Speaker 1: Today's episode is all about the corn and flour dirtilla.
Speaker 2: My name is Evil Longoria and I am Myra and
Speaker 2: welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores our
Speaker 2: past and present through food.
Speaker 1: On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
Speaker 1: of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages.
Speaker 3: So make yourself at home. When Rachel.
Speaker 1: So excited, here we.
Speaker 3: Are, here, we are.
Speaker 2: Our first episode needed a really strong topic THIRTI yeah.
Speaker 3: This is like how much better can it get? Talking
Speaker 3: about tortillas.
Speaker 1: That's everything. It's the soul of Mexican food. It's either
Speaker 1: a tack or it's eaten with a thirty yeah.
Speaker 3: Right, everything.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the center of our universe. It's the
Speaker 2: center of the dinner table, lunch table, breakfast table.
Speaker 1: It's I always yeah, I always have thirty yes in
Speaker 1: refrigerator and then also in my freezer just because I
Speaker 1: can never run out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's so much history to this that we're going
Speaker 3: to unpack.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's like, okay, who made the first or they
Speaker 1: who made the first. It's impossible to give it a
Speaker 1: time and a place. But corn is every like in Mexico,
Speaker 1: corn is life like humans. According to the Mayan Book
Speaker 1: of Creation. Right, humans were molded from Massa and you
Speaker 1: know that Malie of course, and we're definitely gonna do
Speaker 1: it that Mala episode. But it's this whole idea of
Speaker 1: just humans were molded from Massa and corn was was life.
Speaker 1: Then of course comes the conquest, and one of the
Speaker 1: first things that was introduced was wheat, and it was
Speaker 1: sort of corn was associated with God's wheat was the
Speaker 1: eucharistic waferst So it's like, okay, no, this, we're converting
Speaker 1: everybody to Christianity. We need flour, like we need to
Speaker 1: supplant corn with flour. The initial argument, right, the initial
Speaker 1: conundrum wasn't cornterilla versus flower. It was a corndrvia versus bread.
Speaker 2: The other legends of where the tortilla comes from is
Speaker 2: Jewish unlovend bread. And to hide the Jewishness of families,
Speaker 2: they didn't eat the corn, you know, so they brought
Speaker 2: their unlovend bread with them that they made it flatter,
Speaker 2: and hence, hence that flower tortilla was born.
Speaker 3: And you'll see in the map of the.
Speaker 2: Spanish Inquisition where Jews landed was not in Veracruz.
Speaker 3: It wasn't the main port.
Speaker 2: It was further north because if they knew if they
Speaker 2: would be identified in the port of New Spain, they
Speaker 2: could be arrested, so they entered more northern. Hence why
Speaker 2: Northanolsi flower tortillas is because there was a huge Sephardic
Speaker 2: hidden Jewish population that landed there and used their loved bread.
Speaker 1: I find that's so fascinating because it's a big part
Speaker 1: of the culture in Mexico that we don't really talk about.
Speaker 1: The crypto Jews right then, they were crypto juice. They
Speaker 1: were worshiping in price it eating the flower derthias, right
Speaker 1: instead of their matsa like making flower derthias. Granted corn
Speaker 1: would have worked as well, but you know, making the
Speaker 1: flower and the religious orders, the Jesuits and the Franciscans,
Speaker 1: they also were planting them to make the eucharistic wafer.
Speaker 1: So one thing sort of morphed into the other, which
Speaker 1: is so interesting. And then also a lot of the
Speaker 1: Jewish population were hired to work in bakeries. They were
Speaker 1: introducing like orange blossom water and sesame seeds and these
Speaker 1: you know, flavors that was very similar to what they
Speaker 1: were used to, you know back home in Europe. The
Speaker 1: flower thertilla has a ton of tons of history.
Speaker 2: Because if you follow the food, you follow the history
Speaker 2: of a country in a nation.
Speaker 1: Of all of the products that was that were introduced
Speaker 1: from Europe to Mexico, the one the best symbolized European
Speaker 1: culture was wheat.
Speaker 2: I was just in Wahaka where the earliest evidence of
Speaker 2: corn as a food is there. It's in the caves
Speaker 2: of Wahaka, and we went. It was beautiful, Like you're like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh. The earliest tools and like it's not
Speaker 2: a moltke hit, the what do you call them, were
Speaker 2: in these caves and it predates anything else. So that's
Speaker 2: how they know corn has been such an essential part
Speaker 2: of their life for thousands of years. But like you
Speaker 2: said that, the original inhabitants of this land still to
Speaker 2: this day know how sacred corn is and how they
Speaker 2: want to preserve the seeds of it and how there's
Speaker 2: so many varieties.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing that's so important about with weed,
Speaker 1: just like there are in.
Speaker 3: Wahaka with corns. Like, let's protect.
Speaker 1: These lands and let's just make sure that this history
Speaker 1: doesn't go away, because this is our soul, right, this
Speaker 1: is our history.
Speaker 2: The United States is obviously the largest consumer of most things,
Speaker 2: but specifically corn, and they have only ordered white corn,
Speaker 2: white corn tortillas, white corn massa. And because there's such
Speaker 2: a high demand for just white corn, the other varieties
Speaker 2: are dining off because they have no buyers for it,
Speaker 2: if you will, except for the local communities.
Speaker 1: You know, the real corn. And I'm sure you saw
Speaker 1: this in your travels through Wahaka. The nixstamalization, that process
Speaker 1: of nicks tamil, you know. And this is like the
Speaker 1: boil the corn kernels with this calcium hydroxide and it
Speaker 1: softens the corn and pulls out the necessary nutrients, makes
Speaker 1: it easier to grind. And that's like the really good
Speaker 1: tortilla that tastes like the earth. This is this nix
Speaker 1: stimalization process. And then around you know Nafta, which is
Speaker 1: not that long ago. It's like the nineties, right there
Speaker 1: is this man Roerto and Saleza known as the King
Speaker 1: of Dirty as he created Maseecah.
Speaker 3: So that's a big brand. That's the big brand.
Speaker 1: That's so rather than doing this whole nick stimalization process
Speaker 1: that takes too long, let me just take the corn
Speaker 1: dehydrate it and make cornflour and this is masseeca. But
Speaker 1: you're skipping these rituals, what you experienced when you're in
Speaker 1: Mohaka and all of these different corns and the people
Speaker 1: knowing that it's sacred.
Speaker 3: Forget about that. Let's do this.
Speaker 1: You could make a ton more that doesn't taste like
Speaker 1: if you're in Whaka or you get these real you know.
Speaker 3: That's the difference. Is that process.
Speaker 1: That's the process, is everything.
Speaker 3: The ancient process. It's like the.
Speaker 1: French government saying, you know what, we're going to replace
Speaker 1: the baguette with sliced white bread.
Speaker 3: That's what happened in Mexico. We're going to replace corn.
Speaker 1: It's completely sacrilegious. Okay, we are at Agabuco.
Speaker 3: Mexico, Testen in East La.
Speaker 1: We just arrived and it is this super cool spot
Speaker 1: where they make massa from scratch, the Nixtamal wave.
Speaker 3: I've eaten tafias forever.
Speaker 1: I've read about this nextimization process forever, but I've actually
Speaker 1: never seen it in action, and it's super cool to
Speaker 1: see it on a large scale.
Speaker 3: Basically, it looks like a lab. Everything is stainless steel.
Speaker 1: Everybody's wearing hairnuts, everybody's wearing white lab coats and boots,
Speaker 1: and we were with the owner, Gruben Ivara, and the
Speaker 1: thirtiero Masero Crosse Samoura, and what.
Speaker 2: He did was amazing.
Speaker 4: It's a cooking tank pretty much.
Speaker 3: It's a cooking than cooking.
Speaker 1: Tank, looking a giant cooking sink that he's filling halfway
Speaker 1: with very very very hot water. And the next epos
Speaker 1: do I'll put the c which is kind of like toxic,
Speaker 1: so it's better like back up a little bit because
Speaker 1: of calcoes in the air. And now he's getting the gun,
Speaker 1: which is a calcium hydroxide that is for the nixt
Speaker 1: Samal process.
Speaker 3: So it was just added all.
Speaker 1: Of this white gun, which is a white powder to
Speaker 1: the hot water. He used this giant metal padal to
Speaker 1: swish it all around to make sure all of this
Speaker 1: lime was dissolved, and it looked like a giant tub
Speaker 1: of hot milk.
Speaker 5: He's about to shoot seven hundred pounds of dried corn
Speaker 5: in through a shoot. Because the corn is so loud
Speaker 5: when it's shot into the hot water, they have to
Speaker 5: wait to do this until after nine o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 5: otherwise the neighbors complain that is.
Speaker 3: How loud it is.
Speaker 1: This is the coolest brain ever. And the corn was
Speaker 1: a very pale yellow, almost white, and as soon as
Speaker 1: it hits the calcium hydroxide, it turned bright yellow. And
Speaker 1: he kept swishing it around to make sure that all
Speaker 1: of the corn kernels who were covered with this gun.
Speaker 1: And then after he finished this process, he lit a
Speaker 1: fire underneath the giant sinc And so the nicksta malized
Speaker 1: corn was going to lay with this direct flame in
Speaker 1: the hot water, but now with direct flame for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: Then they're going to pass it to another barrel and
Speaker 1: then after at rest for about twenty four hours. And
Speaker 1: so this is when.
Speaker 3: The magic happens.
Speaker 1: This is when all of the nutrients are pulled out.
Speaker 1: This is when the husk becomes really you know soft,
Speaker 1: And this is something that's been around four centuries. The
Speaker 1: earliest evidence of this has been discovered in Guatemala, dating
Speaker 1: to about twenty five hundred BC, which is something that's
Speaker 1: I think amazing. For over four thousand years, this process
Speaker 1: has been done in Mexico and in Central America, and
Speaker 1: this is what brings out all of the necessary nutrients
Speaker 1: in the corn, you know, acid, and it also it
Speaker 1: softens the corn, making it easier to grind. So in
Speaker 1: meso America, even in Mexico today, when it's done this way, theya,
Speaker 1: the massa together with beans and vegetables is essentially the
Speaker 1: perfect diet. And the pre colonial diet of the Americas
Speaker 1: was mainly vegetarian, very very very little animal protein. And
Speaker 1: here at Acapulco, Mexicanist they do it this old school way,
Speaker 1: which is something that is so amazing. Up next, even
Speaker 1: I do a taste test, including the flower dirtia she
Speaker 1: makes every day with her son.
Speaker 3: We are here at my house. I make flower dirtias daily.
Speaker 2: Corn versus flower is one of the most controversial topics
Speaker 2: you didn't talk about.
Speaker 1: It's like the cirtilla conundrum.
Speaker 3: I grew up eating both. I love, but I did.
Speaker 2: You grew up being but I only grew up eating
Speaker 2: flower because I'm a Texican.
Speaker 3: You are, but I grew up in Texas. I know,
Speaker 3: but I grew up with both.
Speaker 1: And there's certain things that has to be flower, certain
Speaker 1: foods that have.
Speaker 3: To be eaten with corante.
Speaker 2: I just pulled out a hot tortilla from my tortilla holder, which, by.
Speaker 3: The way, if you make flower tortillas.
Speaker 2: You know they have to rest in a cloth toilla holder.
Speaker 2: You know that it helps them steam and like puff up.
Speaker 1: Well, let me just describe this stia that Eva made.
Speaker 1: It is perfectly round. Because you were watching me, but
Speaker 1: this is it looks like you're pro even I'm pretty
Speaker 1: much your prose daily and I eat them with butter.
Speaker 2: My son, my son will we eat bean tacos in
Speaker 2: the morning with flower tortillas and my son loves it,
Speaker 2: just like this with manthikia butter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're delicious, but I love them with butter and
Speaker 1: a little bit of sugar and cornarthias.
Speaker 3: I love with butter and ariff salt. Oh interesting, mm hmmm,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna put sure. It's really good.
Speaker 2: So not only is there the conundrum of flower versus corn,
Speaker 2: there's the conundrum of thin flower tortillas more translucent one
Speaker 2: which is in the north, like in Monterrey, they like
Speaker 2: a thinner flower tortilla, And in Texas we have almost
Speaker 2: what looks like pea bread.
Speaker 3: That's how thick it is. It's very very thick.
Speaker 2: And I brought some, yes, just to taste, okay, to compare,
Speaker 2: to judge, to compare to the Texas one that are thick.
Speaker 3: I love both, but I have to say I prefer
Speaker 3: the thin.
Speaker 1: Because I I grew Brilarto and Revelorado where I'm from,
Speaker 1: like they have the thin ones. But I do love both,
Speaker 1: but yes, the thin are like my favorite. So I
Speaker 1: ended up going to Sonora town here in LA that
Speaker 1: has it's an amazing pacheta. They just opened one near
Speaker 1: my house and they make really thin, tiny tiny These
Speaker 1: are really small and they sot their flour from Sonora
Speaker 1: and Sona and wheat is supposed to be some of
Speaker 1: you know, the original heritage wheat and some of the
Speaker 1: best wheat in Mexico from Sonora.
Speaker 3: Is that this tortilla.
Speaker 1: Can I have a little bit of butter as well,
Speaker 1: So sorry salty butter.
Speaker 3: This summer on flour.
Speaker 1: It has less gluten and it has this sort of
Speaker 1: sweet nutty flavor.
Speaker 3: It's like the best flower. This is sweeter. This is sweeter, thinner,
Speaker 3: super thin.
Speaker 2: You can see if you hold it up. Yeah, paper thin,
Speaker 2: paper thin. Where my tortilla that I just make flower
Speaker 2: tortilla is pretty thick. It is pretty and larger. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's thick and larger. Yeah, this is so good. We're
Speaker 2: just going to shut her and eat. So you guys
Speaker 2: can hear this.
Speaker 1: My mom's from Mexico, seating growing up in Loryda. It's
Speaker 1: like they're like, that's not Mexican food. Is text mex
Speaker 1: but it is. It's like also northern Mexico. The wurritos.
Speaker 1: Apparently this guy Juan Mandez, I mean, these are these legends,
Speaker 1: right that he was making these facos wrapped in these
Speaker 1: huge thirtillas, basically wrapping the fillings to keep it warm,
Speaker 1: and he was transporting them in a burro in a donkey, hence.
Speaker 3: The name the wurtos. And this was in Chihuahua and
Speaker 3: the northern state of Chihuahua.
Speaker 1: So they're popular in northern Mexico and then also calmex
Speaker 1: food and tex mex food. But it's basically it's it's
Speaker 1: a flower dirtilla always, right, So more like northern Mexico,
Speaker 1: South Texas.
Speaker 3: Where we're from. Yeah, you don't flower the flower in
Speaker 3: the south. You don't find it. You don't find it.
Speaker 3: It's only in the north.
Speaker 1: It's only in the north. Yeah, the Holy Day of Wheat,
Speaker 1: I mean when we think of you know, Mexico, that
Speaker 1: sort of soul of Mexico is corn.
Speaker 3: It's the it's the massa.
Speaker 1: And I grew up eating you know, both of them
Speaker 1: because that's where my parents are from.
Speaker 3: That's what we always had.
Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite type of deco? That's a
Speaker 2: good question. My favorite taco. Okay, it's probably a chicken talgo.
Speaker 2: I make these all the time. I might smoke these
Speaker 2: twice a week because their peppa is favorite. But it's
Speaker 2: a corn tortilla with rotisserie torn chicken with a salsa
Speaker 2: ver dae. But I half fry it the tortilla, so
Speaker 2: it's not like a taco bell crunch, but it's not
Speaker 2: a soft taco, so it's.
Speaker 3: In between, so you just lightly.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit cris yeah, but it's still.
Speaker 3: Soft, yes, but it's still chewy.
Speaker 2: And I put chicken, sour cream, lettuce, tomato salad, and
Speaker 2: it's just peppers.
Speaker 3: Like this is the best taco I've ever at.
Speaker 2: That sounds it's chicken tacos, but there's just chick fried
Speaker 2: corn tortilla, just like just hand fried, yeah, pan fried
Speaker 2: in a little olive oil. They're the best I love.
Speaker 2: And I'll do the same thing with beef, so that's
Speaker 2: my favorite taco. I'll post is up there for me too.
Speaker 3: I'll past is up there. I'll post that might be
Speaker 3: my favorite.
Speaker 2: Also, growing up on the ranch, we would do a
Speaker 2: sada just on the grill and we would do sausage,
Speaker 2: like barbecue sausage, and we just grab it literally off
Speaker 2: the grill with the tortilla, and that was our dinner.
Speaker 2: It was like you just grabbed the sausage that sounds rial,
Speaker 2: which is like it's like a polar sausage, and you
Speaker 2: just grabbed, you know, whenever you saw your sausage ready,
Speaker 2: you grabbed it with the tortilla and you ate it.
Speaker 2: And that was a flower tortilla. Yeah, so that's my favorite.
Speaker 2: Like a flower tortilla with a barbecue sausage inside. That's amazing.
Speaker 2: Am I probably sorry? The best taco. My favorite taco
Speaker 2: is a breakfast taco, okay, like the Texas breakfast tacos
Speaker 2: with like bean cheese, cheese, ch soak and webble potato eggs,
Speaker 2: chotes on egg and bean and it's in a fat,
Speaker 2: fat tortilla, right, flour tortilla.
Speaker 3: What's your favorite taco though, I that's you, that's your favorite.
Speaker 3: That's my favorite. Yeah, that was with my favorite lamb. No no, no,
Speaker 3: with pork, with with pork.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no you have to you have to go to
Speaker 1: a truck and it's like greasy and yeah, that's my
Speaker 1: favorite echo. I also like just kinda sound like this,
Speaker 1: just like a simple just yeah.
Speaker 3: I just love a skirt steak.
Speaker 1: I prefer corn for that, but I always have both.
Speaker 1: I like to have the option of both just in
Speaker 1: case and when I heat them up, I like for
Speaker 1: them to get really nice and poofy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: After the break, Corge Gaviria Massien that he will tell
Speaker 1: us his thoughts on the partiya conundrum.
Speaker 3: And we're sharing a recipe with you.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Hungry for History. We are so excited
Speaker 1: for you to hear from Je Gaviria. He is the
Speaker 1: founder of Macienda, an online marketplace that celebrates the Mexican kitchen.
Speaker 1: He has a new book out called Masa Techniques, Recipes
Speaker 1: and Reflections on a Time a Staple, and he's here
Speaker 1: to tell us his thoughts on the dirtilla conundrum.
Speaker 4: So maybe it's just the times we're in, but tortilla
Speaker 4: preferences can be polarizing, believe it or not. And of
Speaker 4: course I'm referring specifically to corn and flower tortillas here.
Speaker 4: It can get pretty divisive. Corn critics typically tend to
Speaker 4: lament the lack of pliability and a corn tortilla, I mean,
Speaker 4: clearly they just haven't had a good one, while flower
Speaker 4: tortilla haters or flowers say that they're just not as
Speaker 4: authentic flower tortilla as that is so our fifty to
Speaker 4: fifty tortillas are kind of the ultimate compromise. I would
Speaker 4: say they take the best of corn and the best
Speaker 4: of flour and put them together. You know, for a
Speaker 4: corn tortilla, that extra bit of actual wheat flour gives
Speaker 4: it that kind of glutenous stretch that you might crave
Speaker 4: from a flower tortilla, while you know, the corn itself
Speaker 4: is giving an extra layer of complexity to you know,
Speaker 4: an otherwise you know, single note of flowa.
Speaker 3: Interesting fact, I didn't know this when I read this.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that either.
Speaker 2: Flower tortillas are one of the United States astronauts favorite foods.
Speaker 2: I don't know how they did this, pole but it's
Speaker 2: not just because they're delicious. But in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 2: NASA used tortillas as a solution to a bread and
Speaker 2: gravity issue.
Speaker 3: How crazy is that? Crazy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mexican on Jnai exactly, always, always, always.
Speaker 2: So the tortilla is so versatile. I mean you can
Speaker 2: use it for so many things. And you can see
Speaker 2: how the American culture has just made it their own.
Speaker 2: I mean, everybody has a rap for lunch, you know,
Speaker 2: they really Ringo sized it. Yeah, yeah, americanized it. But
Speaker 2: not only America, but all these other cultures. And what's
Speaker 2: some creative dishes you've seen with the tortillailla?
Speaker 1: Gosh, well, the kogi, the Korean tacot roco dago draw.
Speaker 1: I think that was like the big one a few
Speaker 1: years ago that everyone's like, oh my god, where is he?
Speaker 5: Where is it?
Speaker 1: I want to taste this is like a that go
Speaker 1: with some grand barbecue, with Korean barbecue, and it's like
Speaker 1: the lines, it's like to taste this. And there was
Speaker 1: this talk of like, oh, it's not authentic, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, well, this is what I grew up with.
Speaker 1: I grew up in the Mexican neighborhood, and I would,
Speaker 1: you know, put our barbecue in a tartilla, So yeah,
Speaker 1: this is authentic to me, to him, right, So that's
Speaker 1: really the one that that And gosh, there's like with
Speaker 1: Polish sausage and all sorts of different you know, variations.
Speaker 1: But even like the text mextaco is the original with
Speaker 1: yellow cheese, but the Korean.
Speaker 3: Barbecue green barbecue's booin is it? Big?
Speaker 2: I saw in a Chinese restaurant of the day spring rolls,
Speaker 2: but it was it was filled with all your normal
Speaker 2: vegetables Asian variety, but it was wrapped in a tortilla.
Speaker 3: Oh really yeah, and deep fried.
Speaker 2: Like like an egg roll, like an egg roll, but
Speaker 2: it was a tortilla.
Speaker 3: But it was oh interesting, it was so good. I think.
Speaker 2: You know, every culture has their form of a rap tortilla.
Speaker 2: France has the crepe, and ye, Greece has the peda exactly,
Speaker 2: and I mean which brings us.
Speaker 3: To the right.
Speaker 1: It's not Greece, but you know Lebanie, Lebanese immigrants they
Speaker 1: brought the tacosaraves and then there you know, second third
Speaker 1: generation turned those into tacos pastor flower tortilla.
Speaker 3: Using pork lamb. Yeah it wasn't lamb. It's poor.
Speaker 1: It's poork instead of lamb. And then they added the
Speaker 1: pineapple to it.
Speaker 2: The pineapple and cilantro, and the cilantro a little bit
Speaker 2: of lime and a lot of lime, a lot of yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think the soul of the tackle is the tortill. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's what makes a really good that that's true.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you. Robert Rodriguez gave me.
Speaker 2: Robert Rodriguez, the director who's also text mex like us,
Speaker 2: gave me.
Speaker 3: A great tortilla recipe. He uses butter.
Speaker 2: I use Crisco shortening, but the butter, the yellow one, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: but I do two cups flour, I do a teaspoon salt.
Speaker 2: I do two teaspoons baking powder, and then a fourth
Speaker 2: cup of shortening. So you can use mantika or a
Speaker 2: fourth cup fat. You can use mantka, you can use Crisco,
Speaker 2: you can use olive oil. You could use butter. It's
Speaker 2: just what's your fat. So just a fourth cup fat.
Speaker 2: And you don't want to overdo the fat because that
Speaker 2: will cause it to get cracky. It's almost like it
Speaker 2: becomes too crackery, too.
Speaker 3: Much like a cracker.
Speaker 2: Okay, and then a cup hot water, and that's the
Speaker 2: trick is hot water, like boiling hot water. And you
Speaker 2: have to neat it and then you let it sit
Speaker 2: for thirty minutes. That's what makes it go poof because
Speaker 2: you got to let the gluten settle. You gotta let
Speaker 2: the baking powder do its thing, and then the other trick,
Speaker 2: so you leave that alone. Then you roll them out
Speaker 2: and you put them on the on the gomal on
Speaker 2: your a griddle, and then you have to put it
Speaker 2: in this. This is the fia holder, a tortilla holder,
Speaker 2: but it's cloth because those plastic ones.
Speaker 3: You got to put a towel inside.
Speaker 2: You gotta have it warm so that once it's super
Speaker 2: hot coming off the griddle, off the comal, and then
Speaker 2: the steam almost cooks it more and that's what makes
Speaker 2: it super soft.
Speaker 3: So that's my flower tortilla recipie.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about technique of the tortilla, because the flower
Speaker 2: tortilla is a very different technique with the rolling pin
Speaker 2: as compared to the corn tortilla, which you need a you.
Speaker 3: Need a press, a press.
Speaker 1: You roll a little tortilla like a little like a
Speaker 1: little golf ball or pink punk ball something I like.
Speaker 3: I like them a little, put it in.
Speaker 1: The center and then squeeze it, close it and then
Speaker 1: you put the plastic sort of so that it doesn't
Speaker 1: stick to the press. It's easy to remove, and then
Speaker 1: you just put it on a dry comad and then
Speaker 1: just heat it. I like to heat it until it
Speaker 1: puffs up. And that is like, how does it puff
Speaker 1: up if it puffs because it's I guess it's different.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have us The flower has the gluten and the corn.
Speaker 1: It's basically because it has water in it. It's basically
Speaker 1: the water. Once it touches the heat is like, oh god,
Speaker 1: what is that?
Speaker 3: And then the steam just explodes.
Speaker 2: Okay, And that's because I like when corn tortillas puff up,
Speaker 2: and that's not common that don't all do that.
Speaker 3: They don't always do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And when they don't, I think it's they're just
Speaker 1: a little dry.
Speaker 3: The bane of our existence. I hate when my tortillas
Speaker 3: don't puff up.
Speaker 2: And then so the flower tortilla, you roll it out
Speaker 2: like like you would a pastry dough.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Well, my aunt taught me this one two turn, one
Speaker 2: two turn, So you don't want to overwork your flower
Speaker 2: because of the gluten. And so my son does it
Speaker 2: all the time with me. My son loves making flower
Speaker 2: tortillas with me.
Speaker 3: You was just down there. One too turn, one too turn.
Speaker 2: And also I don't know how it because I don't
Speaker 2: make corncher teas you would know this. You don't flip
Speaker 2: them a lot. And so for flour, you're only supposed
Speaker 2: to flip it once, so you let it cook on
Speaker 2: one side, flip it on the other and take it off.
Speaker 3: My mom is a flipper. My mom flip flip it.
Speaker 3: My mom leave alone.
Speaker 2: I hate when she comes over and takes over the
Speaker 2: comaale because I'm like, you're flipping it too much. It's
Speaker 2: not cooking. It needs to rise, it needs to be
Speaker 2: one with the heat. And my mom will be flipping, flipping, flipping, mom,
Speaker 2: let it, let it rest, flip.
Speaker 3: It once, just flip it once. That's so funny.
Speaker 1: But it's too different, too different. It's very different techniques.
Speaker 1: And usually when I heat them up, like if I
Speaker 1: have them cooked already and then I reheat them, I
Speaker 1: always put the I don't do this with flour, but
Speaker 1: with corn, I put it directly on the open flame,
Speaker 1: on the open gas flame.
Speaker 3: So that has a little burnt little chart.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so what was the verdict, corner flower?
Speaker 3: It's both, Oh you can't. I can't decide. I love both.
Speaker 3: I do love both.
Speaker 1: Well, I do love both for different things, but yes,
Speaker 1: I do love both.
Speaker 2: I you know I'm a flower tortilla. Your team Flower,
Speaker 2: I'm team Flower.
Speaker 3: I need a shirt.
Speaker 1: Team Flower, Team Corn.
Speaker 3: Deam Core.
Speaker 2: I think you're deem Corn and you just don't want
Speaker 2: to admit it to the lovers.
Speaker 1: I do love corn. I am fascinated by corn. I
Speaker 1: love the history of corna the soul of corn.
Speaker 3: I grew up with both.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You really can't decide.
Speaker 1: I can't decide because I love them both for different things.
Speaker 1: Most things I like to eat with corn, but there
Speaker 1: are a few things that you just have to go flower.
Speaker 3: So I'll let you off and say both. Thanks so
Speaker 3: much for listening. Don't forget to subscribe. Thank you bye.
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