Tortillas are considered among the most popular dishes in today’s world.
This Mesoamerican dish is most often associated with Mexico, Russia.
Tortillas is eaten all around the world and due to its inherent nature, it is existed in a lot of varieties because it required creative people for its production.
Today, our topic of discussion is about raw tortillas, whether you can eat the raw tortillas or do they have to be cooked before eating.
Can you eat flour tortillas without cooking them? Yes, you can use raw flour tortillas without cooking.
Unless they are in raw dough form, most of the brands present partially cooked tortillas so they are safe enough to eat. Since the tortillas are which are slightly cooked are safer to heat up them for further use.
Raw tortillas when they’re in unprepared dough form or precooked store tortillas, shouldn’t be eaten raw because, you will not get the full flavour and taste.
Raw dough contains potential health risks which could be fatal if they are not taken seriously at right time.
Since, our article is about raw tortillas. So, we are going to tell you the practicalities of eating and preparing them along with the risks associated with raw tortillas. Keep on reading to find out more about tortillas.
Table of Contents
Can I Eat Raw Tortillas? What Happens If You Eat Them?
Can you eat flour tortillas without cooking them? The simple answer of this question is – no. Now, let see why you shouldn’t eat raw tortillas?
There are usually two types of raw tortillas.
First one is the dough itself and other type is a pre prepared but uncooked tortilla which means raw tortillas.
The first type is not actually a tortilla rather, it’s an essential prerequisite to make tortilla.
While the other is actually a tortilla but, not fully prepared for eating purpose.
You might probably know that, eating raw dough is very unhealthy and contains a lot of health risks.
This is truth and valid for all types of doughs whether it’s of cookies, bread, tortillas or any other dish.
The raw dough might feel tasty to your taste buds and your stomach but try to avoid eating raw tortillas.
Normally, most people eating raw dough associates with the disadvantages of eating raw eggs due to the presence of Salmonella.
Most of the people don’t even know that raw flour dough contains a lot of bacteria related to E. coli.
How heat benefits the tortillas?
What’s the role of heat in making tortillas so tasty? To encounter this question: Can you eat flour tortillas without cooking them? Here is better explained why it is important to cook the tortillas before eating.
Heat kills a lot of bacteria and enables the raw ingredients for eating purpose.
Usage of raw products leads to serious health risks, it’s confirmed by the FDA.
For example, if you have actually tried or mistakenly ingested raw dough.
Here are some of the indications you should watch out to not get serious health problems:
Raw tortillas won’t damage much to your health but, they can be slightly dangerous if you won’t get full flavour.
The heat releases from all ingredients present in tortilla so, you’ll enjoy it more if you slightly heat them up.
What to Do With Uncooked Tortillas?
Can you eat flour tortillas without cooking them? Well, the answer of this question is simple: cook them instead of eating raw!
Whether, you’ve prepared the dough yourself and now you have a raw tortilla, or you have bought uncooked tortillas from your near local market, you should never eat or serve tortillas like that in raw form.
You should must heat up tortillas. You shouldn’t eat them when they are burning hot, but you should must slightly heat them up before eating.
What’s the reason of that? Well, it’ll taste good even, if you didn’t have added any other ingredients in them and in this way, you’ll reduce the risk of potential health hazards which aren’t good for health.
How can you prepare a Raw Tortilla?
Now we’re up with that, you would definitely have to preheat your tortillas before eating tortillas.
Let us instruct how you can prepare raw tortilla? We’ve mentioned five methods to motivate you to try out:
1.Heating them in a pan:
This is the best method in case, if you don’t need much tortillas. I e you aren’t hosting a party. It’s a very simple method actually. You would just put the tortillas in a pan without adding oil/butter. Add a little amount of fresh water when the pan is warm enough.
Let it heat up for about 30 to 45 seconds to each side on a medium or medium high flame at stove. You’ll know when it’s ready when you will feel the fresh aroma of tortillas. You can keep heating bit longer if you like more crispy tortillas. Be careful, do not leave them on the pan for too long time, it’ll destroy them completely.
2.Use the gas burner directly:
This is a little bit tricky method but good when you just need one, two or three tortillas not much. Switch on the flame of gas burner to medium-light or medium and take out your tongs to taste its doneness.
Take out the tortilla and hold it above the flame until, you observe and smell that they are ready. Then remove tortillas and keep on repeating the process until, you’re done with your food. It can take some time to make used to but, it’s simple and practical if you want a quick food.
3.Use your oven:
This is an excellent method if you are in need of a lot of tortillas for you and your friends/family. The method is quite simple but, be aware that you don’t get much colour like, discussed in above methods.
You should group your tortillas in stack of 5-6 then, wrap each stack in aluminium foil for best outcome. Then keep the stacks in oven, preheat to 177 °C, then leave them for 8-10 minutes. They’ll remain pale but, at least they will look nice and warm in taste.
4.Microwave them:
Another fastest and realistic solution for preparing a little amount of tortillas so quickly. You will put tortillas on plate and put them in microwave, close the oven, and let it prepare the tortillas. You’ll definitely get tasty and warm tortillas ready to eat in no time.
If you’re up with the problem of uneven heat which is so common in microwave method. There is an amazing online guide on how to avoid overheat. Still, you should avoid microwaving method to prepare tortillas because you won’t get the much flavour of tortillas.
5.Steam:
This is unconventional and old method but, it’s effective because it reduces both the time and the number of utensils you’ll need. Actually, you should just prepare hot steam.
Put the tortillas above the steam and, in about a minute or so they’ll be nice and warm enough to eat. There are different ways of producing steam so, we leave this up to your personal creative choice.
Read more in in our FOOD category….
How Do You Tell If A Tortilla Is Cooked?
If you’re not experienced enough then it can be problematic for you to tell that when a tortilla is prepared.
One of the basic sign of the doneness of the tortillas is their specific aroma.
Once you smell it then you can probably tell that whether it’s done or near to ready.
It all depends on the tortillas nature and how they are prepared.
If you bake them in microwave oven then, they’re ready once they become soft. Normally, try to avoid this method because it’s not good for normal health.
With the other methods of preparation, you can tell that a tortilla is ready when it bends without any resistance/breaking.
If you’re using a pan then, if the tortilla is sticking to the surface then it’s not ready yet.
Another great signal is air bubbles, which also tell that the tortillas are done.
Here it is done for today. We hope we’ve helped you with tortilla related queries and you have found answers you were looking for in article.
Apply our advices and techniques. Have a good food ahead.