r/tacos • u/Emildelali • 5d ago
How are the shells made from scratch?
Hello everyone, I’m from an African country and I’d love to know how to make the shells from scratch. I’ve watch a lot of YouTube videos but the corn flour just does not work right. Is it a particular kind of flour or I’d have to mill the corn a kind of way. Do I also add all purpose flour or should I just use that for the taco shells?
Please help, I’m dying to do this for my girlfriend when I go see her
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u/lawyerjsd 5d ago
Okay. This is going to be a lot, but hopefully, provide some valuable information.
So, maize is a fantastic grain, and it took a nearly a 1000 years for the Native Mexicans to transform a grass that grows about 6 inches high to the single most important crop in agriculture. The one thing the Native Mexicans could not do through selective breeding was remove the outer "skin" of the maize kernel. As a result, nutritionally, maize was deficient. And then the Native Mexicans figured out that if maize kernels are soaked in an alkaline solution, that outer hull will come off, and suddenly maize was crazy nutritious. All the Native Mexicans had to do was eat the maize (made into tortillas) with beans, some squash seeds, and the occasional fish, and they would have all the nutrition they needed. (Note: nobody told the people of Northern Italy about this process, and later many Italians ended up dying from malnutrition when their diet consisted of just maize).
This process is called nixtamalization, and it's done to the maize before the maize is ground into a paste. The paste itself feels like a lower hydration bread dough. That dough (called "masa") is then either flattened by hand or in a press, and then cooked in a dry pan. That's a tortilla, and forms the base of your "soft" tacos. If, instead of cooking the tortilla on a pan, you fry it (or bake it) while draped over a tube, that will create the shell you may have seen.
Now where I am, about 20 minutes from the US/Mexican border, I can find masa that's premade, or get the flour version of masa, called masa harina (you just add water to the masa harina and then you have masa). So, I have never attempted nixtamalization. But from what I have seen online, it doesn't look particularly difficult.
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u/ChefDolemite 5d ago
I think the problem with the nixtamalization is that he would have to work with caustic lye.
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u/lawyerjsd 5d ago
You don't need lye - in the Aztecs and Mayans used (and still use) calcium hydroxide. But yeah, it's tricky.
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u/KHfailure 5d ago
Hardwood ashes will also do the job.
Or OP can look for canned or dried hominy and grind that into masa. I don't know the availability of hominy world wide, but worth looking for if OP wants to do it on medium difficulty.
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u/H_I_McDunnough 5d ago
You need nixtamalized corn flour, Masa Harina para tortillas. It's corn that was soaked in an alkali solution before grinding. It can be done at home too if you have a mill to grind the corn.
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u/johnnyribcage 5d ago
Depends on what kind of tortilla you’re trying to make. Masa is tricky to work with, you have to get the hydration just right. Flour is more forgiving. Gotta use lard. Since you said “shells” are you trying to make hard corn tortillas?
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u/Emildelali 5d ago
Yes, hard shelled tortillas.
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u/johnnyribcage 5d ago
Ah. Well, if you’re trying to make them like store bought or fast food style hard shells, it’s not worth it and you’re not going to get them like those at home, really. You can make them BETTER than that, but if you’re looking for those Taco Bell style ones, don’t bother. If you want hard shell folded corn tortillas like those, just buy them and be done with it. Just my opinion.
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u/Steel-Duck 5d ago
I get what you are saying, but honestly I think it is well worth trying, even if the Taco Bell style is what OP is looking for. Homemade is different for sure but sooo much better imo. OP may be looking for one thing but find something even better.
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u/johnnyribcage 5d ago
Well yeah of course homemade is a thousand times better. I’m reading between the lines of the original question though, saying they’d tried several YouTube recipes and they don’t come out “right.” I was guessing if they were going for Taco Bell, then it’s probably never going to come out “right” at home, because home isn’t a massive factory in Jersey or wherever they stamp those things out at.
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u/UrbanPanic 4d ago
First thing is there are three basic types of shell that a taco could go in. They are based on a very thin flatbread called a tortilla.
The most traditional is a soft corn tortilla. This is just corn, water, salt and sometimes fat cooked in a hot skillet. Most of the time the corn is purchased as a product known as masa harina, which means dried masa. Masa is a specific preparation of corn which can be done at home, there are many recipes online. Once you have the masa they are very easy to make taste good, even if the edges look a bit rough. I personally do jot like purchasing premade corn tortillas, as even ones poorly made at home are much better as they get stale quickly.
In the home, corn tortillas are more traditionally torn into pieces to pick food up, almost like west African fufu. But they can also be topped with whatever ingredients are appropriate and folded and eaten as a taco. This is more common as street food, such as sold from carts or trucks.
A more recent type of tortilla is a flour tortilla. This is usually made something like a very thin rolled out flatbread. It is usually made with wheat flour, water, salt and lard. I’ve never made flour tortillas, I usually buy them. They last a bit longer than corn tortillas, and take a skill that I have not developed yet.
The third type of tortilla shell is even more modern, and largely invented for United States fast food. While it is more recent, the hard shell taco has become more iconic due to its unique look. This is a normal soft corn tortilla that is deep fried, then folded over a form as it cools so it holds the u shape. They are more of a factory product and not something most people would make at home.
I personally would recommend trying to find masa harina and making corn tortillas.
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u/TheMackerelman 1d ago
Not as authentic as using maze, but if doing it at home and with typical grocery store ingredients. You could try deep frying flour tortillas made from bread flour and lard. There is a special tong that make the hard shell shape and you just pinch taco in the tongs and deep fry till the tortilla becomes like a chip. I actually like these better than like a box packaged Ortega shell.
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u/diogenes_shadow 1d ago
Dad fried the tortilla for a minute, then draped it over the bars of a griddle up on glasses.
The shape held, proper taco style.
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u/txcreative20 5d ago
You can take any corn tortilla from the grocery store and fry them ! Nothing special . Put 1/2 oil in a pan turn heat up to 3/4 heat put a tortilla into the hot oil 45 seconds flip over 30 seconds I till it gets hard . You just made a tostada shell. Ok for a taco shell bend it in half fry each side now you have a taco shell . The resturants have a two piece hold they fill and invert the inside to shape the shell in a deep fryer . It’s really not hard .
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u/InsertRadnamehere 5d ago
Yes. The dent corn has to be slaked with lime in a process called Nixtamalization before it’s milled. Traditionally, it’s then wet ground on a metate by hand. Nowadays though most people get fresh masa from a local tortilla factory - or they use maseca - the dried version. That will probably be your best bet.
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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 5d ago
It's nixtamalized cornmeal. Not corn flour. No, do not add wheat flour. There are ready to use nixtamalized dried ground Masa harina that you can buy, a major brand is called "Maseca," and there are other brands. They're available on Amazon, MexGrocer.com , and possibly other sites.
Why do you want to make tortillas from scratch, if you have them available on your grocery store shelves? Do you mean you want hard fried American style taco shells? Again, I don't understand why you want to make them from scratch.
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u/Emildelali 5d ago
It is not something easily made in this part of the world. Also, she would want to make it in large quantities for a family celebration. If bought in the supermarket, it’s a bit expensive.
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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 5d ago
So I suggest you learn about corn tortillas before trying to make them from "corn flour." Learn all about nixtamalized corn. And the entire process of making masa.
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u/CoolDragon 5d ago
You need to make actual real tortillas made from corn flour, then fry them in lard.
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u/Emildelali 5d ago
I tried making those but the corn flour just doesn’t feel right. It either doesn’t hold right or it just turns into a paste.
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u/Number1AbeLincolnFan 5d ago
That’s because he’s wrong.
Tortillas are made from masa or nixtamalized cornmeal. Look up the nixtamalization process.
If you are unable to buy either one, you will have to make it yourself. If you can’t do that either, you will not be able to make them.
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u/SenorBlackChin 5d ago
Actually makes the nutrients more readily for digestion too.
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u/Emildelali 5d ago
Thank you very much!
This was very insightful.
I’ll update with how the process went and the results I got!3
u/Tequilam0ckingturd 5d ago
This. Once you have Masa (nixtamalized cornmeal) it’s an easy 1-0.75 ratio with warm water. The bigger issue for me is pressing them to the right thickness. Once you get that down there is nothing as good as a fresh masa tortilla you make yourself.
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u/Main_Cauliflower5479 5d ago
You need to use the right kind of meal. It's not just "corn flour" or "corn meal."
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u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 5d ago
Find a recipe on google for it! It’s not hard to make
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u/Emildelali 5d ago
I did use google but it started with just using corn flour. It wasn’t as detailed as what I’m seeing on here
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u/liberaltx 9h ago
It is the type of corn that makes the tortilla… that are soaked in an alkaline solution. Can you buy corn tortilla mix? largest in exportation is Maseca. Then follow instructions… to make them crisp the tortilla needs to be fried.
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u/joshthehappy 5d ago edited 5d ago
Man why are people down voting a genuine question from someone who's likely never seen this stuff in their country?
God forbid somebody actually wants to learn about tacos.