I’m actually a fairly open-minded individual. I know that the impression of most survivalists is that we are a bunch of Bible-thumping, gun-humping, right-wing reactionaries who are the enemy of all things ‘non-traditional’. Not so for me. I may not agree with something but…you do you, man.
However…
I absolutely abhor fusion cuisine. Taking one particular genre/species/school of food and combing it with another is… wrong. Example: Taco pizza. Look, either you go eat a taco or you order a pizza. You don’t mix them together. It’s just…..no. Mexican stir-fry? Egg foo omelette? Ranch dressing on pizza? Egg sandwich between two donuts? No, no, no.
But…once in a while…I sin against the culinary gods. Todays affront: the breakfast burrito.
As a survivalist I am all about a couple tings when it comes to food: portability, shelf-life, and quantity. And, as much as I hate to drift into mixing cuisines, the breakfast burrito is handy. It’s a hearty traditional breakfast that requires no tableware, can be rolled up in some aluminum foil and tucked in a pocket, and carries a powerful caloric/carbohydrate punch.
Todays dietary deviance utilized long-term stores just to see what would happen:
We have some dehydrated eggs from CostCo, the survivalist staple of canned bacon, some instant hash browns, some freeze dried cheese blend, and, of course, tortillas. Now, the tortillas were not out of long-term. But, to be fair, I have drums of corn and flour, a grain mill, and some cast iron – so I could make tortillas from scratch using my long-term grain if I had to.
Eggs cooked up just fine, bacon spent some time in a pan to get the fat melted and mixed with the rehydrated hashbrowns. Mix in some cheese and wrap it up in a tortilla:
Results were yummy, but could have benefited probably from a sharper cheese. Some salsa (theres that stupid fusion thing) would also have been nice. And, I do keep salsa on the shelf in storage, but didnt feel like cracking it open. As an aside, given the ingredients in salsa, you can source the individual freeze dried ingredients and make your own instant salsa blend.
Breakfast is the one meal that, after the apocalypse, will be actually better than what i eat now. For some reason, all the things you’d do for breakfast seem to have long-term storage options that lend them quite well to the survivalist pantry. I’ve posted about it before, but a post-apocalyptic breakfast menu would actually better than what I eat now. Go figure.
freeze dried cheese —– the yuckest thing I have in storage.
it will have to be TEOTWAWKI before I will eat it.
It’s the most important meal of the day and in the current format can be consumed while running and gunning. Approved!
you,re missing out on some real breakfast food. in south Texas where illegals outnumber the legal hispanics, and the hispanics WAAAAY outnumber the anglos, there is a thing that all the mom and pop food shops cook- a taquito. potato, egg, cheese + whatever you want to add, if anything. everything i have tried in all other areas of the country, including mass produced, falls short.
and i am specifically NOT talking about any of the fried abominations that retailers pass as taquitos.
Oh, man, breakfast burritos are the bomb, CZ, one of my specialties! I keep some frozen bell peppers sliced up and in the freezer to use in regular scrambled eggs and in breakfast burritos. Besides the portability, another nice facet of this dish is that you can use almost any leftover meat in it. Besides bacon, I’ve used sausage, Canadian bacon (think good smoked ham sliced thin), brisket, pulled pork and steak. Chicken just doesn’t sound right, but I bet it’d be fine. I haven’t learned to make homemade flour tortillas yet, but it’s on my Survival To Do List.
Here’s a tortilla tip all burrito makers need to know. Sometimes flour tortillas get a little dry and stiff when they’ve been in the fridge a couple of months. The trick to revive them is to pull the tortilla out before cooking your eggs. Run both sides of the tortilla under your kitchen faucet, then hold it straight and let most of the water run off. Then lay the tortilla on a plate for 3-4 minutes to give the water time to soak in just a bit. When you throw your tortilla on the medium cast iron, the water will turn to steam and that tortilla will get almost as soft as a crepe, perfect for filling and folding up. Some folks just pull a cold tortilla out of the fridge and try to use it that way. Aaaaaaaaaach!
Finally, you mentioned salsa, but an easy cheat is to just give it a few dashes of Tobasco, Cholula or other hot sauce of your choice.
A breakfast burrito is not “fusion cuisine”, it’s a portable breakfast, and a work of culinary genius.
Never heard of the things until I walked up to a catering truck on a movie set.
Then spent 20 years living on the things.
A pound of bacon, scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, maybe even a slice of avocado, and a spritz of just enough salsa to wake up your taste buds and open your eyes, steaming hot, and I can pick it up here, and carry it with me to set way over there?!? No plate, no utensils, and it’s not only warm in temperature, it’s hot in picante y sabroso!!
You had me at “breakfast”.
If I couldn’t get one, that would be the Apocalypse.
And if Uncle’s minions had half a clue, that would be the breakfast MRE.
Heat contents in pouch, pour into tortilla, fold with military creases, and carry on smartly.
I discovered breakfast burritos 30 years ago, in the Navy.
Some years back, I’d made barbecue, & found myself without bread one day (this was before I discovered bread machines). I had tortillas, so I invented the barbecue burrito! At least I figure I did–I haven’t seen one anywhere but my place.
Taco Time is our go-to breakfast-on-the-go place. Country gravy, eggs, cheese, and link sausage! And all the parts are in the LT pantry!
Needs some Texas Pete’s
Yeah, breakfast tacos are a religion in south Texas. My simple office morning breakfast is often a pair of them. 1 egg, half a nuked potato, slice of cheese folded into 4 equal and distributed between the two. Beef stick has been the easiest meat as far as refrigerated meat goes. A bit salty but I don’t add any salt, only pepper. Salsa – great if you have it and when I do, I mix it into potato and meat before I add the egg to keep salsa in food, not the cup I cook this in. Three minutes, I can have two breakfast tacos ready to go. Simple and fast.
Aesop and others are correct, a faster easier way to carry breakfast from here to there is hard to find.
Hello CZ, and y’all: I’ve been a regular lurker here for a little less than a year, but first time I decided to add my 2 cents worth. We are southern now, formerly from Michigan (shout out to Mi Prepper). Something that is super easy to store for long term, more so than salsa or hot sauce, is some type of dry taco/chili type seasoning powder spice mix. A few shakes of this on your breakfast burrito would surely give it some zing. I think some chipotle powder, and or smoked paprika would be especially nice, giving the burrito an additional layer of smokiness. I could go on, sounding like Bubba Gump about his shrimp, but I’ll just end with a thank you to CZ.
I discovered Breakfast Burritos forty years ago working in South San Francisco near the vegetable markets in the industrial area.
There was an army of Food Trucks that prowled around every day and they all had a route staked out,
I liked the one they called a Five Speed. Scrambled eggs, gravy, hash browns, cheese and link sausage.
If you really want to get fancy, add some salsa and sour cream. I give that 5 stars and two thumbs up.
Awesome hangover food and of you weren’t hungry enough to finish it off right away you could wrap it right back up and finish it forty miles away on the ride home.
Your post gave me a hankering for one and since me and the kid both seem to have the day off today, he is getting sent off to go get some from a local Taco Truck as I type.
They truly are a genius invention.
home made burritos are a great backpacking hack. breakfast egg and the like, or beef/peppers/ rice for supper. premade/ precooked and frozen, take out / thaw in pack or bag, heat in foil in campfire. delicious, filling and satisfies the cravings!
Technically that is a taco, not a burrito. Take that and deep fry it until golden brown. Now its a burrito. We always laugh at the fancy places (owned by Micky Ds.) selling tacos for 6-10 bucks. A good street taco (small like you show) should be 1 or 2 bucks at most, depending on the meat. No sauce but pico (onions and peppers with a little tomato), I think the best are found at Imperial Taco in Corpus Christi. They have a super sized one can feed a man for 2 meals. Deep fry and you get crunchie goodness that will fill you up. Eat many and you will be a fat SOB in no time.
Have made tortillas from masa harina, regular corn will not work as it needs to be nixmalitized(?) or soaked in a lye solution to alter the proteins. Unless you are willing to go to Mexico to learn this process just store dried masa harina and get a tortilla press get out the cast iron and enjoy fresh homemade tortillas. May I suggest eggs and chorizo with crema(mexican style sour cream) and refried beans
Kids wanted hotdogs & we didn’t have buns, we had burrito hotdogs with chili. They also like peanut butter & jelly burritos. We won’t talk about the tuna fish burritos. Kids are weird.
One good line of mustard onto a tortilla…
Place one hard boiled egg, diced…
Add one sausage patty sliced into narrow strips…
Add one slice of cheese, quartered into narrow strips…
Wrap as usual.
Makes a great light, and quick, breakfast.
I’ve found this to be a lot lighter than the use either rolls or muffins,
or even sliced bread.
I guess it had never occurred to me that breakfast tacos (yes, tacos, not a burrito) were either A.) fusion, or B.) unknown to anyone. I grew up in south and central Texas, and my adult life has been spent in West Texas, so it never crossed my mind that it was odd for folks to eat breakfast at hole in the wall taquerias and gas stations.
Some of you folks were deprived growing up… I guess I’ve led a sheltered life…
Now it’s time to introduce you all to REAL barbacoa tacos with pico and hot salsa.