So many Rick Bayless fanboys on this thread. Geeze. When did Mexican food become so pretentious?

I made no comment about your knowledge of Mexican cuisine. I was commenting on the fact that the only way to reheat corn tortillas is to reheat them on a comal. (In fact, when it comes to flour tortillas, this is probably the best way.) But then you showed your ass by calling one of the most respected chefs of Mexican cuisine in the country the Pioneer Woman of Mexican food, so I called you out rather harshly for that.
If it works for you, knock yourself out. But don't go around saying that a method that is recommended by many professionals is wrong.

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he probably has more knowledge of Mexican cuisine in the tip of his **** than you have in your entire body.

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I made no comment about your knowledge of Mexican cuisine.

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Now you're just messing with me.

I meant your family's knowledge.

I had to look up what a comal was. Glad,to know that i am not violating Tortilla Dogma because a comal is a friggin cast iron griddle.

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I had to look up what a comal was. Glad,to know that i am not violating Tortilla Dogma because a comal is a friggin cast iron griddle.

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I made no comment about your knowledge of Mexican cuisine. I was commenting on the fact that the only way to reheat corn tortillas is to reheat them on a comal. (In fact, when it comes to flour tortillas, this is probably the best way.) But then you showed your ass by calling one of the most respected chefs of Mexican cuisine in the country the Pioneer Woman of Mexican food, so I called you out rather harshly for that.
If it works for you, knock yourself out. But don't go around saying that a method that is recommended by many professionals is wrong.

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I am brown and I can tell you that the rest of the browns in my family do not give a **** either way on how a tortilla is heated. If it gets hot and supple....good enough.

BTW we all use comals for heating tortillas. Corn and flour. Well.......always the corn but sometimes just direct stove flame for flour. Depends on convenience.

Also, Mexican om noms is just like American om noms. Meaning there are so many different styles and types and ways of making and prepping it.

It is pretentious to argue either way on the subject. There is no right way. Just like there is no wrong way.

P.S. I actually don't like the steamed method at all personally.

Born and raised in South Texas as well, I won't get into the argument of how to cook them. I wondered who all you think would win Bayless or Kennedy? Over the years I have seen corn tortillas cooked all kinds of ways, I've people throw them on a gas stove burner, no skillet or anything directly on the fire, pretty damn good I have to say. I've had them steamed also damn good, on the comal and also directly on a grill "en la parilla". The truth is that there are huge regional pregerences. I grew up in Zapata, TX, best damn corn tortillas I ever had was when my parents would cross to a town in Mexico called Guerrero, my parents would sit us at the plaza, go buy some chicarones ( what we know as chicarones are hearts, kidney, and let's say "variety" meats deep fried and sold by the kilo) and avocado and some corn tortillas sold by the kilo wrapped in butcher paper still warm. I don't care what chef is what nothing will ever come remotely close to those tortillas, they were so pliable, perfectly warm. Damn I can still recall dad getting his pocket knife, slicing that avocado. Grab a tortilla, put a chicarone and a slice of avocado, roll and.... Sheer bliss. Lighten up folks we all love to eat and it regional!!!

Here ya go:

flatev.com

That is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

Grew up in Mexico, then moved to the border and then proceeded to basically go back south for work. Spent most of my life living and working in LatAm. If there is one thing I am pretty knowledgeable about it is Tortillas. As to me, in order to be considered a meal, there has to be rice, beans, and tortillas.

Commonly Comals are used to cook/make the tortillas, either corn or flour, when made at home during the first run. Typically in Mexico most tortillas are reheated over the open flame of a gas burning stove using the metal pot/pan holders as the support. The low open flame slighly chars the reheated tortilla and heats them up quickly and efficiently, using a Comal for reheating would just take too long for the typical Mexican family that consumes copious amounts of them at every meal.

100% agree with Maryland Ag about Mexican Tortilleria corn tortillas, there is no beating them in my opinion. Most do not know but the mix that goes into those Mexican tortillas, aside from the Masa Harina, contains lime, as in the mineral/powder stuff, and not the citrus fruit. This adds great taste and texture. (I too have had lots of "carnitas" and "chicharones" with a bag of tortillas and some avocado and lime and soda back in the day, and it was some good stuff).

The best bagged tortillas I have had recently, very good, are La Banderita as mentioned earlier in the thread. I prefer the refrigerated Exquisita brand on Flour, although La Abuela is great too.

I do not care for the steamed corn tortillas too mushy. Steaming them basically is a way to heat a lot of them fast, and they come out soft and moist. In Mexico rarely have seen folks steam tortillas, ni que Rick Bayless ni que nada , as they don't need to because mama, abuela, or the maid is at the stove heating them as they are consumed. Typically in a true Mexican restaurant a table will receive a "warm up" or "re-fill" of tortillas a couple of times during the meal. This is to ensure those heated on the comal or flame are fresh and warm and do not get cool and hard again.

Flour but I have issues with wheat products

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" In Mexico rarely have seen folks steam tortillas, ni que Rick Bayless ni que nada , as they don't need to because mama, abuela, or the maid is at the stove heating them as they are consumed. Typically in a true Mexican restaurant a table will receive a "warm up" or "re-fill" of tortillas a couple of times during the meal. This is to ensure those heated on the comal or flame are fresh and warm and do not get cool and hard again".

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This made me chuckle because this summarizes my childhood. "ni que Rick Bayless ni que nada"....now that made me laugh out loud. I have tremendous respect for the man, but yeah the Mexican cooking world does not revolve around him, I have several of his books, several of Diana Kennedy now if I could get my hands on some cook books from Josefina Velazques de Leon, I would be one happy camper, someday hopefully.

RGV AG, said something that was just common place to me, every true Mexican restaurant I have ever eaten at had basically "bottomless tortillas". To us a tortillas is more than a food, hell I'm sure RGV AG would agree with me, it can act as a fork or a spoon depending on what you are eating and they are there at most meals, breakfast, noon and night! the "lime" that RGV refers to is what I know as "cal", and yep that is a key part of the corn tortilla process.

OP, I noticed from your profile that you are in the Atlanta area, "my people" have quite a presence in that city, go find a tortilleria where they sell them by the pound, wrapped in paper still warm, take a small ice chest, buy some put them in the ice chest to keep them warm, head home and enjoy!!! Cut some into quarters, let them sit out on the counter over night so they dessicate some, then fry them up for some "real" chips not the ultra thin ones that are ubiquitous everywhere now. That should take care of your corn tortilla fix. On your question about shape....I have never paid attention to the shape or the size because we eat them as soon as they hit the table.

This post is meant to offend no one, again these things are regional. I just grew up in a household where "buela" used to buy lard in 5 gallon buckets, she made the best flour tortillas I have ever had and we bought corn tortillas by the kilo right across the river.

Chicago and Michelin Stars on a tortilla thread... doesn't get any better.

Chicago has like the 4th largest Mexican population in the country.

OP should of asked about politics, would of had less disagreement.

As far as flour to buy, HEB fresh baked or the partially cooked ones already posted.

As far as corn, I pretty much quit eating them because I don't have a place to get good ones anymore. I used to work next to the Tortilla Factory in Austin. They always had fresh corn tortillas you bought by the pound. The restaurants and food trucks in Austin would show up daily and bring huge coolers they would fill up with the fresh tortillas daily. Some people would get 4-5 of the 100 qt coolers full at once.

We would come in and just get a pound, so they would grab them straight off the line for us. I was spoiled, they ruined other corn tortillas for me.

Mexican food in general is very regional anyway, but most of it is good. I prefer Tex-Mex over authentic Mexican food or upscale "Mexican Food" restaurants. I wouldn't turn any of them down though.

Yeah, Rick Bayless has some really good recipes that I like. His version of "enfrijoladas" and a few other things are really good. I will say this, Bayless has huge creativity with traditional Mexican ingredients. Smartly he doesn't do a tremendous amount of replication of oft produced traditional favorites and there is nothing wrong with that. He does an excellent job of catering to a segment of the market that has made him very, very popular.

Some of his more "traditional" recipes I don't care for as much. In keeping with the theme of this thread I will mention one; Chilaquiles. The base ingredient for Chilaquiles is obviously the corn Tortilla. Nowadays, even in Mexico, it is very common for folks to use fried tortilla chips for Chilaquiles and this is basically wrong. This is really due to the convenience of fast prep. Chilaquiles traditionally were made with stale or gone hard tortillas that were cut up in strips with kitchen scissors. These were lightly sauted to get them warm and maybe a little pliable and then the sauce was added. Growing up I never saw Chicken in Chilaquiles, if anything they were served with Eggs, occasionally a small piece of beef, and onions and grated cheese and cream.

Maryland Ag references leaving the tortillas out to get hard over night. This is a key element in good tortilla soup and also in good Chilaquiles.

I just mention this because Mexican food is both very regional, and also very regionally ingredient specific as opposed to many types of food in the world. One thing Bayless has mastered is incorporating some of the oft overlooked spices and flavorings that one gets in different parts of Mexico.