Sopa De Tortilla

This recipe emerges from 'La Cocina en el Bolsillo No. 2,' published in 1890 by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, a pioneer of penny press publications in Mexico. It is part of a compact series meant to democratize culinary knowledge for city dwellers and aspiring cooks in late 19th-century Mexico. Recipes like this Tortilla Soup reflect the daily food culture of that era: ingenious, frugal, and rooted in indigenous and colonial techniques. The dish itself is iconic Mexican home comfort – a way to revive stale tortillas and capture the warming flavors of tomatoes, chiles, and native herbs. The recipe also exemplifies the transition from open-flame earthen stoves to more standardized iron stoves and cookware, as Mexican households modernized in the Porfiriato period. This period valued both tradition and adaptation, evident in the use of ingredients like lard, indigenous epazote, and chiles.

At the time, cooks would have prepared this soup using a heavy clay or cast iron cazuela (cooking pot), a flat stone or wooden board for slicing, and a simple iron or wood-fired stove. Frying was done in deep clay pans, often with rendered pork lard. Spoons were wooden, and knives, though basic, were well-honed. Dried chiles and epazote would be stored hanging in the cool, dark corners of the kitchen, ready to be thrown into the bubbling pot.