Tortilla

“ The tortilla{301} is about the color and toughness of leather, and is baked and stacked away for future use. The frijoles are cooked in a small burnt clay vessel, then poured into or upon a frijola, which is then rolled into a cylinder and eaten. If by good fortune they have anything else to eat, the tortilla is used as a plate for this dainty and then the plate is eaten. Their adobe houses have dirt floors and no windows or chimneys. They never use fire except for cooking and that is done on the outside. ”

“ Mixed with the stimulating gravy formed of chile, and eaten with a tortilla or corn cake, it soon becomes a necessary of life to a stranger who resides for any length of time in Mexico. Some of our country{58} men have become so fond of the food, that they have brought the bean with them upon their return to the United States, and now supply their table with it instead of hominy. From the frijol, the tortilla, and the Chile pepper we pass to the great national liquor, which requires generally longer time to win the favor of foreigners. ”

“ A cup of flour, a teaspoon of salt and the same of baking powder and shortening, with enough milk or water added so the dough will not be sticky, will make three tortillas. Roll the dough out rather thin and place on top of the wood stove. Do not have the fire too hot. Keep turning from one side to another until light brown. Then put between the folds of a cloth. Spanish people break the tortilla in bits and dip up beans with it. I have learned to do this fairly well. One night last year when I had taken apples to Lipa I stayed for supper. ”

“ Sundry jars of pulque and earthen dishes with tortillas and chili and pieces of tasajo, long festoons of dried and salted beef, proved that the party were not without their solid comforts, in spite of the romantic guitar, and the rose and poppy garlands with which the dancing nymphs were crowned. ”

“ As illustration of this, the President took from his desk a broken tortilla into which had been kneaded two half-dollars and the tortilla then cooked. The ruse had been discovered, and now the rule is for every tortilla brought into the gaol to be broken in two by the guards. The Gilbertian element, which we had noticed so much in Mexico, was represented here by the truly astonishing provision of a gaol band, which discoursed sweet music to the culprits every afternoon. Evidently our friend the President firmly believed, with Congreve, that
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast." ”

“ The tortilla, doubled up, serves as spoon and fork, and a knife is not needed as the meat is cut up before it is cooked. There is no such thing as a saltspoon in Yucatan. You are expected to shake the salt out or take it out with your fingers. ”

“ The national bread is the tortilla. It is made of cornmeal, patted into the shape of a buckwheat cake between the palms of the hands, and then baked. They were generally given to us cold, in a huge pile, and were burned on both sides, but untouched by heat in the centre. The coffee was always excellent, as it should have been, for the Honduranian coffee is as fine as any grown in Central America, and we never had too much of it; but of eggs and black beans there was no end. The black-bean habit in Honduras is very general ”

“ On top put a tablespoonful of hot cream.
CRIOLLO GUISADO
Get ten of the Mexican tortillas, cut them in small pieces and fry in hot lard; in another pan, fry a large onion and a clove of garlic chopped fine; just as it browns, add the fried tortillas, and brown together for a few minutes; then add a pound and a half of mild cheese, grated, and a cupful of chopped olives. When all are fried together nicely, season with salt and pour over it a chile sauce, and put in a deep dish and bake for fifteen minutes. Serve as soon as taken from the oven. ”

“ Our road lies through a forest of pines and oaks, which reaches to the summit of the pass, where stands a wretched little village, La Guarda. There we had a thoroughly Mexican breakfast, with pulque in tall tumblers, and endless successions of tortillas, coming in hot and hot from the kitchen, where we could see brown women with bare arms, and black hair plaited in long tails, kneeling by the charcoal fire, and industriously patting out fresh supplies, and baking them rapidly on a hot plate. ”

“ In making the tortilla, the corn is first soaked for several hours in a solution of lime-water, which removes the husk. Then a woman gets down upon her knees and beats it for hours on the metate. Small pieces of the dough are worked between the hands, tossed and patted and flattened out, until no thicker than a knife-blade, after which they are thrown upon the steaming hot comal, a flat, iron affair something like a griddle. They are never allowed to brown, and are without salt or seasoning of any kind ”

“ Maize was the food staple of the natives, and since the loss of the wheat crop the tortilla had taken the place of wheat bread, not only among all the lower and laboring classes of the capital, but also to some extent among the wealthy. ”

“ Dinner at the padre’s table we find most enjoyable. There is beef and chicken, the frijole, or red bean of Spain, and other vegetables prepared in a tasty manner peculiar to Spanish cooking, so we do not doubt that the cook has been taught his trade by the padre himself. The Indian boys who wait on the table also show careful training, performing their duties quickly and quietly. Here we can find for bread the tortilla,—still the food of the Indian and Mexican people of California. It is a thin cake made of meal or flour and water, and baked without grease on a hot stone or griddle. ”

“ I have now formed acquaintance with many Mexican dishes; mole (meat stewed in red chile) , boiled nopal, fried bananas, green chile, etc. Then we invariably have frijoles (brown beans stewed) , hot tortillas—and this being in the country, pulque is the universal beverage. In Mexico, tortillas and pulque are considered unfashionable, though both are to be met with occasionally, in some of the best old houses. They have here a most delicious species of cream cheese made by the Indians, and ate with virgin honey. ”

“ Several fires have been kindled, for the people are many, and have separate messes, according to rank and vocation. Around these are the women and grown girls, some bending over red earthenware pots that contain chocolate and coffee, others on their knees with the metate stone in front, and metlapilla in hand, crushing the boiled maize into paste for the indispensable tortillas. ”

“ The woman had some broken pottery figures of ancient times, but also produced some interesting crude affairs of modern make from Juchitan. These were figures of men and women—the latter generally carrying babies in indian fashion—of horses and other animals. As works of art, they make no pretension, but they are stained with native colors, and are used as gifts at New Year's by the common people. Here we saw the making of baked tortillas, and sampled some hot from the oven. Such tortillas are called tortillas del horno—oven tortillas. ”

“ The tortillas are made of corn which has first been soaked in lime water until pasty, and is then rolled, patted and tossed, and made into cakes in appearance about like pancakes. They require more labour in preparation than almost any other kind of food. Black 33beans are one of the staple foods of the country and will be found not only in the humble cottage of the peon at each meal, but on the table of the rich man at least twice a day. ”

“ Tortillas is not only one of the great Mexican dishes but one of the women's chief industries. In almost any street there can be seen women on their knees mashing corn between smooth stones, making it into a batter, and finally shaping it into round, flat cakes. They spit on their hands to keep the dough from sticking, and bake in a pan of hot grease, kept boiling by a few lumps of charcoal. Rich and poor buy and eat them, apparently unmindful of the way they are made. But it is a bread that Americans must be educated to. ”

“ They get no rations, but live easily on the twelve and one-half cents. They will gallop up to a road-side shop, and with three cents purchase a dozen tortillas, and a piece of the sour-milk cheese of the country, which serves them for lunch. For breakfast, an ear of soft-boiled corn will serve them admirably, and for supper a few frijoles and tortillas are sufficient. ”

“ When they get hungry they seek the warm side of the street and there, hunkering down, devour what they scraped up during the day, consisting of refused meats and offal boiled over a handful of charcoal. A fresh tortilla is the sweetest of sweetbreads. The men appear very kind and are frequently to be seen with the little ones tied up in their serape.
Groups of these at dinner would furnish rare studies for Rodgers. Several men and women will be walking along, when suddenly they will sit down in some sunny spot on the street. ”

“ Flat tortillas, about the size of a fruit-plate, are fashioned in the usual way; a great olla is sunk in the ground until its mouth is level with the surface. This is kept covered by a comal, or a smaller olla, and a good hot fire of coals is kept burning within. When the tortillas have been shaped, they are stuck on the hot olla, being pressed against the sides, to which they adhere, and are left to bake. In baking, the edges curl up so that the cake, instead of being flat, is saucer-shaped. They are crisp and good. ”

“ Have ready two cupfuls of cold cooked chicken cut into small bits, over which pour the juice of a lemon and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Also chop two onions very fine and three hard-boiled eggs; grate a pound of good cheese, wash a large cupful of raisins and dry them; have three dozen green or ripe olives handy and the chile sauce piping hot. Dip the tortillas in the hot sauce, place on a large platter and on one-half of it put a little of the onion, egg, chicken, cheese, two raisins, one olive, and lastly a spoonful of the chile sauce. ”

“ Very frequently a customer on entering would seat himself on the floor, and taking a plate of lard, pepper, and beans upon his knees, would despatch his repast without knife, fork, or spoon; using a piece of tortilla doubled between his fingers instead. ”

“ Further on, under a monumental ash-tree, primitive kitchens have been set up, round which a dense throng of customers, settled on the ground, are enjoying their tortillas, or when they are well-to-do, their portion of black beans, frijoles, pork or turkey, in jicaras, the whole highly seasoned with Chili pepper ”

“ A few unglazed pots and dishes, a rude pitcher or two for water, gourds for cups, a tortilla-trough and kneading-stone, handed down perhaps for generations, with mats for seats and bedding, form all the furniture of the hovels in which most of the people live. The making and the eating of tortillas, however, are not confined to the poor. These are points on which all Mexicans are united. Twenty-five years ago chairs and tables were so little used in Mexico by the poorer people as to be more ornamental than useful ”

“ It was almost impossible to partake of the mildest and most innocent compound without a strong reminiscence of pepper: green pepper was served up as a salad; red pepper in everything; pepper everywhere—and soot.
The tortilla cakes must not be forgotten; as among the masses in Mexico they supply the place of bread. These, of course, were constantly being made at the fonda. They are composed of Indian corn, which is first boiled in water with a small quantity of lime to soften it, that the skin may be peeled off; it is next ground on a smooth stone, called metate, with a stone roller ”

“ Curumilla and Don Cornelio had prepared their frugal meal in their cuarto, consisting of red haricot beans with pepper, a few varas of dried meat, and maize tortillas, the whole washed down with aloe pulque of the first quality, and a few tragos of excellent Catalonian refino. ”

“ Fortunately, we had a couple of cases of preserved meat with us, which we converted into soup, and this, with a few crusts of bread which were discovered in one of the carriages, saved us from a course of Tortillas and Chile, upon which the servants were dieted, ad libitum, as a proper recompense for not having been better purveyors.
Few people like this dish at first, although it constitutes the food of two-thirds of the population of Mexico. There is an unpleasant taste in the maize, to which, as well as to the extreme pungency of the Chile, it requires some time to get reconciled. ”

“ Women with bedraggled shawls over the head scurried from window to window, offering strange edibles for sale—baskets of cactus fruit resembling fresh figs—frijoles wrapped in pan-cake-like tortillas of cornmeal—legs of chicken floating in a yellow grease—while the passengers leaned from the car to bargain with them. ”

“ Another staple of diet is boiled beans (frijoles) . Meat is seldom used by laborers; but when it is attainable, every part of the animal is eaten. Should one be so fortunate as to have anything else to eat, the tortilla serves as plates, after which service the plates are eaten. ”

“ The pulque, which is also given around with the coffee, they refuse through respect to their mother; but they drink when she is not by, and of course she is aware of the fact, and has no desire to prohibit them from it. It is just their form of respect to refrain in her presence. A Mexican could not be compelled to eat of two different dishes from one plate. Even the smallest child is proof against persuasion on this point.
The frijoles, or beans, are served on a tortilla, a sort of corn-cake baked in the shape of a buckwheat cake. ”