What Are Tortillas - A Brief Tortilla History

By KC Kudra

The word "tortillas" comes from the Spanish word "torta" which means round cake. Tortillas are very popular in America as well as Mexico. Americans like to be creative with their tortilla fillings and will eat them with apples and brown sugar or beans and meat or even peanut butter and jelly. Tortillas can also be used instead of bread, to make a kind of sandwich, for casseroles and as a wrap for hot dogs. You can do many things with them and you can even make your own homemade tortillas.

Tortillas have been enjoyed for hundreds of years but not with these modern fillings.

More than 10,000 years before Christ, the Aztecs were already making tortillas. The Aztecs used a lot of corn, both eaten straight from the cob and in recipes. They would grind corn into cornmeal and from this they would make a corn dough called masa. Water is added to the cornmeal to make the dough but the temperature of the water is very important. If it is too hot or too cold, the dough will not be the right consistency to roll out. When the masa is ready, it is made into a ball and then rolled out into a thick pancake shape. It is then placed on a hot griddle for a minute or so to cook. It is important to keep an eye on the tortillas because they do not take long to cook.

The tortillas of today are still made with the same ingredients as in tortilla history. Because they are very popular, most tortillas today are made in factories with machinery. They come in a lot of different flavors and you can also make homemade tortillas quite easily. A lot of Mexican foods use tortillas as an ingredient. Tacos, for example, use flour tortillas as the shell. With an enchilada, the tortilla is filled, then rolled up, and cooked. Tortillas are used as turnovers to make quesadillas, which are filled before being fried.

Tortillas are not just for eating. "Tortilla art" is when tortillas are used as a canvas. They are baked and then covered in acrylic, before they are painted. The culture of Latino artists is represented by tortilla art so this is an important part of tortilla history.

Tortilla chips are made from flour tortillas. The tortilla is cut into wedges and these wedges are fried. Corn tortillas are made from vegetable oil, corn, water, and salt. These chips became popular in Los Angeles, California, in the 1940s because they were mass-produced there, but they are still thought of as a Mexican food.

Americans use tortillas for a lot of their foods. It is most common found in burritos, which started long ago in northern Mexico. Tortillas are a traditional food of many people from northern states of Mexico and Native tribes that are found in the Southwestern United States. Just about any restaurant will carry tortillas. You can try many different foods that include them. They are easy to find in the grocery store. You can use your taste buds and imagination to make your own foods, which include the tortillas.

There are plenty of tortilla recipes available if you fancy making your own tortillas and creating some wonderful fillings!

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