Preformed Taco Shells? Wha...?

Preformed Taco Shells? Wha...?

Most of us grew up with tacos that came in hard, preformed shells. These products of Mexican food manufacturers, like El Paso, and Mexican food retailers, like Taco Bell, were (and are) fried and shaped tortillas that break apart when eating.

My question: does the hard, preformed tortilla shell exist in native Mexico, or was this engineering disaster the product of manufacturers, who wanted to pack a lot of shelf-stable product into a box, and retailers, who found it easier to inventory this product and a more certain method of portion control and sandwich preparation (it's easier to smash a measured quantity of meat into a preformed fold than it is to lay meat into a soft tortilla, fold it, etc.)?

Although the tostada is a traditional Mexican food platform, I have never seen the El Paso/Taco Bell type formed of preformed tacos shells any where in Mexico nor in "authentic" Mexican restaurants (i.e., places other than Taco Bell, etc.). My suspicion, of course, is that this hard, preformed, shelf-stable taco shell does not actually exist in traditional Mexican cuisine.

Hammond

Hi David,

there was a long, involved thread on this question on Chowhound about a year and half ago. JeffB was one of the participants, perhaps he'll have time to chime in here too.

http://www.chowhound.com/boards/general ... 07095.html

There's a lot of extraneous stuff in the thread about "authenticity doesn't really exist" blah blah blah. But I think the upshot was that there's nothing in Mexico like the preformed U-shapes at Taco Hell, but that El Cholo, a place in California, may have originated the practice back in the 1920's. (the link someone provided for the history of this no longer works)

buen provecho,
Amata

Amata,

Thanks for the link...I just finished reading the posts in the thread, which seem to confirm my understanding that preformed, hard tortillas for tacos are not common in Mexico, that they may (or may not) have been invented by Taco Bell, and that they are much more widespread in the U.S.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:I have never seen the El Paso/Taco Bell type formed of preformed tacos shells any where in Mexico

Like you, I have never seen these shells anywhere in Mexico. Fried corn tortillas in various forms are used in tostadas, as you mention, as well as fried rolled tacos, tortilla soup, sopas secas, chalupas, totopos, chliaquiles, enchiladas, flautas, etc. But I have never seen the U-shell in Mexico.

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM wrote:

David Hammond wrote:I have never seen the El Paso/Taco Bell type formed of preformed tacos shells any where in Mexico

Like you, I have never seen these shells anywhere in Mexico. Fried corn tortillas in various forms are used in tostadas, as you mention, as well as fried rolled tacos, tortilla soup, sopas secas, chalupas, totopos, chliaquiles, enchiladas, flautas, etc. But I have never seen the U-shell in Mexico.

Bill/SFNM

And come to think of it, why would the average Mexican cook want preformed taco shells? There's no need to have them, and you get a much better result if you add the meat (or other filling) to a soft taco and THEN fry it (as in a taquito, when the meat and taco cook together, they form a pleasingly coherent unit).

Hammond

what about jack n' the box?

Hi,

Jack in the Box fried their tacos. I estimate they began with a soft taco, stuffed it and fried it. I wouldn't be surprise if they were delivered frozen and stuffed to the the store to be dropped into the fryer upon demand.

In another era before I was so sophisticated, my sisters and I loved those taco dinners complete with hard shells in a box. Brown some ground beef add the secret spices and water for a 'real' Mexican dinner. Grated some Velveeta cheese and shredded some ice berg lettuce to complete the picture. Yummy!

Taco Bell double decker supreme tacos are my favorite. I've talked to friends from this board and in my 'real' life who all agree Taco Bell is not Mexican but for what it is is pretty good. I'd name names but I don't want to be accused of outting anyone.

Best regards,

Vital Information wrote:what about jack n' the box?

My guess is that Taco Bell came out with these hard shells before Jack N' the Box...or your local junior high school cafeteria. In the old thread on Chowhound that Amata mention, it's noted that the Food Network credited Taco Bell with inventing the damn things.

Hammond

The backstory of that string was that some ding-dong on the Boston board had been bargging about finding a super-authentic Mexican joint (for which Boston is not well known) that had "real" U-shaped taco shells. I expressed some interest and surprise that the first real taqueria in Boston also just so happened to serve a kind of taco that I had never seen on the streets of Chicago, LA or Mexico. It kind of took off from there.

In retrospect, one might think of the Taco-Bell U as an innovation that made tostadas more handy. Thought of as a bent tostada rather than a fried taco, it all comes together for me.

JeffB wrote:In retrospect, one might think of the Taco-Bell U as an innovation that made tostadas more handy. Thought of as a bent tostada rather than a fried taco, it all comes together for me.

You know, Jeff, now that you mention it, I also find the tostada an aggravatingly difficult food platform/utensil. I like them on the side with Ricos Cockteles on Maxwell Street, but when they're loaded with food, they are just too damn hard to eat (although this may say more about my manual dexterity than Mexican food engineering).

Hammond

Tostadas require one important ingredient to make them work: frijoles refritos. Without the beans, one bite shatters the whole food delivery platform. With beans, there can be some fracturing, but less likely to be a rapid disassembly event.

With my foodservice background, I'd say this was easier for portion control in a fast food restaurant. Also, they wouldn't have to fry the tortilla or the extra step of rolling cutting down on employee time making it faster to serve.
Paulette

JoelF wrote:Tostadas require one important ingredient to make them work: frijoles refritos.

A few other requirements: the different ingredients should be sparsely applied and one should use small tortillas. It's still a messy proposition, especially if you are a man (or woman ) with a moustache.

Bill/SFNM