Great American Taco Meat

Taco's prepared with Great American Steak and Meat Seasoning

 

Who wants a taco? A food so yummy and well known, humankind has made Tuesday it’s unofficial companion.

The question would be best asked, who doesn’t want a taco, you might come up with a figure faster.

And despite this fame, would you believe that no one knows who created it, or even when?

Artist rendering of silver mining in old Mexico

The best guess, and there’s many that are all literally that, is that the taco was created by miner’s in Mexico sometime in the 18th century. The theory suggests that taco was the name that silver miners gave to gunpower rolled and wrapped in paper. Those little charges were then inserted into bore holes that miners would make to detonate a section of the mine they were digging. As one professor who spent his entire career researching tacos suggests, those little explosive charges were the best name for a rolled food laden in hot sauce.

By the end of the 19th century is where you first find any reference to this firecracker of food, with the introduction of the name, ‘tacos de minero’—miner’s tacos, into the social consciousness. It’s fascinating to think that tacos aren’t an ancient dish known for millennia, rather a relatively recent invention.

Miner hand washing ore

The Smithsonian has an entertaining write up on the subject available here, just click the link but for those of you wanting to cook up taco meat, let’s get to this very simple recipe.

Here’s the ingredients you’ll need: 

3 pounds ground beef
2 large onions, chopped
2 cups water
5 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons Great American Seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

As with most ground meat recipe’s you’ll start by browning the meat together with chopped/diced onion until the meat is brown and there is no pink showing. Silver ore from La Nevada mine in Chihuahua, Mexico

Drain the ground meat of it’s fat. Return to the stove and add water along with all the spices and cook until the water is gone, usually around 15 minutes. 

And your done! See how fast that was? If you think that is a fantastic, wait until you hear how doubling this recipe or more can help save even more time. 

Take everything other than the meat you’ll use for dinner and package it for freezing. Now you can have Taco Tuesday any day of the week! 

You can use this taco meat for a variety of different recipe’s as well. Everything from chili’s and nacho’s to macaroni dinners. 

Want more recipes? Click Here!

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