Tortilla

A thin, round flatbread made primarily from maize or wheat flour. Maize tortillas are traditionally made from nixtamalized corn, while wheat tortillas use wheat flour.

Nixtamalization: A process that cooks and soaks maize in an alkaline solution before washing and grinding it. It transforms maize into masa, the traditional dough for corn tortillas.
Corn tortilla production: The process of making corn tortillas from masa by shaping and cooking it on a hot surface. It shows how masa becomes a thin, cooked tortilla.
Mesoamerica: A historical and cultural region extending across much of Mexico and Central America. The earliest tortilla traditions developed within Mesoamerican maize cultures.
Taco: A Mexican dish consisting of a tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. The tortilla holds the filling and provides the taco’s edible wrapper.
Pita: A round, leavened flatbread traditionally baked at high heat, often forming an interior pocket. Unlike most tortillas, pita dough is leavened and can form a pocket.
Masa: A dough made from ground nixtamalized maize, used in many Mexican foods. Fresh masa is shaped and cooked to make traditional corn tortillas.
Tortilla press: A device that flattens a ball of tortilla dough between two plates. It forms evenly thin rounds from masa before cooking.
Maize domestication: The long process by which people transformed wild teosinte into cultivated maize. Tortilla history begins with maize cultivation in the Americas.
Quesadilla: A dish of a tortilla filled with cheese and often other ingredients, then heated. A tortilla encloses the filling as it melts and browns.
Chapati: An unleavened South Asian flatbread made from whole-wheat flour and water. Chapati shares a thin, griddle-cooked form but uses a different grain tradition.

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