bajajudy
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Interesting Article on Tortillas
Capture the taste of tortillas
BY VICKY COWAL/The Herald Mexico
El Universal
September 29, 2005
Did you know that the Aztecs ate tortillas? Big ones too. From the size of the grills found in archeological zones, it seems that there were some up
to a foot in diameter.
You have probably not given it much consideration, but it was quite a scientific process that got corn into being tortillas.
First, someone had to realize that corn (ma?z ) could be very useful if it was dried and then somehow reconstituted. After corn has matured, some of
it is picked in its early stage to be eaten fresh. This is called elote and nowadays is eaten on the cob, in tamales, in a sort of corn bread called
torta de elote , as esquites which are fresh corn with the herb epazote and poblano chiles, and in other vegetables dishes and stews.
The rest of the corn matures and then is broken (doblado ); in other words, the corn is broken at the stalk and left hanging to dry completely. When
dry, the leaves are used for animal feed, as thatching for roofs, for clothing and even for making dolls.
The dried kernels are removed from the cobs and the cobs are used as fuel. Now once you have a dried kernel, what do you do with it? The hull
surrounding the kernel is impossibly hard and almost indigestible, even after being soaked in water. What could be the solution? Well, someone way
back in history, thousands of years ago, either figured it out or came upon it by accident. Something alkaline added to the water will soften the hull
and then the hull can easily be separated from the kernel. Eureka! Either lime, called cal , or another alkaline possibility like ashes, was added to
the water.
The dried kernels are added to boiling water as well as the right amount of alkaline (everyone now uses cal). Methods vary, but generally the kernels
are boiled for about 3 minutes and then the pot is removed from the fire, covered and the corn is left to soak overnight. The next morning the water
is drained off, rinsed, drained again, and after that the hulls are removed from the kernels with one's fingers. What to we have? We have what is
called nixtamal .
Before corn mills came into use, and this didn't happen until the mid 1920s, the nixtamal had to be ground manually until it became dough, or masa .
This was done on the floor on grinding stones, metates , a long and laborious task of repeated grinding until the dough took on just the right
consistency. Nowadays almost everyone has access to a mill to turn nixtamal into masa.
With the masa is ready, it's time to make the tortillas. Until about 30 years ago this was always done by hand and it was women's work. They would
take a small piece of masa and, in a motion that probably had to have been learned as a small child, they patted it between their palms into a
perfectly round tortilla. In some regions, such as Veracruz, two circles were cut from fresh banana leaves, the masa put between the circles and the
tortillas were patted out this way. In present day Mexico, most cooks use a tortilla press to make their tortillas.
Now in urban centers, most tortillas are made commercially at tortillerias. Today's tortilla-making machines spew out millions a day. While a
tremendous boon to womankind, the industrialization of the tortilla cannot be said to have improved either its taste or consistency. But that's modern
life.
For those who do not consider the tortilla a gastronomic treat, it may be that you have not had the opportunity to eat tortillas made on the spot, by
hand, from fresh masa. You can equate it to eating homemade bread just out of the oven. You can find such tortillas in rural areas where many of the
woman still make their nixtamal, take it to a mill to have it ground and then form and cook dozens of tortillas a day.
Fresh tortillas are mostly used as an accompaniment to meals. Then, as they get slightly drier, they are made into dozens of varieties of dishes.
Mexicans do not use hard yellow corn taco shells. Four of the most popular forms of dishes using at least one-day-old tortillas are fried tacos,
flautas, enchiladas and chilaquiles. Vicky Cowal is a weekly contributor to The Herald. VickyCowal@prodigy.net.mx
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rpleger
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Interesting..........
Thanks Judy
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
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neilmac
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That nixtamal sounds...
exactly like hominy..... would that make masa about the same as grits?
Neil
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bajajudy
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I dont know but I could look. My mother in law just brought me some.....
They say made from the heart of the corn...whole kernel.
These are stone ground serious grits so I bet they do.
They sure were good with my country ham yesterday morning.
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elizabeth
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Corn for posole is prepared the same way as for making masa, without the grinding, of course! In some places, New Mexico, for instance, corn for
posole is also called nixtamal. This is the same as hominy. When making posole, the germ (the pointed end of the corn) is often removed to make the
kernals "flower".
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