Ingredients: What a Recipe Names and Why It Matters
Plain-words entries for the things a recipe names, with what to swap and what not to.
The few ingredients that decide how most dishes turn out
This page covers the ingredients a recipe names most often on a Mexican-American menu: dried and fresh chiles, queso styles, corn and flour tortillas, crema, and the three milks in tres leches. It is written for the reader who has a menu or a recipe open and wants to know what a word means and whether it changes the dish.
Each entry says what the ingredient is, what it does in the dish, what you can swap for it and what you should not swap. Where a swap changes the dish, we say so. Where it hardly matters, we say that too.
Crema is the thin, pourable cream spooned over enchiladas and tacos. It is looser and less sharp than sour cream, so when a recipe calls for crema and you only have sour cream, thin the sour cream with a little milk.
Tres leches is a sponge cake soaked in three milks: evaporated, condensed and whole. Its origin is disputed, and Wikipedia's entry on the cake notes that its history is debated, so this page does not name one country as settled.
Where a first reading of an ingredient list goes wrong
Dried chiles are worked before they are used
Dried chiles such as ancho are usually torn, toasted and soaked before they go into a sauce, and the toasting is where much of their flavor is built. For the detail on how that works in a finished dish, see Rick Bayless's red chile beans and greens. Fresh chiles are a different ingredient, used raw, charred or cooked, so do not swap one form for the other without changing the method.
Corn tortillas and flour tortillas are different foods
Corn tortillas start with masa, which is made from nixtamal, corn steeped in hot water with lime. A Brigham Young University study on nixtamal reports that approximately 60% of corn tortillas in Mexico are made from it. Flour tortillas are made from wheat flour and give a softer wrap, so swap one for the other only when the dish allows it. On a label, ask whether the masa comes from nixtamal or from nixtamalized flour.
Queso comes in many forms, and fresh queso is not for everyone
Queso is a melted cheese dip, and the cheese behind it varies from one kitchen to the next, so ask what is in it. Fresh Mexican-style cheeses such as queso fresco are a separate question. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's advice on queso fresco-type cheeses is that pregnant women, adults aged 65 and older and people with weakened immune systems should avoid them because of Listeria.
Reading a dish back into its parts, one at a time
Start with the tortilla, because it sets the texture of the whole dish and tells you whether the cook meant a wrap, a fold or a crisp shell. Then look at the filling, which decides how thoroughly the dish has to be cooked, and at the cheese and cream, which carry the dairy and the fridge time that matter for leftovers. Last, look at the heat, which is the one part a diner can usually adjust at the table.
Work through the parts in that order and most menu words stop being mysteries. Once you know which part does which job, a swap becomes a decision you make on purpose.
Where to go once the parts make sense
For the quick questions on allergens and leftovers, read the cooking FAQ. If you would rather take one dish from the first step to the last, the beginners page does exactly that.
