Want to cook it yourself? See our pork carnitas tacos recipe.
Older than the word
People in Mexico were wrapping food in tortillas long before anyone called it a taco. Corn (maize) was domesticated in southern Mexico thousands of years ago, and flat corn breads became a staple food across Mesoamerica. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the tortilla was called tlaxcalli. Using a tortilla to scoop up or wrap other food is about as old as the tortilla itself.
Nixtamalisation
One of the most important food technologies in the Americas is nixtamalisation: cooking dried corn with lime or wood ash. It makes the corn easier to grind into dough and releases niacin, an important B vitamin. Archaeologists believe the technique is several thousand years old. Without it, the tortilla, and so the taco, wouldn’t exist in the form we know. Read corn vs flour tortillas for more.
Where does the word come from?
Nobody knows for certain. “Taco” is an old word that could mean a plug, wad or wedge. The food meaning seems to appear in writing only in the 19th century.
One well-known theory, put forward by the historian Jeffrey Pilcher, links the name to 18th-century silver mines in Mexico, where miners used small charges of gunpowder wrapped in paper, called tacos. The idea is that “tacos de minero” (miners’ tacos) may have been an early name for the food. It’s an appealing story, but it is one theory among several rather than settled fact.
After the conquest
The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century brought new ingredients: pork, beef, goat, chicken, cheese and wheat. Over time, these became part of Mexican cooking. Many of today’s favourite taco fillings, such as carnitas and birria, depend on animals introduced in that period. Wheat led to flour tortillas, especially in the north.
Tacos and the growing cities
As Mexico’s cities grew in the late 19th and 20th centuries, workers moving from the countryside brought regional dishes with them. Tacos were cheap, fast and portable, ideal street food for busy city life. Taquerías and street stalls became part of everyday Mexico City, each region’s specialities sold side by side.
Al pastor: a story of migration
Tacos al pastor show how food changes as people move. In the early 20th century, immigrants from Lebanon settled in Mexico, especially in Puebla and Mexico City. They brought the tradition of meat cooked on a vertical spit, similar to shawarma. Early versions, sometimes called tacos árabes, used lamb in wheat bread.
Over the following decades, Mexican cooks adapted the idea, using pork, a red chilli marinade and corn tortillas, often with pineapple. The exact dates and who made the first al pastor taco are debated, but the Lebanese connection is widely accepted. Try our al pastor recipe.
Tacos go north, and then everywhere
Mexican food spread into the United States with people moving north, and Tex-Mex cooking developed its own style. The pre-formed crisp, U-shaped hard-shell taco became popular in the US in the mid-20th century, helped by fast-food chains. For many people outside Mexico, that was their first taco.
More recently, interest in regional Mexican food has grown, and soft corn tortillas, street-style fillings and dishes such as birria have become familiar in the UK. Read what is birria? for one recent example.
Tacos today
Today the taco is one of the world’s best-known street foods, and in Mexico it remains an everyday meal. See types of tacos explained for the main styles, or bring tacos to your own event: contact us for a quote, and see Mexican catering.
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