Tortillas are everywhere now: wrapped into breakfast tacos, rolled into taquitos, stacked into quesadillas. But originally, they didn’t come from a grocery aisle. They came from earth, fire, and the hands of people who made them fresh every day, long before food had labels.
At First Bake, we love tortillas not just for what they do on your plate, but for where they come from. The real history is rich, layered, and worth knowing. Here’s how tortillas became one of the world’s most iconic foods, and how we’re keeping that tradition alive, one batch at a time.
Where It Started: Maize and the Birth of Tortillas
Tortillas go back thousands of years to ancient Mesoamerica, in what is now Mexico and Central America. Corn was central to life and culture. Around 1500 BCE, Indigenous communities developed nixtamalization, a process of soaking corn in limewater that made it more nutritious and workable. This turned maize into masa, the dough that became the original tortilla.
These early tortillas were hand-formed and cooked on clay comals over open fire. They weren’t just food. They were nourishment, ritual, and identity.
Corn tortillas are still the foundation of southern Mexican cuisine. But flour tortillas came later.
Enter the Wheat: How Flour Tortillas Emerged
When Spanish colonizers arrived in the 16th century, they brought wheat. In northern Mexico, where wheat grew better than corn, flour tortillas became a staple. They served the same purpose: flat, warm, foldable. But they used a different grain.
Traditional flour tortillas were made with wheat flour, water, salt, and pork fat. That’s it. No leaveners. No preservatives. Lard gave them softness, flexibility, and subtle richness. These became the tortillas of northern Mexico and later, a staple to Tex-Mex.
Then Came the Factory Versions
By the 20th century, flour tortillas had spread throughout the United States. As demand grew, quality declined. Commercial bakeries introduced machines, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, and stabilizers to increase shelf life and reduce cost.
What got lost in the process? Texture. Flavor. Simplicity. Freshness.
That’s where First Bake comes in.
What We’re Keeping Alive
We don’t make tortillas the industrial way. We make them the way they were always meant to be made, with real ingredients, hands-on care, and a focus on what actually matters.
Our tortillas are made with just four ingredients:
- Organic unbleached flour
- Sea salt
- Filtered water
- Lard from regeneratively raised Florida pigs
No preservatives. No seed oils. No artificial flavorings. We roll and cook them by hand, then ship them fresh. It’s not the easiest way, but it’s the right way.
A Future Rooted in the Past
This isn’t nostalgia. This is choosing what still works. A soft, warm tortilla made with real fat and flour doesn’t need enhancement. It just needs attention.
You don’t have to grow your own wheat or render your own lard to enjoy a good tortilla. You just need someone who still cares enough to do it properly.
That’s what we do.
Taste the difference tradition makes.
Order our fresh flour tortillas here.
