It's All About the Water

It's a good thing we have the book giving instructions in painstaking detail, because it's not as easy as it looks. This stack of five definitely improved as we went along, but, like making pasta or bread, it's more a question of getting a feel for the dough, the pressure of the press and the heat of the comal skillet than exact measurements. The instructions are more like guidelines than recipes.

I read the history of masa (the corn flour) while I rode my bike this morning. The author divides the development of making tortillas into three phases:
1. Traditional--growing the corn from seeds handed down through generations, soaking kernels in water and lye (nixtamalizing),  grinding the corn into flour on a stone, making tortillas by hand.

2. Convenience-- buying the flour in packaged form, eliminating all but the last step. Now it is also possible to buy tortillas in any grocery store. They are made from American produced corn which has driven the local Mexican producers of heritage red and blue corn out of production.

3. Providing an 'experience'. Think a Mexican restaurant. Some of the posher ones have come full circle in the process by returning to some of the traditional means of production.

And I didn't even read the part about starting with the corn....

We have invited our neighbors to join us in the experiment this evening so we will make another batch of tortillas in hopes of a more uniform product after a little practice. I might post another picture if we get a better batch. Or just leave this one as a record of our first effort. It's definitely intriguing, and with the right set-up could be a really fun party with the guests participating.