I enjoy taco salads in restaurants. There’s something entertaining about a salad of meat, vegetables and condiments that uses a fried-tortilla shell as a bowl. Still, this concoction is definitely over the top. I have never had the fortitude — or appetite — to finish an oversized taco shell.
I was therefore inspired a couple of weeks ago when my friend Ruth invited me to try her version of a Taco Salad. She eschews the giant shell and just has her guests assemble their own salads from meat, cheese, condiments and a few tortilla chips.
The tortilla chips may be placed at the bottom of the salad or (my personal preference based on experimentation) on the top as a garnish.
Ruth’s concoction made me wonder about the history of the Taco Salad. Luckily, the internet has a great deal of information about this tasty dish. Even more luckily, much of that information is verifiable.
It turns out that the Taco Salad is the invention of Charles Elmer Doolin (or at least of his corporate minions). Doolin was a Texas businessman who started out working for his father. The family owned a confectionery store in the Highland Park area of San Antonio.
Their main product, ice cream, wasn’t selling well, and the family started looking for a fun food to add to the inventory. According to the Texas State Historical Society, C.E. Doolin spotted an ad in the San Antonio Express offering a recipe for fried corn chips for sale.
He visited the owner of the recipe, Gustavo Olguin, and tried the corn chips. The novel texture and flavor persuaded Doolin to purchase the recipe, which came along with a ricer for pushing masa (cornmeal dough) into little strips. It also came with a number of retail accounts.
Doolin dubbed the chips Fritos, or little fried things, and his family began manufacturing and marketing them. The Frito company prospered, thanks to Doolin’s innovative business practices … and to the fact that Fritos were, let’s face it, addictively delicious.
By the early 1950s, Fritos and Doolin were a huge success. The Taco Salad had yet to be born, however.
Enter Walt Disney.
TV history buffs may recall that a partnership with ABC was crucial in helping Disney create his signature theme park, Disneyland. Both ABC and Disney needed this partnership.
ABC was the product of a 1940s antitrust action by the U.S. Government. Worried that the National Broadcasting Company network was becoming too big and concentrated, the government forced it to split up its two mini-networks, NBC Red and NBC Blue.
The Red Network was the more successful network. NBC Blue, which had few big programs, was sold off. It would go on to become ABC. ABC was small compared to NBC and to its rival CBS. The little third-place network needed programming. And it needed prestige.
In the early 1950s, Walt Disney wanted to expand. His films and his characters — Mickey, Minnie, Donald and the like — were a hit with the public. Nothing he produced made the kind of money he wanted to make, however.
He had long been interested in the idea of developing an amusement park. He envisioned a clean, safe place where families could enjoy themselves … and bring money into his coffers. He didn’t have the capital to build the park, however.
ABC and Disney made a deal in which the network guaranteed a multimillion-dollar bank loan to Disney in exchange for part ownership in Disneyland and for a television program, also to be called “Disneyland,” that would air on the network and bring it viewers and cachet.
Disney put ABC on the figurative map. ABC put Disneyland on the literal map.
What I didn’t realize until I started looking into Taco Salads was that ABC was not Disney’s only partner in Disneyland. The wily filmmaker also forged strategic partnerships with food manufacturers.
For example, Carnation ponied up an investment in exchange for the placement of something called the Carnation Café on Disneyland’s “Main Street U.S.A.” The café still exists.
Another investor was … you guessed it: C.E. Doolin. A restaurant called the Casa de Fritos was a pioneering part of Disneyland, serving “authentic Mexican food.”
One of the signature dishes of the Casa was the “Ta-Cup” (a portmanteau of “taco cup”). The restaurant fried Frito batter in the shape of a teacup and stuffed it with taco fillings. The Taco Salad was born.
Incidentally, according to “Business Insider” and a ton of people on Tik Tok, the Dorito was also born at the Casa de Fritos. But that’s another story.
I didn’t make a Ta-Cup for this column, just a salad inspired by my friend Ruth. I did use Fritos instead of generic tortilla chips, however.
I wanted to capture a bit of that original Disneyland/San Antonio flavor. Moreover, I was curious to see whether Fritos lived up to my memories. Before I purchased the chips for this article, I hadn’t tasted Fritos since I was a small child. I remembered savoring their crispy corn flavor.
Alas, Fritos didn’t transport the adult me as they did my youthful self. They worked just fine in the recipe, however, adding nice crunch to my salad.
Perhaps the formula for Fritos has changed slightly over the years (the Frito-Lay company denies this), perhaps my taste has changed, or perhaps it’s just hard to recapture the flavors of childhood.
Casa de Tinky Taco Salad
Ingredients:
for the taco meat:
1 to 2 tablespoons neutral oil
1 small to medium onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 pound ground beef or chicken
salt to taste (I started with about 3/4 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper or other pepper (optional)
a splash of water
the kernels of 2 ears of corn (optional; I added this because I always have leftover corn in the house at this time of year.)
for toppings:
lettuce leaves
sour cream
salsa, homemade or store bought
lime wedges for squeezing
avocado slices
grated cheese (sharp cheddar or a “Mexican” blend)
chopped tomato
a little fresh cilantro
Fritos corn chips
Instructions:
In a nonstick skillet, heat the oil. Add the onion, garlic, and pepper pieces. Sauté until they just start to brown.
Add the ground meat. Cook, stirring to break up the pieces of meat.
When the meat has browned, sprinkle on the salt, the chili powder, the cumin seeds, and the pepper (if using). Stir to blend; then add the water.
Cook over low heat, covered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the corn pieces. Cook uncovered, stirring, until the liquid is almost completely reduced and the corn is warm. Taste the combination, and add more salt and/or spices as needed.
Put the meat/corn mixture in a large bowl. Place the toppings in individual bowls, and invite your guests to assemble salads based on their taste.
Serves 4 to 6.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.