The 1970s Canned Tex-Mex Dinner Staple You Can't Find Anymore

In 2020, over 233 million Americans were using Mexican ingredients in their home cooking, according to Statista. Arguably the most famous of all Mexican and Tex-Mex ingredients is the humble tortilla — the backbone of so many dishes. The Tortilla Industry Association says that in 2000, Americans ate 85 billion tortillas. It's no wonder, since they're simple, delicious, and versatile. They can be used for everything from tacos and burritos to vegetarian wraps, quesadillas, and even desserts. But it wasn't until the 1950s that they became a staple on supermarket shelves. Surprisingly, they started off in cans.

While it's not hard to make fresh tortillas or to get store-bought bagged ones today, that wasn't always the case. In 1931, a man named George Ashley founded Ashley's Mexican Restaurant and Canning in El Paso. Ashley didn't like the quality of tortillas available to him at the time so he made his own. Being a cannery, he also began canning various Mexican foods including enchilada sauce and Spanish rice. He was also canning tortillas and, in 1938, he was contracted by the military to provide canned tortillas for the troops. Competing local canneries also began selling canned tortillas at home and abroad.

In time, some of these companies consolidated and dropped their smaller brand labels. Old El Paso became the brand name, and canned tortillas were one of the many products available through the 1970s.

Canned tortillas really hit their stride in the '50s. You could get a dozen corn tortillas, each separated by a slip of paper, rolled neatly and sealed tightly. When fresh tortillas were not easy to find, canned ones became the go-to for people who still wanted to enjoy them. This included travelers and anyone outside regions known for Tex-Mex.

You may be dismissive of canned tortillas today, since we often associate canned food with something that is lower quality or less nutritious, even if it's not true. However, those who have tried canned tortillas often remember them fondly. Some on Reddit even say that they were more flavorful than many of the supermarket tortillas you can find today. The ingredients were nothing more than ground corn, water, and salt. Modern corn tortillas include some stabilizers, preservatives, and emulsifiers. The flavor difference was noticeable to some.

Thanks to advances in packaging technology, especially cheaper, resealable plastic bags, putting tortillas in a can became impractical. Now they are just a relic of a bygone era. But they paved the way for some of the delicious tortillas that you can enjoy today. Canned tortillas also helped popularize Tex-Mex cuisine by making tortillas widely available, and they deserve recognition for that.