I have never been much of a flour tortilla person. Give me a freshly made corn tortilla (or even a decent re-heated one), fill it with crisp carnitas or fried fish, and I’ll be beyond happy. Flour tortillas always seemed too fluffy, too bland, too chewy. But here’s the thing — I rarely ever find great flour tortillas. I’ve really just eaten far too many half-stale, poorly heated flatbreads.
Making tortillas at home is a good first start. Just like with corn tortillas, the flour version is always better fresh out of a skillet. But here’s the real secret to truly great tortillas — lard.
![Use high-quality lard for the best results.](http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2015/11/lard.jpg)
Yes, lard. It’s not only the most traditional fat to use for tortillas, but is also the most delicious. I think that it is important to choose a high-quality lard here; you really want to taste that hint of pork flavor. Plus, the remaining ingredients — flour and salt — are cheap, so you may as well go big here. I buy my lard from The Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley.
If you want to make the tortillas vegan, you can substitute vegetable oil for the lard, but I would only recommend doing so if absolutely necessary. (Some recipes call for vegetable shortening, but I don’t like to cook with it. Tortilla dough made with vegetable oil is slightly stickier than that made with lard. You can cut back on the water by a dribble or two, or simply use a little extra flour for rolling out the tortillas.) Remember, flour tortillas aren’t exactly a health food, so you might as well make them taste as great as possible.
![Rub the lard evenly into the flour.](http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2015/11/lard-rubbed-into-flour.jpg)
Using your fingers, rub the lard into a mixture of flour and salt until it looks like a coarse meal. You’re going to be kneading the dough, so don’t worry about keeping pebbles of lard in the flour like you would when making pie crust.
![Tortilla dough before kneading.](http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2015/11/shaggy-dough-on-counter.jpg)
![Tortilla dough after kneading.](http://ww2.kqed.org/bayareabites/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2015/11/kneaded-dough.jpg)
Now mix in warm water. Continue to use your hands to bring the mixture together into a shaggy dough. Dump the whole mess onto a flour-lined counter and knead. You don’t need to go too crazy here, just get the dough to the point where it is smooth and springy. This takes me about 2 or 3 minutes of kneading time.