Tacos

How this plan works

• Rhythm: one block per fortnight, with a batch cook day on the weekend and a skill drill day on a weeknight. Adjust freely — the sequence matters more than the pace.
  • Batch day: the big cook of the fortnight — produces 6–10 portions of one filling, frozen in solo servings.
  • Skill day: fresh tortillas, a salsa test, and whichever filling from the freezer needs eating. Mirrors how a working kitchen splits prep and service.
• Stupak is the project; Nosrat is the lens. Each block pairs a Tacos chapter with a SFAH reading. Apply the chapter’s idea deliberately to that fortnight’s cooking and write one line in a notebook: what I changed, what happened.
• Repetition rule: make tortillas every single session from Block 1 onward, even when the block is about fillings. Tortillas are the skill that compounds — by month three they should be automatic.
• Tasting log: after every salsa or filling, note salt level, acid level, and what you’d change. This is the SFAH framework becoming muscle memory.
• Eat the project. Two of the book’s highest-yield batch cooks — carnitas and chicken tinga/adobo — are pulled forward into Phase 1 so you’re eating real dinners from week three onward, not test tortillas.

Phase 0 — Sourcing (before you start)

Get this done in week one so the project never stalls:

• Tortilla press (cast iron or hardwood; ~£20–35)
• Masa harina — Cool Chile Co (London-based) or MexGrocer UK. Get both white and blue if available.
• Dried corn + cal (calcium hydroxide) — only if you want to attempt true nixtamal later (Block 2 stretch goal). Cool Chile Co stocks both.
• Dried chillies — buy a full set in one order: ancho, guajillo, pasilla, chipotle (morita), árbol, habanero
• Comal or heavy cast-iron pan — your carbon steel or cast-iron skillet works fine on induction.
• Mexican oregano, canela, piloncillo, achiote paste, tomatillos — one Cool Chile/MexGrocer order covers all of it.

Phase 1 — Foundations + first batch anchors (Months 1–2)

Block 1 (Weeks 1–2): Corn tortillas from masa harina

The one block with pure focus — no batch cook this fortnight. Tortilla skill compounds through everything that follows, so it earns the spotlight.

• Make tortillas at least four times this fortnight
• Vary hydration, rest time, press thickness, pan heat — find your puff
• Goal: a tortilla that puffs reliably and stays pliable when cool
• SFAH pairing: read Salt. Salt your masa deliberately; taste the difference.

Block 2 (Weeks 3–4): Salsas I + carnitas (batch anchor #1)

• Batch day: carnitas — bone-in pork shoulder, low and slow, freezes in solo portions. Eight to ten meals from one Sunday.
• Skill day: salsa roja, salsa verde (boiled and roasted versions), árbol, morita. Two salsas per session.
• Weeknight dinner: defrost carnitas, press two tortillas, top with the salsa you’re testing. Real meal, fifteen minutes.
• Stretch goal: first nixtamal attempt with dried corn if you ordered it.
• SFAH pairing: read Acid. Salsas are acid-balancing exercises — lime vs. tomatillo vs. vinegar.

Block 3 (Weeks 5–6): Salsas II + chicken tinga (batch anchor #2)

• Batch day: chicken tinga. Chipotle-tomato braise, freezes perfectly, works in tacos, over rice, in eggs. Now you have two proteins rotating through the freezer.
• Skill day: pico de gallo, guacamole, habanero salsas, pickled onions/jalapeños, crema. Build a personal “house set” — the 4–5 condiments you’d serve at a supper club.
• SFAH pairing: read Fat. Note what crema/avocado/fried chilli oil each do that the others can’t.

Block 4 (Weeks 7–8): Flour tortillas + breakfast tacos

Flour tortillas are a different discipline (fat rubbed into flour, rest, rolling). Make them twice.

Breakfast chapter: eggs, chorizo, potato-based fillings. Low-stakes, fast — naturally a weeknight cook, no need for a separate batch day (carnitas and tinga from the freezer are still in rotation).

• SFAH pairing: read Heat. Watch what high vs. gentle heat does to eggs and chorizo fat.

Milestone 1 (end of Month 2): Taco night for 4–6 friends. Tortillas made to order, your house salsa set, two simple fillings (carnitas + tinga). Treat it as service practice: note timing, what stressed you, what you’d prep differently.

Phase 2 — Fillings (Months 3–4)

Block 5 (Weeks 9–10): Vegetable tacos

Rajas con crema, mushroom, potato, squash-type fillings. Cheap, fast iteration — cook many.

• Batch day: pick the one you liked best and make a big tray for the week.

Block 6 (Weeks 11–12): Fish & seafood

• Baja-style battered fish is the anchor recipe; add a grilled fish or prawn taco.
• Frying practice doubles as Heat-chapter homework.
• Fish doesn’t batch-cook well — lean on the freezer (carnitas/tinga still in rotation) for weeknights.

Block 7 (Weeks 13–14): Poultry — go deeper

Now that you have tinga down, explore the chapter’s other poultry recipes: a different adobo, mole-adjacent braises if Stupak includes them, duck if he goes there.

• Batch day: a new chicken braise that joins (or replaces) tinga in the freezer rotation.
• Make one adobo from your dried-chilli set without a recipe by week 14.

Block 8 (Weeks 15–16): Pork — beyond carnitas

You’ve done carnitas. This block explores the rest of the pork chapter: chorizo from scratch, pork belly preparations, anything Stupak does with shoulder beyond the basic confit.

• Batch day: house chorizo — freezes raw in portions, transforms breakfast tacos and several other fillings.

Milestone 2 (end of Month 4): Repeat taco night, bigger (8 people), with a menu you’d actually charge for. Compare notes against Milestone 1.

Phase 3 — Project cooks & synthesis (Months 5–6)

Block 9 (Weeks 17–18): Pork project cooks — al pastor & cochinita pibil

• Al pastor adapted for a home oven/grill
• Cochinita as a slow braise in banana leaf if you can source it (Seven Sisters Market or online)
• Batch day: cochinita freezes brilliantly — adds a third long-term staple to the freezer rotation.

Block 10 (Weeks 19–20): Beef & lamb

• Carne asada for fast cooking; barbacoa-style braise for slow
• Connects directly to your birria experience — compare the consommé logic
• Batch day: barbacoa, freezer-bound.

Block 11 (Weeks 21–22): The odd bits

• Tongue (lengua) is the gateway: cheap, forgiving, spectacular. Add one more offal cook if game.
• This chapter is where Stupak’s “provocations” live — pick one unconventional taco and make it your own.

Block 12 (Weeks 23–24): Synthesis

No new recipes. Design a 5-taco menu from everything above: your best tortilla, house salsas, a fast filling, a braise, a wildcard.

• Cook it twice: once solo against the clock, once for guests.
• Re-read SFAH’s “What to Cook” section now — it reads completely differently after six months of practice.

Milestone 3 (end of Month 6): This menu is a supper club. Decide whether to put a date and a price on it.