Masa: A Primer

Appears in
Convivir: Modern Mexican Cuisine in California’s Wine Country
Convivir

By Rogelio Garcia

Published 2024

  • About
The recipes in this section explore a modern take on the corn masa creations that are best known through Mexico’s street food. Masa— literally “dough”—is at the heart of Mexican cuisine, turning up in tacos, tamales, tostadas, sopes, huaraches, tlacoyos, and tetelas. I’ve also included recipes based on wheat flour, which was introduced to Mexico by Europeans during the Spanish conquest.

There is evidence that maíz (corn), a staple of the Mesoamerican diet, was cultivated as early as 5000 BCE in the valleys of south-central Mexico. Its importance is reflected in the Mayan creation myth, which recounts how the gods formed the first humans from corn masa. The basis for such quintessential Mexican dishes as tamales and tortillas is examined in detail by Jeffrey Pilcher in ¡Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity, a cultural and political history of Mexican food. In it he notes that “part of the ongoing effort . . . to Europeanize Mexico was an attempt to replace corn with wheat. But native foods and flavors persisted and became an essential part of . . . what it meant to be authentically Mexican.”