Good Food
The ancient chemistry inside your taco
When you bite into a taco, huarache, or a fresh corn tortilla, you’re tasting the results of an ancient chemical process called nixtamalization and dates back to 1500 BCE. The science podcast “ Distillations ” went into this process in 2016.
By Evan Kleiman • • 1 min readWhen you bite into a taco, huarache, or a fresh corn tortilla, you’re tasting the results of an ancient chemical process called nixtamalization and dates back to 1500 BCE. The science podcast “Distillations” went into this process in 2016. Rigoberto Hernandez reported from Philadelphia.
An 1836 lithograph of tortilla production in rural Mexico. Photo credit: Public domain.
The full episode
4 of 6
The Great Tortilla Tournament, nixtamalization, and Guerrilla Tacos- 0:00Gustavo’s Great Tortilla Tournament
- 15:56Making Masa
- 15:56Tortillas in Los Angeles
- 23:25The ancient chemistry inside your tacoYou’re reading this
- 39:25Daniel Hernandez: Jonathan Gold on El Parian
- 47:26Guerrilla Tacos
The full episode
4 of 6The Great Tortilla Tournament, nixtamalization, and Guerrilla Tacos- 0:00Gustavo’s Great Tortilla Tournament
- 15:56Making Masa
- 15:56Tortillas in Los Angeles
- 23:25The ancient chemistry inside your tacoYou’re reading this
- 39:25Daniel Hernandez: Jonathan Gold on El Parian
- 47:26Guerrilla Tacos