Sopa De Tortilla

This recipe comes from a hand-written family cookbook dated 1912, originating in Durango, Mexico, an era brimming with cultural and political transformation. The early 20th century marked a blend of traditional Mexican rural cooking with emerging influences and easier access to new ingredients and methods. These manuscript recipes were laboriously recorded by a group of women across generations, capturing an intimate, everyday kitchen wisdom as the country itself was at the cusp of revolution and modernization. The dish exemplifies the use of local ingredients (corn tortillas, cheese, tomatoes, lard) and a layering technique reminiscent of European casseroles, reflecting both indigenous tradition and adopted culinary forms.

Originally, tortillas would have been cut using a sharp kitchen knife and dried on woven reed mats. Frying was done over a wood or charcoal-fired stove in heavy cast iron or clay pots for heat retention. Sauces were blended by hand — either pounded in a traditional molcajete (stone mortar and pestle) or chopped very finely. Baking or cooking 'a dos fuegos' meant using both the bottom heat from the fire and coals piled on the lid of a cazuela, or later, in a simple oven.