Tortillas Sobaqueras de Sonora

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide wooden table or pastry board, at least 24 inches across
• •Heavy comal or steel disco, 16 to 20 inches across (a wide griddle will work, a cast-iron skillet will not)
• •Clean cotton cloths for resting and stacking the tortillas
• •Rolling pin or smooth wine bottle for the initial flattening

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the lard into the flour

   In a wide bowl, whisk the flour and salt together. Add the room-temperature manteca de cerdo in pieces. Work the lard into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like wet sand and no large lumps of fat remain. La manteca es el sabor. Vegetable shortening will not give you the same pliability or flavor. Use lard or do not make sobaqueras at all.

   Manteca de cerdo should be soft but not melted. If your kitchen is cold, work it between your palms for thirty seconds before adding it to the flour.
2. 2

   Add the hot water

   Pour the hot water into the flour mixture in a steady stream while stirring with your other hand. Hot water, near boiling, not boiling. This is the Sonora trick. The heat partially gelatinizes the starch in the flour and gives you a dough that stretches without tearing. Cold water makes a dough that will fight you when you try to stretch it. Bring the dough together into a rough mass.

3. 3

   Knead until smooth

   Turn the dough out onto a clean, unfloured wooden table. Knead for eight to ten minutes. The dough will start sticky and tough and slowly turn smooth, soft, and elastic. You are building gluten so the dough can stretch to a meter wide without ripping. When it is done, the dough will pull back gently when you press it and feel like the inside of your earlobe.

4. 4

   Divide and rest

   Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, about 100 grams each. Roll each piece between your palms into a tight ball. Coat each ball with melted manteca and place on a tray with space between them. Cover with a clean cotton cloth and let them rest at room temperature for at least one hour, two is better. The rest is not optional. A dough that has not relaxed will tear the second you try to stretch it. No me vengas con atajos.

   The greased dough balls can rest up to four hours covered at room temperature. Some senoras in Hermosillo let them sit overnight in a cool kitchen for an even softer tortilla the next day.
5. 5

   Begin the stretch

   Heat a wide, heavy comal or steel disco over medium-high until a drop of water dances and disappears. While it heats, take one rested ball and flatten it on a lightly floured wooden table with a rolling pin or a smooth wine bottle. Roll it out to about 10 inches across, turning a quarter turn between each pass. The dough should still feel supple, never tight.

6. 6

   Stretch over the forearm

   Now the technique that names the tortilla. Sobaquera comes from sobaco, the armpit, because the tortilla gets stretched across the cook's forearm and tucked into the hollow of her elbow as it grows. Drape the disk of dough over the back of one floured forearm and use the other hand to gently pull the edges outward, rotating the dough around your arm. Work slowly. The dough will thin to translucency, almost see-through, until the tortilla measures 14 to 16 inches across. If it tears, patch it with a pinch of dough and keep going. Asi se hace y punto.

   If the forearm stretch intimidates you the first time, stretch the dough on a floured wooden board with your fingertips, walking around the disk as you pull the edges outward. The result will not be as large, but the technique is the same: gentle, patient, never yanking.

   Senoras in Caborca and Magdalena de Kino keep a length of clean muslin or a smooth tablecloth on the table to lay the finished disk on before it goes to the comal. The cloth keeps the dough from sticking to the wood.
7. 7

   Cook on the comal

   Lift the stretched tortilla onto the hot comal in one motion. It will start to bubble within seconds. Cook for about 30 seconds, until the top side dries and small toasted spots appear underneath. Flip with your fingers or a spatula. Cook the second side for another 20 to 30 seconds. The tortilla should be soft, pliable, with patches of light brown freckling, never crisp. A sobaquera that snaps is a sobaquera you overcooked.

   The comal must be wide enough to hold the tortilla. If yours is smaller than the stretched disk, let the edges drape briefly off the side and rotate the tortilla in quarters as it cooks. A 20-inch steel disco is the traditional surface in Sonora ranches.
8. 8

   Stack and keep warm

   Transfer each finished tortilla to a clean cotton cloth on a large flat surface. Stack them as they come off the comal and wrap the cloth over the top. The trapped warmth keeps them soft and pliable. Sobaqueras are eaten warm, folded around carne asada from the mesquite grill, machaca, frijoles puercos, or simply with sea salt and a squeeze of lime. The tortilla itself is the bread of the north. The flour tortilla is the bread of Sonora, full stop.

Chef Tips

• •The flour matters. Sonora uses a soft winter wheat with moderate protein. All-purpose flour in the United States works, but if you can find a Mexican brand like Tres Estrellas or San Antonio, the dough will stretch more forgivingly. Bread flour is too strong and will fight you.
• •Lard is non-negotiable. Buy good rendered manteca de cerdo from a Mexican butcher, or render your own from pork back fat. The supermarket lard in green tubs is hydrogenated and will give you a tortilla that tastes like nothing. A compromise, not an upgrade.
• •If you have never stretched a sobaquera before, expect the first two to tear. That is part of the lesson. Patch them, cook them, eat them. By the fourth ball of dough your hands will start to understand the rhythm.
• •Cooked sobaqueras keep at room temperature wrapped in a cloth for the day, and in the refrigerator stacked between sheets of parchment for three days. Reheat briefly on a dry comal, never in a microwave, which turns them rubbery.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough balls can rest greased and covered at room temperature for up to four hours before stretching, and the longer rest produces a softer tortilla.
• •For overnight planning, refrigerate the greased dough balls in a covered container for up to 12 hours. Bring them back to room temperature for at least one hour before stretching, or the cold dough will tear.
• •Cooked sobaqueras can be stacked between parchment, wrapped in a cloth, and held at room temperature for the day. Reheat on a dry comal for 10 seconds per side just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 95g)