Today, Mexico remains one of the top maize growing countries in the world, growing more than 42 different types. During that time, the Conquistadors saw for the first time the flatbread made from corn. It was called tlaxcalli in the native language. The Spanish dubbed them tortillas and they quickly spread worldwide. Once wheat was brought over to the New World from Spain, flour tortillas were created. Interestingly, one of the first widespread uses of electric motors and gas engines was to provide power to wet-grain grinders.
These wet-grain grinders made masa , but people were still needed to form the dough into tortillas. However, in the s, small-scale machines were capable of producing cooked tortillas every two seconds. Tortillas are one of the most popular bread products around. Specialized tortilla-making machines can produce 60, cooked tortillas in an hour, a long way from the painstaking traditional process that made one tortilla at a time.
Regular maize tortillas are available, but so are flour tortillas. One can find various flavors and types of tortillas in most grocery stores. Tortillas are more popular than bagels or muffins in America and are second only to sliced bread. Since , NASA uses tortillas as a solution to a bread crumb and gravity issue. Astronauts had a hard time handling much of the food supplied to them on shuttle trips, but tortillas proved to be an easy way to eat a meal in space.
The only issue with most commercially-made tortillas nowadays is mold. Never fear, NASA found a solution: shelf-stable tortillas. By removing oxygen from the package, no mold can grow, making the tortillas safe for the astronauts to eat. NASA also made sure to reduce water activity and pH in the tortillas to avoid any potential problems out in space.
No one could read this much about tortillas and not want to eat one right away. The mega-talented artisans who craft flour tortillas combine flour, salt, water, and lard. You read that right. These are not vegetarian-friendly, and we're not mad about it. The tortilla-makers often stretch the dough and lay it, bare-handed, onto a hot comal via L. The result? A see-through, tender tortilla so large that it's known as a sobaquera : it can possibly stretch from your hand to your armpit.
Making a sobaquera, or any flour tortilla, can be a challenge in itself. The quality of flour can actually vary, depending on the climate in which it's raised. According to legend, tortillas were invented by a Mayan peasant for his hungry king. The first recorded use of tortillas dates to roughly 10, BC, and were made from corn. And when the Spanish arrived, they discovered native inhabitants like the Aztecs and others all ate some sort of maize bread.
There are a few important factors when selecting and serving tortillas. Size — For starters, tortillas come in different sizes that are ideal for certain applications.
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