Tacos and Quesadillas

Every year there are more tortillas made with vegetable shortening or oil, and every year they are a little less good than the lard versions. I am making the case for lard one more time. Lard produces a tortilla with a flakiness that shortening cannot replicate. The fat structure in lard is different from vegetable fat — the lard crystals create small layers in the dough that separate during cooking. The flavour is mild but distinct — slightly porky, slightly nutty, and it interacts with the wheat in a way neutral oils do not. The health argument against lard is also weaker than assumed: lard has a similar fat profile to olive oil, with a relatively high proportion of monounsaturated fat. If you have not made a lard tortilla, make one. Then decide.

Enchiladas use the same components as a burrito — corn tortilla, filling, sauce, cheese — and yet they are harder to get right. The reasons: The tortilla must be dipped in warm oil first to prevent it from cracking when rolled. Most home cooks skip this and then wonder why their enchiladas crack in the dish. The sauce must be applied before baking, not after. The tortilla should be partially saturated with the sauce before the oven, which means the sauce needs to be thinner than a serving sauce. The filling should be minimal — 2-3 tablespoons maximum per tortilla. Overfilled enchiladas do not roll tightly and the filling falls out in the dish. Once you know these three things, enchiladas are straightforward. Until then, they are frustrating.

Birria has become a trend and I was sceptical because trends usually disappoint. I made proper birria for the first time three months ago — goat or beef short rib braised for hours in a chile-tomato consommé — and I now understand why everyone is talking about it. The technique that makes it: dip the corn tortilla in the consommé before cooking it on the comal. The tortilla picks up fat from the consommé and crisps differently. The fat gets into the tortilla's structure rather than just sitting on the surface. Then the braised meat, onion, cilantro, and a separate cup of hot consommé for dipping. The consommé as a dipping liquid is not optional. It is what makes the whole experience. Drink it between bites.

At a good taqueria the toppings are: raw white onion finely diced, fresh cilantro, lime, and the salsa of your choice. That is the complete list for a street taco. The restraint is not minimalism for its own sake — it is because each of those components does something specific. Raw onion: crunch, sharpness, a slight bitterness that cuts the fat. Cilantro: volatile aromatic freshness. Lime: acid to finish. Salsa: heat and complexity. Everything else — sour cream, cheese, lettuce, tomato — is from a different taco tradition. Not wrong, but not street taco. Adding all of them to a street taco does not make it better; it makes it a different taco with too much happening.

A quesadilla from fresh masa and a quesadilla from a flour tortilla are genuinely different things and it took me years to stop thinking of one as the standard and the other as an alternative. Fresh masa quesadilla: formed by hand directly around the cheese, sealed, cooked directly on the comal. No separate tortilla. The masa and cheese become one structure. This is the traditional version in much of Mexico City street food. Flour quesadilla: the version most people outside Mexico know — cheese between two flour tortillas or folded in one, cooked in a pan. Crispy, layered, easy to make at scale. Both are valid. Both are different. The fresh masa version requires skill (the dough needs the right hydration, the fold needs to be quick) but the result is something the flour version cannot approximate.

I had a comal for two years before I understood it. I was using it like a flat pan — for cooking things on. Then I spent a week in Mexico watching how it was actually used and came back with a completely different understanding. A comal is a heat surface, not a cooking vessel. Its job is to transfer heat evenly across a flat surface. Tortillas go on it briefly to char and warm. Fresh chiles are charred directly on it for salsas. Tomatillos blister on it. Garlic chars in their skins on it. Dried chiles are toasted briefly on it before soaking. The comal is not where the cooking happens — it is where everything picks up heat and char. The actual cooking happens before and after. Once I understood this, everything I made with a comal improved.

I have this conversation constantly so I am writing it down once clearly: a corn tortilla and a flour tortilla are not two versions of the same thing. They are different foods that happen to be round and flat. Corn tortilla: earthy, slightly toasted flavour from the nixtamal, less pliable, holds up to direct char, pairs with specific fillings where the corn flavour is complementary. Flour tortilla: more neutral, more pliable, better for very wet or very large fills, holds up to rolling and pressing in a way corn does not. For tacos specifically: corn tortilla is the traditional and in my view the correct choice because the char interacts with the filling in a way flour cannot replicate. Flour tortilla for a taco is a different taco — not better or worse, just different.