Corn tortilla

Common card · No. 321121

In Mexico and Central America, a corn tortilla or just tortilla (, Spanish: [toɾˈtiʝa]) is a type of thin, unleavened flatbread, made from hominy, that is the whole kernels of maize treated with alkali to improve their nutrition in a process called nixtamalization. A simple dough made of ground hominy, salt and water is then formed into flat discs and cooked on a very hot surface, generally an iron griddle called a comal. A similar flatbread from South America, called an arepa (made with ground maize, not hominy, and typically much thicker than tortillas), also predates the arrival of Europeans to America. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl-speakers call tortillas tlaxcalli ([t͡ɬaʃˈkalli]). They were called tortilla by the Spanish from its resemblance to traditional Spanish round, unleavened cakes and omelettes. The successful conquest of the Aztec empire by the Spanish and the subsequent colonial empire ruled from the former Aztec capital have ensured that this variation become the prototypical...

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