Tortilla

A tortilla is a round, unleavened, flat bread made with either corn or wheat flour and water, shortening (lard or oil), and salt. The word tortilla means "little cake" in Spanish. Tortillas are associated with Mexican cuisine and can be found in a variety of dishes such as tacos, burritos, and quesadillas. They can be fried in oil to make tortilla chips or hard taco shells. Tortillas made of corn are considered more traditional than the ones made from flour, as the latter was invented much later than corn tortillas. Corn tortillas are preferred in most parts of Mexico, whereas flour tortillas are more popular in the United States and northern Mexico. In Spain, a tortilla is a cooked egg dish made with onions, potatoes, and oil; it is similar to an American omelet or Italian frittata.

History

Corn tortillas can be traced back thousands of years to around 3000 B.C.E., about the time when the indigenous groups of North America, such as the Mayans and Aztecs, grew maize, or corn. Corn was a revered staple of life and regarded like a deity. According to an ancient Mayan legend, a peasant invented the tortilla to feed his hungry king. Since then, the tortilla, which was simple to make, required few ingredients, and provided people with nutritional value, became a staple in the natives' diets.

The Spanish conquistadors, who were led by Hernán Cortés, discovered that the natives ate and prepared flatbreads made of corn when they arrived in Mesoamerica, which later became the country of Mexico during the early sixteenth century. Corn was an important crop to North America. The Aztecs dried it and ground it into cornmeal, to which they added water and salt and made a dough known as masa. They shaped the masa into small balls, flattened them into a flat disc, and cooked them on a griddle on each side. These flatbreads were stuffed, filled, or rolled up with other ingredients, such as meats or vegetables, or used as a utensil to eat items such as beans and soups. The Nahuatl (native Aztec language) word for the flatbreads was tlaxcalli. The Spanish later called them tortillas.

The Spanish brought the tortillas back to Spain, introducing Europe to the new food. In the years that followed, the natives of Mexico continued to make and eat tortillas. Tortillas eventually spread to the lands north of Mexico that later became the United States. The Native Americans of the Southwest began to incorporate the flatbreads into their diets. When the English colonists reached America, the natives introduced them to their culture and foods, which included tortillas.

The tortilla continued to gain prominence throughout the world in the centuries that followed. Traditionally, tortillas were made of corn and prepared by hand. As time passed, people began to use wheat instead of corn and a new type of tortilla was born: the flour tortilla. In Mexico and other parts of the world where corn was an inexpensive crop, people mostly made and consumed the traditional corn tortilla. The tortilla became popular in the United States after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), and the first American cookbooks containing tortilla recipes emerged around this time. Cowboys of the Old West used tortillas as a vessel for meats cooked on campfires. Over time, people began to stuff the tortillas with a variety of fillings, and foods such as tacos, wraps, burritos, quesadillas, and more were popularized throughout the world.

Overview

Prior to the twentieth century, people mostly made tortillas by hand. Individuals dried the corn and boiled it in a mixture of water and calcium hydroxide, or slaked lime. Calcium hydroxide is a chemical used in cooking. It helps loosen the skins from the corn kernels to release the nutrients from the corn. Once the mixture is ready, it is ground with a stone while water is added to make a smooth paste. The paste is formed into balls. The balls are flattened by hand or by using a device called a tortilla press. The tortilla press is a small machine that has two heavy metal plates, which are used to compress the dough balls into perfectly round discs. The discs are then cooked on a hot, oiled griddle on each side until they blister, or form little pockets of air.

Several innovations in the twentieth century made it easier and quicker to make tortillas both at home and commercially. At home, individuals used electric molinos (corn mills) to make it easier to ground the corn for the masa. By the 1940s, small gas and electric motors and engines were used to power grain grinders to ground the corn. Hand-cranked tortilladoras then were created. These transported the balls of masa onto a conveyor belt and through rollers to flatten the balls into tortillas.

About two decades later, small mechanical tortilla-making machines were developed that were able to make and cook several tortillas at a time in less than one minute. By the twenty-first century, manufacturers were using large-scale mechanized commercial tortilla-making machines and assembly lines to make large numbers of tortillas inexpensively and quickly. They then packaged them and exported them all over the world. In addition, manufacturers began to make fried taco shells and tortilla chips out of the tortillas.

While handmade tortillas take much time and effort to prepare, they are less expensive than their commercially prepared counterparts. Some people prefer the taste of the ones made at home. They say they are more authentic, more flexible, and less apt to break than commercially made ones. They also contain no preservatives.

Bibliography

"Food Encyclopedia: Tortilla." Food Network, www.foodterms.com/encyclopedia/tortilla/index.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

McMahon, Mary. "What Are Tortillas?" Wisegeek, 29 Oct. 2016, www.wisegeek.com/what-are-tortillas.htm. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

"The Mexican Food Revolution." National Museum of American History, americanhistory.si.edu/food/resetting-table/mexican-food-revolution. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

Smith, Andrew F. "Tortillas." Food and Drink in American History: A "Full Course" Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2013, p. 92.

"Tortilla and Taco History." What's Cooking America, whatscookingamerica.net/History/Tortilla‗Taco‗history.htm. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

"Tortilla Talk." Tortilla Industry Association, www.tortilla-info.com/default.asp?contentID=6. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

Ulaby, Neda. "What Are Those Parabens Doing in My Tortilla?" NPR, 8 Aug. 2014, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/08/08/338637182/what-are-those-parabens-doing-in-my-tortilla. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

Weinzweig, Ari. "How Spain Defines 'Tortilla.'" Atlantic, 25 Nov. 2009, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2009/11/how-spain-defines-tortilla/30446. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.