These are home made corn tortillas.  A skill every cook should learn and teach their family.  These little disks of goodness have fed countless billions over the centuries.  If you have ever seen someone make these by patting them out into perfect rounds using their hands you will be fascinated and then appalled that these kinds of skills and cultural heritage are being lost to kitchens daily.

Special equipment for this is either a tortilla press or a flat bottomed saute pan and two pieces of oiled plastic trash bag, you need something thicker than food wrap,  cut into 6 inch circles.

Makes 16 to 20 five inch tortillas

2 cups masa harina
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons, lard, oil, or shortening, melted
2 cups warm water

1. Place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix until evenly hydrated and combined.  Cover the bowl with a clean wet towel and set it aside for twenty minutes.
2. Set a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Let it get hot or the tortilla dough will be unforgiving and stick.
3. Roll about a tablespoon and a half of dough into a tight ball.  Press it out, between the oiled plastic sheets with whatever method you are using, into a 5 to 6 inch circle.
4. Peel the top sheet of plastic off and invert the tortilla into the palm of your hand and then peel the other sheet off.
5. Place the tortilla into the hot pan.  Cook it until it releases from the pan and has a touch of brown in an occasional spot or two.  Flip it and cook the other side.  It will seem dry but as you stack these they will become soft and moist again so don’t worry.   Also you will get quicker as you go so you will be able to roll out another tortilla while one is cooking.

Note:  as with all breads you will get better with practice so be patient and if they aren’t perfect this time they will be the more you make them.