Old El Paso taco shells no longer worth buying

[tygerkittn]

Arghh! The last four or five boxes of Old El Paso Taco shells have been horrible. They're so thin they break sitting on the plate when you drop meat in them! They break into a thousand pieces if you're holding them and trying to make a taco.
They have been my favorite for over 20 years, I would have never bought another brand because they tasted better, I even specified the brand on the grocery list if DH was buying.
I stopped buying their refried beans last year, the cans suddenly got so thin and cheap, and there were dried brown spots when you opened it, I threw several cans away, afraid to use them. I guess the whole BRAND is now a scratch at our house.
I am so sad and disappointed. I take my tacos seriously. I bought some taco bell brand shells to try, I hope they're good. I'll try Ortega after that.
Anyway, don't waste your money on Old El Paso, unless you were going to crumble the shell up anyway.

[cyberiot]

Much better than the boxed shells: Buy regular flat corn tortillas. Heat oil in skillet until shimmering but not smoking. Immerse tortilla in hot oil and fold in half. Drain on paper towel.

Fresher, tastier, better for you, and the hinge is flexible if you don't leave 'em in the oil too long. Trust me--once you start making your tacos this way, you'll never go back to boxed shells.

[Eagle1]

Originally Posted by cyberiot

Much better than the boxed shells: Buy regular flat corn tortillas. Heat oil in skillet until shimmering but not smoking. Immerse tortilla in hot oil and fold in half. Drain on paper towel.

Fresher, tastier, better for you, and the hinge is flexible if you don't leave 'em in the oil too long. Trust me--once you start making your tacos this way, you'll never go back to boxed shells.

Ya got that right. Once you have a real tortlla baby, you never go back.

[tygerkittn]

Originally Posted by cyberiot

Much better than the boxed shells: Buy regular flat corn tortillas. Heat oil in skillet until shimmering but not smoking. Immerse tortilla in hot oil and fold in half. Drain on paper towel.

Fresher, tastier, better for you, and the hinge is flexible if you don't leave 'em in the oil too long. Trust me--once you start making your tacos this way, you'll never go back to boxed shells.

Thank you, I'll try that! Or rather, I'll FRY that!
I've fried the flour tortillas and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar, the kids love that, but it never occurred to me to try to make a taco shell out of the corn tortillas. I've already added them to the grocery list for next week!

[juststartn]

That is the best way! We just started doing that, too (as well as making our own tortilla chips--we can eat a LOT of those around here)...and they are delicious...I usually start them on one side, flip them after a moment or two, fill them with warm meat (and sometimes, cheese), and fold the other side over making a taco.

Yum.

Of course, what is also good is empanadas (sorry, I know this whole thread is about taco shells, lol)---we made some of those this weekend--its just a round of pie pastry, filled and folded in half, like a fruit pie, or a meat pastry...very easy. And we didn't fry ours, we baked them in the oven...yum.

Sorry for the tangent...lol

Rachel

[CWR]

I noticed last week how thin they were. My DH was like yuck! Don't buy anymore. We don't eat them often but oh well... I will start making my own I guess or buying just the soft shells. Even their soft shells were different.

I guess they were trying to cut costs. Well they have lost a customer here.

[Ms. American]

I gave up on old el paso years ago when I learned to make my own mexican food. If you use a deep fryer, you can drop in a corn tortilla and push down on the middle with your spatula to get it to wrap up and make the taco shape. I love chimichungas smothered in green pork chili so the deep fryer comes in handy. I found an old deep fryer/slow cooker at a yard sale for 75 cents! What a find!! It even had the basket in it looking like it was never used.

Chimichangas are a meat filled burrito, deep fried. I use white flour tortillas (huge ones), and fill them with my favorite mexican seasoned meat (either beef, turkey, chicken, or pork). Wrap like you do a burrito, but you use a toothpick as a 'pin' to hold them together. Then, you drop them into the deep fryer until golden brown & crisp on the outside. Naturally, your filling will be hot when you put it into the tortilla to begin with because you aren't deep frying it to cook the insides. Only to crisp the outside.

Then, you smother it with your favorite chili (mine is green pork chili), top with cheese. Put under the broiler for a second or two to melt the cheese slightly. Top with a dab of guacamole, a dab of sour cream, and garnish with thin slices of green onion and chopped tomatoes...yum!

If you can't find the 12 inch torts at your stores, you can make them. They are easy..then roll them out with a rolling pin, slip onto a hot cast iron skillet, brown and turn...viola, tortillas.

Flour, salt, baking powder (1tbsp to 6 cups flour), fat, water or milk. easy on the baking powder, make your dough a soft dough, not a tight hard dough. Knead for 5 minutes. Let the dough rest under an over turned bowl for an hour or two ...or more...when it's convenient to cook them.

Pluck of balls of dough and make your tortilla rounds. It takes practice to get them perfectly round, and finding your cooking temp. You use a dry skillet to cook them..not an oiled one. Not too hot or they'll burn. they bubble up as they cook, so when you turn it over, you can squish the big bubbles so that the tort will cook better on that side.

Enjoy! Make them thinish for burritos so they will roll well. It's one of those things that takes practice to get the feel for it.

[tygerkittn]

Now I'm hungry! I can't wait to try all of this!
Thanks, ya'll!

[GermanAxeman]

The last box of Old El Paso hard taco shells I bought was quite stale. Nooo, I didn't wait 3 months to eat them.
I opened them the same day I bought them and they were bad.
checked to exp. date, it was 6 months away.

[CrossCreekTX]

It is even better if you make the tortillas from scratch. Get a tortilla press and a bag of masa harina.