tortilla

tortilla
/tawr tee"euh/; Sp. /tawrdd tee"yah/, n., pl. tortillas /-tee"euhz/; Sp. /-tee"yahs/. Mexican Cookery.
a thin, round, unleavened bread prepared from cornmeal or sometimes wheat flour, baked on a flat plate of iron, earthenware, or the like.
[1690-1700; < Sp, equiv. to tort(a) cake (see TORTE) + -illa dim. suffix < L -ella]

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food
      round, thin, flat bread of Mexico made from unleavened cornmeal (corn) or, less commonly, wheat flour. Traditionally the corn (maize) for tortillas was boiled with unslaked lime to soften the kernels and loosen the hulls. (This lime was the principal source of calcium in the Mexican diet.) The grains were ground on a stone saddle quern, or metate. Small pieces of dough were patted by hand into thin disks, a task requiring considerable dexterity. The tortilla was then baked on a comal, a griddle of earthenware or iron. Today most tortillas are purchased at tortillerías, where the dough is mixed by machine, stamped into disks, and passed by conveyer belt over a flame. Tortillas stale quickly and are usually bought fresh daily or even for each meal.

      Tortillas accompany most Mexican dishes. They can be used to scoop up sauced or stewed dishes and are sometimes cut into pieces and fried crisp for this use. As tacos, tortillas are folded around a filling of meat, beans, or cheese and a piquant sauce. Enchiladas are tortillas rolled or folded around a filling and baked under a sauce. Crisply fried tortillas topped with meat, beans, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes form tostadas.

      Wheat-flour tortillas rolled around a filling of beans and meat or cheese form burritos. Sopes, chalupas, quesadillas, and panuchos are all formed of tortilla dough molded into various shapes to hold a savoury filling.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Tortilla — Tortilla …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • Tortilla — es el nombre de diversos alimentos propios de diferentes países, el nombre proviene de torta pequeña; en cada país se llama tortilla a secas la que es más común en la zona. Gastronomía Tortilla afgana, especie de pan. Tortilla chip de la cocina… …   Wikipedia Español

  • tortilla — [ tɔrtija ] n. f. • 1865; mot esp. du Mexique « galette »; « omelette » en esp. d Espagne, de torta → tourte ♦ Galette plate de farine de maïs, plat populaire au Mexique. Tortilla fourrée. ⇒ taco. ● tortilla nom féminin (espagnol tortilla) En… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • tortilla — (Del dim. de torta). 1. f. Fritada de huevo batido, en forma redonda o alargada, a la cual se añade a veces algún otro ingrediente. 2. Am. Cen., Méx.), P. Rico y R. Dom. Alimento en forma circular y aplanada, para acompañar la comida, que se hace …   Diccionario de la lengua española

  • Tortilla — steht für: Tortilla (Spanien), spanische Variante des Omeletts Tortilla (Mexiko), mexikanisches Fladenbrot aus Mais oder Weizenmehl Tortilla Chip, kleines, meist dreieckig geformtes Maismehl Salzgebäck Siehe auch: Tortilia, Schmetterlingsart …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • tortilla — TORTÍLLA s. f. plăcintă din porumb, în America de Sud. (< sp., fr. tortilla) Trimis de raduborza, 15.09.2007. Sursa: MDN …   Dicționar Român

  • tortilla — (n.) 1690s, from Amer.Sp. tortilla, from Spanish, a tart, lit. a little cake, dim. of torta cake, from L.L. torta flat cake (see TORTE (Cf. torte)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • Tortilla — Tor*til la, n. [Sp.] An unleavened cake, as of maize flour, baked on a heated iron or stone. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Tortilla — (spr. tillja), auf einem heißen Stein aus Maismehl und Wasser gebackener dünner, runder Kuchen, dient in Mexiko als Ersatz des Brotes …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • tortilla — ► NOUN 1) (in Mexican cookery) a thin, flat maize pancake. 2) (in Spanish cookery) a thick omelette containing potato. ORIGIN Spanish, little cake …   English terms dictionary

  • tortilla — ☆ tortilla [tôr tē′ə ] n. [Sp, dim. of torta, a cake < LL(Ec), twisted bread: see TART2] a thin, flat, round cake of unleavened cornmeal or, often, of flour, baked on a griddle or, originally, a flat stone …   English World dictionary

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