STOP Buying Tortillas! The OLD-FASHIONED Way Uses Two Ingredients (The Mexican Way)

#tortillas #mexicanfood #corntortillas 📖 Get La Cocina de Bertha, every recipe in this kitchen written down (372 pages): https://berthascookbook.com Mija, turn that bag of tortillas over and read the back. Cellulose gum, propionic acid, guar gum, on a food that was never supposed to need any of them. A real corn tortilla is two ingredients: masa harina and warm water. Here is the old way, and at the end, how my grandmother made them with no press at all, only her two hands. HONEST FIRST: only CORN tortillas are two ingredients. Flour tortillas need flour, fat, salt and water (see my flour tortilla video). Salt in corn tortillas is optional (page 110): my mother used half a teaspoon, my grandmother none. ⭐ WHAT YOU NEED (about 15 small tortillas) • 2 cups MASA HARINA (corn cooked with lime, dried and ground, page 109). NOT cornmeal, NOT plain corn flour, they never met the lime and will not hold together. • About 1 1/2 cups warm water, more standing by • 1/2 tsp salt, optional • A tortilla press, OR a heavy flat-bottomed pot • Two squares cut from a plastic grocery bag ⭐ THE METHOD 1. Mix the masa and warm water by hand 2 minutes into one soft ball. Cover with a damp towel 15 minutes so the corn can drink. 2. TRUST YOUR HANDS, NOT THE CUP: squash a little ball between your palms. Cracked edge = add a teaspoon of water. Sticky = a spoon of masa. Smooth = ready. Check again every few tortillas. 3. Press between the plastic squares (press or pot). Peel the plastic off the tortilla, never pull the tortilla. 4. Hot DRY comal or cast iron, medium high, no oil. 15 to 20 seconds, turn. Almost a minute until freckled, turn again. Watch it PUFF (page 112). A gentle press with a towel helps a shy one. 5. Straight into a cloth folded around the stack. 10 minutes in their shared steam makes them soft. ⭐ MY GRANDMOTHER'S WAY, NO PRESS: wet hands, a small ball, pat it from palm to palm, turning a little each time, from the center out. The first ten look like maps. They taste the same. THE HONEST WORDS: • Cracked when pressed → thirsty dough. A teaspoon of water. • Stuck to the plastic → too wet, or the tortilla got pulled. • Stiff like leather → comal too cool, too long. Under 2 minutes total. • Fell apart on the comal → cornmeal, or a masa ground too rough. WHO PROFITS: two bags a week is close to $8, around $400 a year. A 4 lb bag of masa harina is about $3 and makes more than a hundred tortillas. One batch (2 cups, 15 tortillas) is about 36¢. Well under $100 a year at home. What you paid for was the shelf life. THE HABIT: mix the masa while the coffee water heats. 15 tortillas in about 15 minutes. Leftovers in the cloth, in a bag, for lunch. And the dried masa on the counter and in the press hinge? That is the other half of my life: 🧼 Clean The Mexican Way → [link to cleaning channel] If you always thought tortillas were too hard to make at home, it was never because you were careless. Nobody ever showed you. Tell me in the comments: press house or hands house? I read every one. CHAPTERS (set from the final video) 0:00 Read the back of the bag with me 0:41 Two ingredients, and an argument 1:54 Honest first: only CORN is two ingredients 2:43 The right bag: masa harina, not cornmeal 3:26 Mix it, and let the corn drink 4:04 Trust your hands, not the cup 4:45 Why corn behaves this way 5:19 No press? A pot and a plastic bag 5:52 The argument: press or hands 6:18 Three turns on the comal 6:45 THE PUFF 7:36 The cloth 7:50 MY GRANDMOTHER'S HANDS 8:42 Honest words 9:19 Who profits: the arithmetic 9:59 The morning habit #cookingtips #kitchenhacks #mexicancooking