Masa Today, Masa Forever
Welcome to Epi's new collection of stories and recipes celebrating masa: an ingredient that’s at the very core of Mexican cuisine, and many other food traditions of the Americas.
Call it third wave masa, if you will: an era of fragrant tortillas, tender tamales, and meticulously sourced heirloom corn. It’s been 100 years in the making.
Nixtamalization takes something that’s of little nutritional value and transforms it into a source of nourishment that has carried generations. It's how we get masa: the key to tender, pliable tortillas and many other essential dishes. But what is the process exactly? And how did it come about?
We tested tortilla presses made of a variety of materials—wood, cast iron, and aluminum—to find the very best one for at-home tortilla making. Be warned: buying one of these may ruin you for store-bought tortillas forever.
