Anyone make their own tortillas?

[wecsoger]

You roll, or use a press?

If you use a press, cast iron or aluminum?



(I guess you could say it's off-topic but I know levergun folks appreciate good food)

[Mescalero]

I can ask my comadre.

[Blaine]

Sometimes, I do a real thin, crispy corn pancake....not a tortilla, but, good to eat with other stuff, kind of like a tortilla (I just don't have the patience to roll/press those things out). There is a real Mexican place where the Mexicans eat, Vuelve a la Vida, that has homemade corn, and flour tortillas in case I get the urge....Their Aroze con Pollo is the best anywhere in the world.

[Mescalero]

He means chicken and rice.

[wfo]

I love fresh tortillas. When I was a kid my buddies Mom made them every morning. She rolled them with a piece of 1" pipe and cooked them on an insert from an old wood burning stove laid on top of the gas burner on a modern stove.

[44-40 Willy]

I tried my hand at it years ago with an aluminum press, but never really got the hang of it as I was trying to figure it out on my own.

[gundownunder]

He means chicken and rice.

Thanks for that, I thought he was swearing at us

I don't make em, I buy em. Love tortillas with chillie beans and cheese.

[Charles]

I live hard against the Texas/Mexico border and nobody makes tortillas down here, it just isn't worth the effort. Of course there are scads of tortilla makers here and you can buy fresh warm ones in any convenience store.

[wecsoger]

scads of tortilla makers here and you can buy fresh warm ones in any convenience store.

That's good for you, but I'm in southwest Ohio which is /not/ a hotbed of fresh tortilla making. (grin)

Thanks for good information guys. I've been looking at one of the cast iron tortilla presses but the wife is saying first we don't need another piece of cast iron in the house and we don't need another kitchen item in the house.

But still... Went to a restaurant in San Antonio, forgot the name but as you walk in, there's all the nice ladies just turning them out. Sit at the table, next thing that shows up is a fresh plate full. Up in Salt Lake City one of my facilities was just down the road from a place that appeared to make everything from the flour tortillas to fresh chips. Driving by there in the morning was just like driving by a bread bakery.

[Rusty]

We're not even close to the border but we do have a large population of Mexicans in our area. Most of the convenience stores here sell them hot daily. You might be overlooking them. They don't put up a sign here, they just keep them in a cooler by the front of the store. I'm thinking there must be a hot brick in there somewhere because even at 2 in the afternoon the tortillas are still fairly hot.
I don't think for a small amount you'd need a press, a plain rolling pin would do just fine. My wife says in a lot of Mexican households they just pat them out with their hands.

[cfplinker]

When I used a rolling pin or a dowel to roll them out they looked like either Texas or California -- I couldn't get them round. I finally made a press out of a leftover 2x12 board I had. There are plenty of plans on the 'net and even videos of how to make a press. I use a cut up Zip-loc bag so they don't stick to the wood. But you've got to get them thin for them to fry up good. If the're too thick you can't roll them up right when you make a burrito.

[Mescalero]

Sometimes we walk through life with blinders on
I grew up in the southwest and saw Mexican women making them by hand all my life.
I have also seen the factories where they roll off a conveyer like system.
Not untill someone actually asks the question do we stop and think,
How does that happen?

[Blaine]

Sometimes we walk through life with blinders on
I grew up in the southwest and saw Mexican women making them by hand all my life.
I have also seen the factories where they roll off a conveyer like system.
Not untill someone actually asks the question do we stop and think,
How does that happen?

My only issue with homemade is to be on the lookout for armpit hair

[wecsoger]

Ewwwwww. You're off my dinner invitate list for awhile. (grin)

Seriously, the Hispanic population about here is nil. There are major metropolises an hour from here but we've got zip. We do have a Taco Bell (shudder) and a local Mexican place that's middlin' poor. Got the lunch number 12 month or so back the "tamale" was a flat piece of cooked cornmeal with meat and cheese on top.

Rolling them out is technique. Start rolling pin in middle, roll away, pushing. Do it again, start in the middle, roll toward you, pulling. Rotate your work 90 degrees, repeat.

I'm just lazy. Throw 'em on the press between two pieces of plastic or waxes paper, squish, rotate, squish, throw 'em on the griddle. And yeah. It is an excuse for another piece of cast iron for me in the kitchen.

Hmmm. Got me a hankering for some quesadillas. Chicken with homemade sauce.

[BigSky56]

pat them out by hand fry, put in some chivo thats been cooked all day along with some tomato's garlic onion hot peppers & beans very good, then a shot of mescal. learned this from the vaqueros in Az. danny

[Charles]

I once had a very attractive Latina girlfriend who was the designated tortilla maker in her home as she was growing up. She told me that if I wanted any pinche tortillas I would have to make them myself or buy them as she was done with that.

[Blaine]

I once had a very attractive Latina girlfriend who was the designated tortilla maker in her home as she was growing up. She told me that if I wanted any pinche tortillas I would have to make them myself or buy them as she was done with that.

I would imagine that in your neck of the woods, handmade tortillas would be in every tienda, or would have or know where to get some quality stuff. With the huge population of "guests", and of farm workers around here, it's real easy, too...I love that stuff, and, I don't meant that TacoBell trash

[Charles]

There are several local automated "Tortillarias" around here, a couple quite large. The biggest one is the "Disco de Oro" (disc of gold). For the price, you can't make them by hand any cheaper. There is only one cafe I know of that makes their own.

[J35]

You guy's are funny

Anyone that knows anything about good tortilla's knows that they have to be patted out on a woman's thigh, presses, plastic bags good grief get a life.

Merry Christmas everyone----- J

[Mescalero]

Pinche
Have not heard that in a while,
but I understand her sentiments,
by the time she was a grown woman she had seen all of them that she wanted to see!

[Dave B]

Years ago, before we were married, I told my ex-wife I wanted home made tortillas. Of course she says "make your own, I won't make them". I got mad and decided to make my own. I found we had all the ingredients I needed so I mixed up a batch of a dozen. Every thing was going great until I was ready to roll them, we had no darn rolling pin. I can honestly tell you that a Bud Light beer bottle will work in an emergancy.

Dave B

[92&94]

I was once working on a drilling program up in the mountains in Chihuahua, our camp cooks made corn tortilla's with an old iron press and some plastic or paper to keep them from sticking to the press. The didn't make flour tortilla's that often there, and honestly I don't remember how they did it. I think they just took a ball of dough and stretched it by hand rather than rolling.

I've made flour tortillas when I couldn't find proper ones made with lard rather than veg. oil. I can't make huge thin ones (Sonoran style), that either takes more practice than I'm willing to put in or the tutelage of an old fat lady who's been doing it for decades.

Best lunch I ever had were venison rolled tacos in homemade flour tortillas and warmed on a wood fire. Venison makes the best carne asada (but also makes an awful soup )

[Ji in Hawaii]

I rarely make my own but when I do I use a nice heavy cast aluminum press.

[Mescalero]

Ji,
Where did you get that????????

[Ji in Hawaii]

Ji,
Where did you get that????????

I got it on eBay about 10 years ago.
Here's a nice new cast iron one at a very reasonable price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tortilla-Press- ... 2c54bcfe54

[Mescalero]

Thanks!

[wecsoger]

Right not I'm looking at this one:



$24 from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/IMUSA-VICTORIA-85 ... K1M8AEW497