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Tortillas made from nixtamalized maize meal (masa de maíz) are the oldest variety of tortilla. They originated in Mexico and Central America, and remain popular throughout the Americas. Peoples of the Oaxaca region in Mexico first made tortillas at the end of the Villa Stage (1500 to 500 BCE).
Masa or masa de maíz (English: / ˈ m ɑː s ə /; Spanish pronunciation:) is a dough made from ground nixtamalized maize. It is used for making corn tortillas, gorditas, tamales, pupusas, and many other Latin American dishes. It is dried and powdered into a flour form called harina de maíz or masa harina.
The maize used for tortillas can be ripe and dry, but it is also consumed fresh and mature (maize), or soft and fresh (xilote). [6] Tortillas are consumed daily. Factory-made tortillas are widely sold, although they can easily be made at home. Tortilla production starts in the early morning as lunch is the main meal of the day for most people.
Ana Bégué de Packman, author of the book Early California Hospitality (1938) wrote that corn and flour tortillas could be used interchangeably for making burritos. [17] Currently, wheat flour tortilla burritos are known as "tacos de harina" (wheat flour tacos) in Central and Southern Mexico. [5]
After the end of subsidies dried masa harina flour was used, as dough mills lost their price advantage. [4] Dried masa harina keeps much better than prepared masa. To encourage the switch to dry masa harina, manufacturers such as Maseca offered credits to tortillerias to upgrade to equipment capable of processing masa harina. [5]
Wheat tortillas are a staple of the northern Mexican states [52] (such as Sonora, Sinaloa and Chihuahua) and throughout the Southwestern United States. Tortillas vary in size from about 6 to over 30 cm (2.4 to over 12 in), depending on the region of the country and the dish for which it is intended.
[1] [4] When fine cornmeal is made from maize that has been soaked in an alkaline solution, e.g., limewater (a process known as nixtamalization), it is called masa harina (or masa flour), which is used for making arepas, tamales, and tortillas. [5] Boiled cornmeal is called polenta in Italy and is also a traditional dish and bread substitute in ...
Fresh masa that has been dried and powdered is called masa seca or masa harina. Some of the corn oil breaks down into emulsifying agents (monoglycerides and diglycerides), and facilitates bonding the corn proteins to each other. The divalent calcium in lime acts as a cross-linking agent for protein and polysaccharide acidic side chains.