yum yum yum yum!

joaquinx

Oct 25, 2012, 6:41 AM

Post #6 of 27 (5217 views)

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Re: [mazbook1] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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In Reply To

However, corn tortillas aren't supposed to puff up or bubble, only wheat flour tortillas (made with shortening, often lard) do that.

The ones made by machine will not puff up, however, al mano tortillas will puff up while being cooked.
_______
My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.

(This post was edited by joaquinx on Oct 25, 2012, 6:41 AM)

esperanza

Oct 25, 2012, 1:02 PM

Post #7 of 27 (5195 views)

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Re: [joaquinx] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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In fact, whether you make corn tortillas by hand or by press, they will, if made correctly, 'puff up' while cooking. It's unlikely that a home kitchen will have a tortilla machine.

However, tortillas made with Maseca corn flour may never puff up and will never be what you are looking for. For tortillas that meet your expectations, you need to start with dried cacahuatzintli (dent corn) which you then process by nixtamal-ization, grind on a volcanic stone metate, and cook on a clay comal. The thread on eGullet will give you information about all of that.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

(This post was edited by esperanza on Oct 25, 2012, 1:06 PM)

robt65

Oct 26, 2012, 6:07 AM

Post #8 of 27 (5173 views)

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Re: [esperanza] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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I have to agree with esperanza on her statement. The one's I have eaten from both machine and by hand have certainly "puffed up", but the ones made fresh by hand, for some reason have always tasted better to me.

robt65

La Isla

Oct 26, 2012, 8:45 AM

Post #9 of 27 (5160 views)

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Re: [robt65] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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It's the "human touch" that gives handmade tortillas that wonderful flavor and texture, don't you think?

robt65

Oct 26, 2012, 12:52 PM

Post #10 of 27 (5147 views)

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Re: [La Isla] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Yes La Isla, I do agree. Every house I have ever had the pleasure of eating a meal at here in Mexico, it is definitely a plus when you see the tortilla's have been handmade. I really enjoy watching my wife and M-I-L flap them all about after taking the masa out of the stone metate. It really is a treat. It never ceases to amaze me how even they can be made alll the way around by hand. My guess is they have done that before (probably several thousand times!) smiling.

robt65

esperanza

Oct 26, 2012, 2:39 PM

Post #11 of 27 (5139 views)

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Re: [La Isla] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Human touch or not, in Mexico City it is virtually impossible to find a well-made, delicious tortilla either at a private home, in a restaurant, or on the street. Many tortillerías use Maseca--corn flour--rather than nixtamal-ized dried corn. Even the few tortillerías where real dried corn is used grind olote--corn cobs--into the masa to extend it. The result is a tortilla that has the mouth-feel and the taste of cardboard. After two years, we have just about given up the search.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

joaquinx

Oct 26, 2012, 3:03 PM

Post #12 of 27 (5137 views)

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Re: [esperanza] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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I guess from what you wrote, that you have given up on "real" Mexican food.
_______
My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.

esperanza

Oct 26, 2012, 4:59 PM

Post #13 of 27 (5125 views)

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Re: [joaquinx] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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My post indicated that it has been impossible for us to find good-quality tortillas in Mexico City. That's all. "Real" Mexican food is everywhere here.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

mazbook1

Oct 27, 2012, 5:45 PM

Post #14 of 27 (5089 views)

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Re: [esperanza] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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esperanza, Actually, Maseca is NOT corn flour. It's perfectly ordinary nixtamalized corn that has been dried and is then ground into a meal, not a flour (and yes, I KNOW that in Spanish this meal is called harina de maíz, which STILL doesn't make it corn flour). It, or the Minsa brand, CAN be used to make quite decent hand-made tortillas. I certainly agree with you that hand-made beats machine made, though. Oddly, I prefer the machine made Minsa tortillas to the Maseca ones, but my family prefers the Maseca ones. Fortunately, both are available within two blocks of our house, so when I get sent to get tortillas, we eat Minsa, but if one of the kids gets sent (much more common), we eat Maseca. I've watched machine made tortillas being made since 1960 in New Mexico when I had a small business right next door to a tortilla "factory", and I have yet to see one puff-up in the baking/grilling process in the machine. They're just too thin. The hand-made ones sometimes do, if the hand on the tortilla press wasn't too heavy and the initial ball of masa was a bit larger than usual. The ones made without a tortilla press almost always do (but the OP was using a tortilla press).

I doubt that I have ever had corn tortillas made from masa made from scratch, i.e., ordinary dried corn, first nixtamalized, then thoroughly rinsed before being ground to the correct consistency in a metate while still wet from the nixtamalization process and the necessary rinsing, before being made into balls of masa and finally into tortillas.

Actually my neighborhood "corner store" sells ordinary dried corn for nixtamalization, and subsequent use in posole or to be ground for masa, but few young, educated Mexican women (and my wife is no exception) would even consider going to all the trouble of nixtamalizing it, rinsing it and then grinding it into masa for tortillas. The big box supermarkets sell wet, nixtamalized corn (usually labeled maíz cocido) in one kilo bags in the dairy cooler, which can be thoroughly rinsed, then used for either posole, or ground into masa, but in most families I know it's only used for posole.

(This post was edited by mazbook1 on Oct 27, 2012, 5:48 PM)

esperanza

Oct 27, 2012, 9:47 PM

Post #15 of 27 (5073 views)

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Re: [mazbook1] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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If you ever have the chance to eat properly prepared corn tortillas, you will never go back to either Maseca or Minsa.

When we moved to Mexico City, we were quite pleased to see that the tortillería on our corner advertises "100% Nixtamal" on its facade. Unfortunately, the masa prepared at that tortillería is, like most nixtamal-made masa in the DF, ground with olote (corn cobs) to extend it.

Our friends just roll their eyes when we ask where we can buy an honest tortilla. They all have the same problem we do: tortillas like cardboard with almost no taste of corn.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

Bennie García

Oct 28, 2012, 6:46 AM

Post #16 of 27 (5059 views)

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Re: [esperanza] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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For tortillas that meet your expectations, you need to start with dried cacahuatzintli

I believe other species of corn are used for tortillas. Cacahuazintle is the species that is most used for pozole, hence its other name, maiz pozolero and it is not normally used for nixtamal.

esperanza

Oct 28, 2012, 8:37 AM

Post #17 of 27 (5047 views)

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Re: [Bennie García] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Bennie, ground nixtamal-ized cacahuatzintle is used for tortillas, tamales, and many other masa-based dishes. Whole nixtamal-ized cacahuatzintle is used for pozole. Each color (red, white, blue, etc) of cacahuatzintle is a different species, but it is all cacahuatzintle.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

tonyburton

Oct 28, 2012, 11:13 AM

Post #18 of 27 (5033 views)

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Re: [esperanza] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Permit me to attempt two points of clarification.
I have no idea which is more correct academically, but Bennie's spelling Cacahuazintle is the more usual.
To the best of my limited knowledge, the different colors of corn are not actually different species, though they may well be different subspecies or varieties.
Time for some more tortillas...

PS The best tortillas I've ever had in D.F. (and they were outstanding) were from a roadside stand in Santa Rosa Xochiac.

Vichil

Oct 28, 2012, 11:37 AM

Post #19 of 27 (5029 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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and the best we ever had were in Yucatan; small, yellow , fat and delicious, the worst have to be the tlayudas in Oaxaca. I can see why they are used as containers and plates as well.

(This post was edited by Vichil on Oct 28, 2012, 11:43 AM)

Bennie García

Oct 28, 2012, 11:38 AM

Post #20 of 27 (5028 views)

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Re: [esperanza] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Sorry but cacahuazintle is rarely used for tortillas. Cacahuazintle is a specific variety. There are many other varieties that cost much less and make better tortillas. The cacahuazintle growing region is very limited compared to other varieties.

dos gatos felices

Oct 29, 2012, 10:11 AM

Post #21 of 27 (4978 views)

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Re: [Bennie García] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Just a thought here: Could it be that in order to make better tasting corn tortillas one should use ingredients which are non gmo (that is, not genetically modified) or which are organic?

Maesonna

Oct 29, 2012, 9:59 PM

Post #22 of 27 (4953 views)

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Re: [esperanza] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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We live in Xochimilco, and the tortillas are fairly decent. One of my sisters-in-law moved 15 km away to the area of south Insurgentes near Plaza Loreto, and she says the only tortillas she can buy there are very bad; tasteless “corn” like you report, and even sometimes with foreign matter mixed in with them. So maybe if you look further afield you can find some good ones.

Anonimo

Oct 31, 2012, 12:25 PM

Post #23 of 27 (4918 views)

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Re: [Nancy in Pátzcuaro] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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I hope I'm not gloating to say that I never make tortillas de maíz nor want to. There are just too many sources of decent to great tortillas here in the Pátzcuaro area. Best of all, the Señora who cleans for us brings us a stack, about once a week, of fresh, hot, handmade tortillas, of locally grown and milled corn that are true sustenance.
I guess I was gloating. Sorry.

"En Boca Cerrada No Entran Moscas."

Saludos,
Anonimo

dos gatos felices

Oct 31, 2012, 12:50 PM

Post #24 of 27 (4914 views)

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Re: [Anonimo] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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Well, who wouldn't gloat! I have a feeling that you show your appreciation, too, so enjoy!!!

esperanza

Oct 31, 2012, 6:25 PM

Post #25 of 27 (4900 views)

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Re: [Anonimo] Corn Tortilla and all things mexican

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IMHO, the tortillas in Michoacán are the best in Mexico. Grrrr.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

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