small appliances
By Margaret Eby, a contributing writer who covers food, lifestyle, and travel.
Photo: Retailer
If you’ve ever had a made-from-scratch tortilla fresh off a comal, you understand: No premade grocery-store tortilla can possibly compare. Whether it’s a fragrant, slightly sweet corn tortilla or a still warm, slightly nutty flour tortilla, the difference between the homemade kind and the discs sitting in plastic on the shelf is so vast they may as well be totally separate food groups.
The most essential tool to making fresh tortillas at home is a good tortilla press. Sure, you can use a rolling pin or a wine bottle to flatten them out individually, but as I found out firsthand when I took up tortilla-making as a pandemic hobby, hand-rolling each of them gets old fast, particularly since I rarely made tortillas in batches of fewer than a dozen. Not only is a tortilla press much quicker at flattening the masa for tortillas into a pliable circular shape ready for griddling, it helps ensure that the thickness of your tortillas is consistent, which means that they’ll cook more evenly. Plus, you can use it to make other flatbreads at home, like roti, parathas, naan, or pita. I’ve even used mine to flatten pie dough.
A press is a pretty simple gadget. It’s essentially two flat plates attached with a hinge that allow you to put something in between them. You use a handle to press down on the contents inside, applying even pressure to flatten them. (Typically, you line the press with a plastic bag or parchment paper to prevent the tortilla dough from sticking, another lesson I learned the hard way.) When I started looking into tortilla presses, I learned that there are two major genres. The first is a circular press, usually made out of aluminum or cast iron. The second are square presses, usually also made of metal, though sometimes wood.
One square press stood out in my research: a jewel-colored, sleek, metal number that popped up repeatedly among the Mexican chefs I follow on social media. I noticed it in the Instagram Stories of Bricia Lopez, co-owner of Guelaguetza in Los Angeles and author of Asada, and in the kitchen behind Mi Cocina writer Rick Martinez in his videos of his kitchen in Mazatlán. When I reached out to Martinez to ask, he confirmed: It was the Doña Rosa Tortilla Press, an artisan-made press from Oaxaca distributed in the U.S. by the masa harina brand Masienda.
“I love this press so much,” Martinez told me. “I have two of them. It is so beautiful that it makes me want to make tortillas from scratch just so I can pull it out and use it.”
The press is made out of powder-coated rolled steel, which means that not only is it an appealing pop of color for your kitchen — it comes in a cobalt blue, a seafoam green, a bright, poppy yellow, white, and black — it also is a serious piece of equipment. The weight of the press, Martinez explained, is key. It means that it doesn’t wiggle back and forth while you use it. “I love the heft of it. It is virtually indestructible, and lasts forever, which is why a lot of restaurants and taco stands in Mexico use them,” Martinez said. (Plus, when Mi Cocina came out, the brand released an edition in pink to match the cover of the book.)
It’s not just Martinez, though. As I reached out to chefs for their thoughts on the best tortilla press, time and time again, I got the same answer: the Doña Rosa. Ana Castro, the New Orleans–based chef-owner of Acamaya, is also a huge fan. “They are the real deal; they are made in Mexico by Doña Rosa, she’s a master of her craft and has been producing them for longer than I have been alive,” Castro said. Plus, she appreciates that with the Doña Rosa, unlike the traditional circular cast-iron models, you can adjust the thickness of the tortilla that you’re serving. “This tortilla press is the last one you’ll ever buy,” Castro said.
It’s also the press that Chef Fermín Núñez uses in his masa-centric restaurants in Austin. “Masienda’s Doña Rosa Tortilla Press is what we use at both of our restaurants, Suerte and Este, to make fresh corn tortillas daily,” Nunez explained. “A good tortilla press should be high quality and have some weight to it. Masienda’s has both, which is exactly why we use theirs in the restaurants.”
When I got my hands on a Doña Rosa press to try it out, I had to agree. (I chose the seafoam-green one.) Though I am far from a master at making tortillas, the Doña Rosa tortilla press was a joy to use. It’s sturdy enough that I never worry about it slipping on the counter, and it quickly and evenly flattens masa into discs. The adjustable-thickness option makes it particularly versatile for use with other flatbreads, too. And it’s a pleasing object to have in my kitchen — always at the ready, reminding me that fresh tortillas aren’t that far away.
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