I only discovered the joy of heating corn tortillas within the past decade.
I always heat mine up briefly. They not only taste better, they’re more flexible for wrapping around stuff.
Doesn’t it even say on the packaging to heat them? I remember learning in the 80s to heat them because on the corn tortillas we bought it said to.
I should add there are times I don’t warm them: when they’re still warm in their packaging. I’m lucky to live around a number of tortillerias and I typically buy corn tortillas by touch and feeling which packages are still warm. They usually do still need a little lift, but sometimes they’re good enough to sprinkle some salt on them, roll ‘em up, and have a tasty Mexican snack.
They are not done until warmed. I know a few people who eat cold rice too. Why? Rice pudding? Sure! But rice cold out the fridge? I get kinda the same vibe from cold tortillas.
Yes to the microwave with a damp cloth in between them.
One of the many ways Mrs. Plant has improved my cooking is heating tortillas with a few drops of olive oil in a pan.
We make burritos about once a week, with flour tortillas. Usually, I heat them up in a dry skillet, as described above. But once in a while, I fry up some breakfast sausage to throw into the burritos, and then I heat up the tortillas in the sausage grease, and the burritos become glorious.
Chorizo. Just sayin’
I’m trying this the next time I’m making something with tortillas. I always warm them in the oven or on the stove.
And we have chorizo from Spain and tortillas. Hmmm. Or should I say mmmm.
Watch them carefully until you get the hand of the timing. My wife sometime gets distracted and we have semi-scorched tortillas. I still like the flour tortillas like that.
Over the gas burner. Always.
I don’t generally think of heating things up that are meant to be held in the hand. Sure, there’s toast, but toasting bread is optional.
I toss them into a hot pan, flip them over until they start to blister, let them cool slightly and then use.
?
Lotta people grill hamburger & hotdog buns before assembling the hot sandwich on the hot bread. Lotta people eat French fries with their hands. etc.
I was unclear and left out a term. I don’t normally think about heating (not cooking) hand foods that are already cooked. It just didn’t occur to me to try that with the tortillas, until I started having to get corn tortillas from Mexican restaurants all the time (instead of just occasionally) and noticed they were always warm.
As for toasting (whether buns or bread or bagels) that’s cooking, as you brown them. It is also entirely optional. In my opinion, warming corn tortillas isn’t really optional.
If I microwave tortillas for tacos, they all end up falling apart. In a skillet, they become far more durable. Sometimes I add a little oil to crisp them up around the edges.
Chorizo is amazing–but this is how I use up leftover breakfast sausage, not something I go out to buy specifically. Maybe sometime I will.
I only ever get flour ones. I heat them in the microwave for a few seconds or fold them into quarters and put them in the toaster so that the outside is a little crispy and the inside is soft & warm.
Most of the things I make that require using a tortilla as a wrap are for work lunches, so there’s not much point in heating it up because it’s going to sit in a fridge for five hours anyway. If I’m making it at home, I usually do heat it up, but I don’t actually make a lot of wraps at home.
Glad to see someone else that uses the toaster for heating flour tortillas. However, I disagree with your second paragraph. We make wraps for our weekly hike lunches and the tortillas are WAY better if you toast them before making the wrap, particularly if you get them just the right amount of almost-burnt. Yes, they are cold when we eat, but 100% better if toasted than just “raw” out of the bag. I posted this up above as well.
Heated is much preferred. I really don’t like gluey unheated wrap sandwiches from the grocery case.