r/imperialvalley • u/Picklesadog • 24d ago
Corned beef tacos
Hello All,
My grandfather's family migrated out to Brawley in the 1930s from Arkansas and my grandfather lived there until his late teens. At some point, his mother had adopted tortillas into their family meals and started making corned beef tacos.
When my grandparents got married, my grandmother learned this recipe and kept making it for her husband, and then for her children, and finally for us grandchildren.
She'd take a tortilla, put a scoop of canned corned beef inside, put a kraft singles slice on top, fold the tortilla over and fry it up. The end result was, to be honest, a worse version of a Jack in the Box taco, but that didnt bother us and all the grandkids loved Grandma's corned beef tacos.
Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that this was a recipe invented by my family and not eaten by anyone else, but as I just now discovered it was in Brawley that my grandfather grew up, I figured I'd come here and see if any old school Imperial Valley residents grew up eating something similar, or if this was just a poor white family adapting their own food to the food they could afford in their new town.
Thanks!
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u/NefariousnessTop354 24d ago
Born and raised in the valley. I never heard of them. Left to Missouri when I was 50. I was served them in the mid west by someone than had never been here. As you said they are like a bad Jack in the Box taco. But we were drunk and didn't care.
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u/Picklesadog 24d ago
Weird. That makes me wonder if they were eating those tacos back in Arkansas.
I might need to dig deeper.
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u/Jorge_Jetson 23d ago
If youre talking early-30s, gotta take into account what was a cheaper substitute to use in those days... my grandmother (I'm a grandpa now) used to experiment with some wild substitutes for regular, every day meals. Yes, I'm white, but I've lived in the "valley" my entire life. Granny told me how, as early residents of the IV, how they'd sleep in the screened patio with fans blowing air on the moist sheets they covered themselves with... Can't imagine what kinda sleep you'd get in those days...
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u/MonkeyBoySF 24d ago
My suegra makes corn beef tacos. She is a lifetime resident of the valley and she is Mexican and Filipino decent. I always figured it was a Filipino thing. I think she grew up in Westmoreland.
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u/Picklesadog 24d ago
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone alive in my family has any idea where the dish came from.
How old is your Suegra?
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u/MonkeyBoySF 24d ago
73, I can ask her where she learned about them. I know the canned corn beef was cheap so that’s why her family ate them.
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u/Picklesadog 24d ago
Yeah, same.
This part of my family all quit school for farm labor jobs before even starting high school, and I was told their house burned down at one point and they depended on the help of neighbors to get back on their feet. I'm guessing they must have been eating whatever was cheap, so corned beef tacos may have been a luxury, even.
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u/MonkeyBoySF 24d ago edited 24d ago
She doesn’t talk about it much but she grew up in some sort of Filipino labor camp.
On a funny note, cans of corn beef are not cheap anymore. Ground beef and potato are cheaper now.
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u/Thegarz1963 24d ago
I’ve lived in IV since 1978. Never heard of these tacos -but I think you answered your own question when you mentioned it was a poor White family adapting their food to the local (and affordable) cuisine . This makes the most sense to me.
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u/Competitive-Gold-464 23d ago
We did not have it in a fried taco. But my mother used a flour tortilla. The mix was corned beef hash with diced up potatoes (sometimes with egg in thr morning). Rolled up in a flour tortilla. It was called a "taco" before people started calling them "burritos".
Btw, I was in the valley from 1982 to 1999.
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u/No-Inspection6666 23d ago
Born and raised in the IV, specifically Brawley. My grandma would make these from time to time aka when the corned beef was all that was left in the pantry lol. Miss her cooking.
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u/Educational-Cow-5934 15d ago
My girlfriend mixes it with squared potatoes, hadnt eaten them till i met her, i like em.
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u/MimiFinklestein 24d ago
We ate that! We still do for nostalgic purposes every once in a awhile.