These Marquesitas are rolled up with the filling inside.
Most of the ones we saw on Cozumel and on Isla Mujeres
were folded in half after the fillings were applied.
Once the filling was applied, the half-size goodie was
rolled up and had a napkin wound around the bottom.
We first heard about the Marquesita in February of 2010, as we were preparing for our annual trip the the Mexican Yucatan
Penninsula. Friends had recently returned from there, having fallen for their unique flavor and shape. They implored us to
get more information about them while we were there.
The guy said that they had seen Marquesita makers in some Playa Del Carmen (Mexico) hardware stores, They were about $50 USD at the time but their cash
was limited so they didn't
buy one. These were the type that the street vendors used.
We did the best we could to learn about them and passed that inforomation on to them. We also put that info into the webpage that you probably got here from.
We have corresponded back and forth with Steve and his wife on the issue from time to time since then.
More recently Steve said that he had tried to make a Marquesita Maker for himself, but that it didn't work out.
Here is a lightly edited version of the discussions that we had:
Pete (me):
Steve, a lady just wrote me and asked where she could get a Marquesita maker.
Did you make one for yourself? If so, how, and how well did it work?
Steve:
Sooo nice to hear from you. Yes I did make one but it was not a success. I used 1/8" plate and it should be
1/4" or even 3/8". Too much of a hot spot. I feel that with the thicker plate it would act more like cast iron.
I haven't thrown in the towel. If I get some 3/8 I will give it another try.
Pete:
If you made it out of two 3/8" steel, 14" diameter plates, it would weigh 32 pounds without handles. Would that be too
heavy to use? Maybe that's why some of the commercial ones seem to have a spherical pivot point at the back????
(If 12" diameter, then 24 pounds.)
Steve:
12" is the size I used and seemed large enough. Too bad it wouldn't work.
Pete:
How about a couple of pictures so I can see what you did about hinges and handles?
Steve:
I will send 2 pics. The hinge is just a strap hinge I welded on. There is a stop bar behind to keep it from
flopping all the way over. The handles are pieces of a broom stick that fit into the welded on conduit.
I made the grooves with my angle grinder with the edge of the wheel. These grooves are less than 1/8" deep.
(Pete thinks they are probably only 1/16" deep or a little less deep than that).
Steves' grooves seem to be about one inch apart and cross at about 90 degrees.
But the grooves on the ones we saw seem to be about 1/2" apart, maybe 1 cm. And, the crossing grooves make diamond shapes
with the acute angles being about 30 degrees.
