Why Homemade Masa Could Save the Taco

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The word on the street is that an “authentic” al pastor taco should come with not one, but two tortillas.

That’s incorrect, according to one Mexican food expert. “People don’t even know the reason why people double-wrap corn tortillas: They do it because the quality is terrible,” explained Shaw Lash, a Mexican food instructor at The Brooklyn Kitchen and former chef at Rick Bayless’s Frontera Grill in Chicago, Illinois.

"They’re machine-pressed and have preservatives, and they’ve been sitting in a bodega for three or four days and have become brittle,” she continued. Without the bolstering strength of two tortillas, a taco would simply fall apart. “Nobody wants to eat two corn tortillas—that’s a lot of masa! And masa is filling.”

Homemade masa—the ground corn–based dough used to make tortillas, tamales, and arepas—may be the answer. Most store-bought varieties are produced commercially and of poor quality, Lash told us, including the just-add-water varieties sold in stores such as Whole Foods.

"I understand that it’s an easier thing to do, but it’s the slow and inevitable death of the backbone of Mexican cuisine," she lamented.

Homemade masa, which involves grinding corn or hominy, is better for several reasons, said Lash. First, it allows for more control over the final product. Second, freshly-made tortillas get to plates faster, which nixes the need for preservatives. And although Mark Bittman of The New York Times suggests that you can make your own at home, Lash frowns upon the proposition unless you have an industrial kitchen and access to excellent niche or heirloom corn varieties. The corn found in most supermarkets, is “not particularly interesting corn,” said Lash.

If you can buy fresh masa from a local vendor, you might get The Perfect Tortilla, which according to Lash is “thin, soft, and pliable. It has a nice amount of elasticity so it will really hold up against a wet filling and not disintegrate.” But most importantly? “The flavor. You really taste the corn—something that’s just an X factor.”

Although homemade masa may be outside the reach of everyday folk, one can support the homemade masa movement by patronizing the restaurants that use it.

Lash pointed out Masienda, a New York-based startup from taco-loving Kate Barney and Jorge Gaviria. The duo imports corn varieties that are absent from most homogenous American supermarkets, including blue and white bolita and elote occidental.

Grub Street reports that Masienda will supply corn to Cosme, a soon-to-open Manhattan eatery from lauded Mexican chef Enrique Olvera that will grind its own masa. Charleston, South Carolina-based chef Sean Brock has a forthcoming Mexican eatery that will feature Masienda’s corn, and if you’re thirsty rather than hungry, Peekskill Brewery features a custom blue-corn beer it’s co-producing with Brooklyn pizza spot Roberta’s.

Chef Alex Stupak of Empellón fame will also grind his own masa at his upcoming bar and restaurant Empellón al Pastor, and Fonda San Miguel in Austin, Texas has for years produced its own masa.

"Other cuisines are making their own breads and making their own pickles, so it makes sense that the progressive chefs are moving in that direction with their masa,” Lash said. But these chefs are the exception: Lash worries that she’ll ”wake up one day, and no one will be doing it.” The onus is on consumers to demand a better product. ”Once you create the market, more and more people will be making it,” she hopes.

Hear that? It’s time to start demanding better tortillas. It might just save the taco.