Cooking For Engineers

zacharyr · Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Oregon

I've been using Robert Rodriguez's recipe for flour tortillas for the last few months. I love them. It's a simple dough made from

¬2 c. wheat flour
¬1/2 tsp. salt
¬1/2 tsp. baking soda
¬1/4 c. lard
¬3/4 c. hot water

After crumbling the fat, adding water, kneading and seperating into chunks, the dough rises for 20 minutes under a hot wet kitchen towel. Then it's rolled out and cooked quickly on a scorching skillet.

How can I store this dough and cook it later? None of the ingredients go bad on their own, will they go bad together? (I'm guessing the flour would rot.) Storing in the fridge and warming before rolling, so as not to crack the cold lard?

Also, I think lard is prefered over butter because it makes a stretchier dough. Do you all think there's any flavor advantage to using home rendered lard as opposed to the boxed kind?

Thank you.

SirShazar · Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 89

The main concern that I would have is the baking soda losing it's potency and the tortillas becoming dense. It will take a LONG while for the flour to rot, and the lard is probably the optimal fat for this recipe. My suggestion would be to go ahead and cook them and than freeze them.

After cooking and cooling them, put a sheet of wax paper between each tortilla and than put them in a ziploc bag, than squeeze the air out carefully and freeze on a flat surface.

As for rendering your own lard, why bother.

zacharyr · Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Oregon

Ah, I got that wrong. It's baking powder, not baking soda. Any difference?

SirShazar · Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 89

Baking soda is a base compound that reacts with an acid to produce carbon dioxide (thats the leavening agent). The acid can come from different cooking ingredients like citrus juice, yogurt, or cream of tartar powder.

Baking powder is a mix of baking soda and cream of tartar. The trick is that they only activate and react with one another when water is added.

I'm sure theres a way to freeze a batter with baking powder in it, because you can buy cookie dough in those Pillsbury tubes, but I don't know if it'll work if you try it yourself.

IndyRob · Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Posts: 77

Seems like a perfect recipe for experimenting with. The ingredients cost pennies. Freeze some dough, and freeze some of the finished product.

But bread-type things freeze and recover very well. Just let them thaw in the plastic (so they can recover some of the moisture that they exuded and is now clinging to the plastic bag) and reheat gently in an oven.