Taco shell
A taco shell is a corn tortilla fried in a folded U shape until rigid, the basis of the hard-shell taco familiar in the United States. It developed from the Mexican fried taco, the taco dorado.
Origins
Fried tacos, tacos dorados, are widespread in Mexico and are generally seen as the ancestor of the pre-formed shell. MEL Magazine's oral history quotes historian Jeffrey Pilcher saying archival records do not mention tacos before about 1890, and journalist Gustavo Arellano pointing to Bertha Haffner-Ginger's 1914 California Mexican-Spanish Cook Book as holding the earliest known English-language taco recipe. Arellano argues that the first tacos sold in the United States were all of the crisp kind.
Patents and mass production
In the late 1930s Ashley Mexican Food sold canned tortillas and metal molds for frying shells at home. Two patents followed. Juvencio Maldonado, who had come from Mexico in 1929 and opened the restaurant Xochitl in Manhattan in 1938, received US Patent 2,506,305 on 2 May 1950 for a form for frying tortillas into tacos; Joseph Pompa of La Perla restaurant in Glendale, Arizona, received US Patent 2,570,374 on 9 October 1951 for a tortilla-frying machine. Glen Bell, later founder of Taco Bell, sold tacos in San Bernardino in the 1950s across the street from Mitla Cafe, which Lucia Rodriguez had opened in 1937 selling tacos dorados; Arellano says Bell studied that kitchen. Historians quoted by MEL argue that no single person invented the shell.
Use
Shells are filled after frying, typically with ground beef, lettuce, cheese and tomato in the American style. In Mexico the tortilla is usually filled first and then fried, or fried flat to make a tostada.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 corn tortillas, preferably a day old
- Vegetable oil or lard for frying, about 3 cm deep
- Salt
Steps
- Warm the tortillas briefly so they bend without cracking.
- Heat the fat to about 180 C in a wide pan.
- Slide a tortilla into the fat, let it fry a few seconds, then use tongs to fold it in half while holding the top edges apart about 3 cm, so it sets in a U.
- Fry 30 to 60 seconds per side until crisp and golden.
- Drain upside down on paper towels and salt lightly.
Stale tortillas absorb less oil and hold their shape better.
Reviews
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See also
References
- "An Oral History of Hard-Shell Tacos". MEL Magazine. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Tortilla frying patents". Slices of Blue Sky. Retrieved 2026-10-10.