Homemade Corn Tortillas: How to get the back side cooked the same as the face?

Question

When making Corn tortillas at home, the first side that cooks against the comal turns out perfect, with slight blistering and an even cooking of this side, the face. Usually takes about 90 seconds until I flip, at high/medium heat.

Once flipped, the other side never seems to turn out the same. The top side will often bubble from the steam inside, but this bottom side will often cook un-evenly and in general, not have the same properties as the first side. Curious if there is a trick to this, either heat difference for the second side or longer time or flip more times than once?

Answer 1

Flipping twice works pretty well. Cook on the first side until that side is mostly cooked but definitely not finished (the top side should still be damp and uncooked), then flip it and cook until done on the other side, then flip one more time to finish the first side. This will likely decrease the total cooking time slightly, so expect more like 15-20 seconds on each side between flips.

If you still have trouble, you might not have the heat high enough; at a lower temperature, you're likely to cook the tortilla through and dry it out too much before you flip it, which means the other side won't rest smoothly against the pan, which definitely causes the uneven cooking you're describing. But 15-20 seconds sounds about right to me, so I'm guessing you'll be fine. (Flipping only once causes problems in the same way.)

If you really want it perfect, you could try flipping even more times, but twice has always worked pretty well for me.

Answer 2

Generally cooking time is about 30 seconds for the first side then flip. So I would imagine you have over cooked the first side and there isn't enough moisture left to get the desired texture on the flip side.

So, the question is...are you getting your skillet (cast iron works the best) hot enough? When a drop of water is dripped on it will sizzle and immediately evaporate!.

Also what kind of fat are you using? Corn tortillas are simply 2 ingredients if you use Masa Harina (which is corn meal and lime) and water. A press helps get the consistent thickness which helps to cook evenly.

Hope this helps!

KC