Okay, here’s the story: I used to make my own taco shells from a recipe that I found in (possibly) a Betty Crocker cookbook. This would have been probably in the 70s. Now these weren’t traditional tortillas, but more like crepes. The only think I can say for sure is that they had flour, water and cornmeal. The mixture created a batter, rather than a dough. As with a crepe, the batter was poured by the 1/3 cupful into a very hot non-stick frying pan, cooked on one side, flipped and cooked on the other side.
Once a quantity of these were made, a quarter inch or so of oil was heated in a pan and the the crepes were fried crisp (and folded). They were light and crunchy and worked marvelously well.
I tried to recreate them today, but the result was less than desirable, probably because of either the omission of some ingredient or perhaps just the wrong ratio of flour to cornmeal to water.
If anybody knows this recipe, I’d sure appreciate some help. I’ve searched online and had no luck.
You nailed it in one! Unreal. I don’t remember egg being an ingredient, but it makes sense. I was also light on the cornmeal quantity. I’m now a member of your fan club.
Wow! I only have one BC cookbook & didn’t even know it had a taco recipe in it, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look. If you want to buy a copy on-line, it’s this one:
Which, in the '70s, would have been most of America outside of Texas, New Mexico, and southern California. (Was Taco Bell even nationwide at that point?) Even as recently as 2004 when I had recently moved to WA from San Diego, I recall asking the meat clerk at Albertson’s for carne asada and he had no idea what I was talking about.
We have a newer edition, and the wife had a very old edition that we can’t find after our move. It was literally falling apart, the covers were off, etc.
Yeah, it doesn’t sound like it would work, and of course it’s not at all true to any tortilla recipe I’ve ever seen. But if what kids will gobble down is any indication, they’re a good substitute. Also, I always hated those cardboard-like Ortega taco shells and wanted something lighter.
Reminds me of an old radio announcer in Anchorage when I was a teen. He always said “Loze Angle-eez” for Los Angeles. I think he was trying for a Spanish pronunciation, but it just sounded like hicksville.
We moved from Los Angeles to Long Island, NY in 1971. We were horrified to find that not only was there no Mexican food on the island, but none of the ingredients in the grocery stores to make it ourselves. In 1978, the first Taco Bell opened near us. We were absolutely ecstatic. For most people on Long Island, it was the first Mexican food they ever had. Today, Mexican restaurants are everywhere, although I cannot attest to their quality, since I’m back in California, where some of the best Mexican food can be found outside Mexico.
The bad old days when nobody had a clue as to what masa harina was. I went on a work trip to Phoenix from SoCal back in the 70s and was bowled over by the Mexican food. It put me on a quest to find good ingredients and the proper (more or less) way to prepare them. Now you may wonder why I couldn’t find good Mexican in SoCal, but it was because I was on a military base near Oxnard and didn’t venture off much.
I used to make this all the time. After I made the pancake/crepe instead of frying them in a pan, I deep fried them in vegetable oil using a kitchen utensil made for frying taco shells. It kept the shells folded while they cooked. Hope this helps.
