Here's a similar recipe that gives a bit more of the recipe author's method -- https://www.food.com/recipe/soft-corn-tortillas-419023
It's kind of a hybrid corn-flour tortilla, IMO.
It's kind of a hybrid corn-flour tortilla, IMO.
-
-
What you describe reminds me of what we call gorditas. Corn meal kind of pancake if you will that we would slice open and fill with whatever you like, meat, beans, cheese, etc.
From what you remember, could you cut them open and fill like this? It’s a nice change from hard taco shell or soft corn tortilla taco.Comment
-
When I brought this up I didn't realize what a hot topic it would be.
I was on the phone with one of my coworkers in Texas this morning. She's actually less than half Mexican, but really claims that as her culture. So I told her about this "tortilla" recipe, and she's not having it. She's demanding that I immediately stop referring to these as tortillas. All in spirit of good clean fun, but she's very serious that these should not be called Tortillas.
So I reminded her to be careful what she says about my mom, then sent her the original hand-written card - with Tortillas in big letters at the top.
Comment
-
I won't steal your thunder, but I'm trying these for lunch today! I can PM you afterwards if you'd like.Comment
-
I wonder if this was an attempt, years ago, by some adventurous cook trying to reverse-engineer a tortilla using the methods that he or she was familiar with. We have an old family recipe known as Bohemian Spaghetti, which was my Czech Great-Grandmother's attempt at cooking spaghetti sauce based on descriptions her kids related to her after they had had it at friends' houses. It's a tomato-based sauce, but contains things like celery, bacon, and various spices one would not typically find in Italian Spaghetti. We still make it occasionally.Comment
-
I make something similar to this (hoecakes) when I make pulled pork. It is kind of a lost art around here, outside of some of the hipster restaurants in nearby Louisville.Comment
-
I looked up some hoecake recipes and these are very similar with similar images. I almost grabbed some pulled pork from the freezer for my experiment, but I was slicing some bacon I smoked yesterday and went with a BLT/hoecake thing. PP would be great with these.Last edited by CaptainMike; July 27, 2022, 03:40 PM.
-
-
That's a great story!Originally posted by Murdy View Post
What I think happened in this case is similar, but my mom didn't create the recipe herself. Almost certainly got it from a magazine. Here's my most plausible scenario: in the early 70s, the back-to-the land hippy movement spilled over into conservative, non-hippy rural life, like the Mother Earth News magazine and some things like that, which my mom subscribed to. And if you think about the typical Anglo-American homesteading housewife at the time, if she's got to make tacos for a large family or a group, and she doesn't care about making authentic hand pressed tortillas, whipping up a batch of batter and pouring it on the griddle is way more familiar to her and a lot easier. So somebody had probably adapted for that reason, and then put it in a magazine, and that's how it ended up on an index card written by my mom.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Comment
-
That is crazy. I’m trying to picture in my head what these look and taste like. I’m picturing a cornmeal pancake but the sheer volume of water (and not milk) is throwing me off.Comment
-
Since CaptainMike isn't posting his, you got 2 options: wait until I do it over the weekend, or do it yourself. -
Hahaha, it's your mom's recipe and your childhood memory radshop and I defer to both.
-
-
When I was in high school we lived in a little town where tortillas were not a staple item in the local grocery store. I was inspired by the food served at a Taco Bell in the next county. It was a special treat to go there a couple of times a year.
I was the adventurous family cook, since my mom hated to cook. So I made up recipes like Nachos using Fritos and made up my own recipe for tortillas.
Those homemade tortillas consisted of flour, cornmeal, a bit of baking powder, a little oil and water. I'd roll them out into large 8" circles and deep fry them.
The family loved "Kathryn's Mexican Night" with those stupid loaded Frito Nachos and tacos made with those crazy tortillas. With a side of rice and pintos, we were eating high on the Mexican hog, I thought.
I should say here that there were no Hispanics in our little southern town, and since a lot of my recipes came from watching my friends' Moms cook, I had no frame of reference except that Taco Bell a county away. At 14 years old, I thought I was serving Authentic Mexican Food.
Even after tortillas became readily available in the town where I went away to college, I still made those deep fried tortillas every now and then, My friends loved them. Weird, huh?
KathrynComment
-
One of my favorite things on our site is when folks share old memories. More threads in the tapestry...
Oh, while I will defer to radshop to share his cook and impressions, I really liked his mom's "tortilla recipe".Last edited by CaptainMike; July 28, 2022, 07:38 AM.
-
Finally. Never was there so much anticipation for something so simple. Bottom line, they’re just the way I remember. The only difference is I’m using unbleached flour, so mine are a little darker color. But flavor is on point. Also, my meat is ground beef/pork blend, not just beef.
We ate them plain - just meat in a tortilla - because that’s what my dad liked.
Comment
Comment