How Mexican are Hard Shell Tacos?
The crispy, hard shell version of tacos, which is now iconic, likely evolved from Tacos dorados, a traditional Northern Mexican food. These tacos are made by filling soft corn tortillas with ground meat, and then pinching or rolling them shut before frying them to a crisp. The modern hard shell tacos, with an open-top fried shell, were developed by Mexican-American restaurateurs.
Tacos have been at the forefront of taking Mexican food globally. Even though Mexican tacos are made with soft tortillas, it is the hard shell tacos that are known worldwide. Contrary to what people might believe, hard shell tacos are actually an American by-product. The hard shell taco holds an exceptional space in Mexican-American food history, as something exploited by American fast food and then reclaimed by Mexican cuisine.
The hard shell tacos are mostly a credit to Tex-Mex food. Back in 2012 Jeffrey M. Pilcher, professor of history at the University of Minnesota and taco history expert noted in an article "A lot of Mexican American tacos are really adaptations of Mexican food to the ingredients that are available through the U.S. food-processing industry."
The history of tacos is a fascinating blend of Mexican and Mexican-American culinary traditions. Tacos are believed to have originated in Mexican silver mines during the 18th century. The first recorded mention of tacos in the United States appeared in a newspaper in 1905.
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The crispy, hard shell version of tacos, which is now iconic, likely evolved from Tacos dorados, a traditional Northern Mexican food. These tacos are made by filling soft corn tortillas with ground meat, and then pinching or rolling them shut before frying them to a crisp. The modern hard shell tacos, with an open-top fried shell, were developed by Mexican-American restaurateurs.
In the 1940s, the original patents for preformed taco shells were granted to Mexican restaurant owners. However, the credit for popularising hard shell tacos often goes to Glenn Bell, the founder of Taco Bell, a White-owned company.
Taco Bell commercialised and profited from this concept, even though hard shell tacos have deep roots in regional Mexican cuisine and Mexican-American restaurants. Even in the 1940s, Mexican cookbooks described the way to make these, by taking a tortilla, frying it, and bending it over to form that U-shape.
It's hard to say when people started doing this for the first time, but clearly, it was being done at least a decade before Glen Bell claims to have invented it. Taco Bell's marketing and branding played a significant role in popularising hard shell tacos in the United States, but it's essential to acknowledge the dish's origins between Mexican and Mexican-American
