Making Hot Tamales

Making Hot Tamales
by rob Watson

{ I have updated this report with information from my second try at making Tamales. A careful cook will notice some inconsistencies with normal Home Ec practices. These, I expect, will cause me to be banned from the Latino Homemakers Society}

For many years, possibly from childhood, I have thought of making my own hot tamales. This, as much because I really like them as because they are a rare commodity, even in Mexican restaurants. (depending on how you feel about the ones in cans) The event that tipped me over the edge was paying a dollar apiece for tamales only slightly larger than half a hot dog weeny.

I began by researching tamale recipes. There is some variation in ingredients and in directions for the task. I chose a cook book in our collection that purported to describe how Texans make tamales. I added an ingredient or two where the book seemed deficient; writing  it all down. Contrary to the suggestion by the Resident here with knowledge and experience, and book directions that I shred the pork, I chose to run it through our meat grinder. This, mostly because directions contain arbitrary instructions like "season to taste" and "mix until it looks... "; then has me throwing it all together and steaming for an hour. All such seemed difficult in light of my inexperience in this task measured against my extensive experience in cooking other things, which says taste first, middle, and last. The above decisions made before I did anything.

{My choice for ingredient amounts is about 1/2 those recommended in the Texas Cookbook:
   1 tbs salt, 1/2tsp course ground black pepper, 1tsp red pepper, 2tbs chili powder, 2tbs Paprica,
   1tsp oregano, 1tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder}

On Day One, I collected all the ingredients and equipment for preparing the meat: washing all the equipment and lining them up on the kitchen counter. I ground and mixed and tasted until I was satisfied. Then I consulted the Resident here with knowledge and experience. I was given  a tentative OK. With this accomplished, I instituted my own procedural invention: I ran the meat through the sausage maker and formed the meat into long strings, about the diameter of a hotdog. Then I froze them, thinking this would make putting the meat in the tamale less of a challenge.

Day Two: Despite our having parchment paper and crisco, we sought out a store selling real corn shucks and real lard... best to start out being authentic, right? Having found the requirements we brought them home and placed them in the pantry.

Day Three: Not being able to sleep, I made a plan to construct a "trial" batch of tamales. I arose and put this plan into action, while the Resident here with knowledge and experience continued her beauty rest. I chose to do one fourth of the whole. Step one was to clear the needed work space then collect and wash all the equipment. Next, I took out all the ingredients and arranged them on the work area. Reading my instructions for the last time, I began to make the tamalina paste. Step one there was to cut in the lard into the tamalina. Full disclosure, I have "cut in" flour and shortening for pie crusts and biscuits, so I began that here. After a half hour, we're talking one cup tamalina and one third cup lard, I still had a lumpy mess. "To hell with this!", says me to myself, I got out the electric mixer and continued the cutting in process. The end results jived with my former experience so I moved forward. Step two was adding salt and chili powder "to taste" so I chose one teaspoon of each... here a wild guess is as good as any other kind... and fired up the mixer again. Tasting for this step being hours away. Then the direction suggested adding chicken broth to the tamalina "until it looks right... but not runny" I arbitrarily chose one cup of broth for the same reason as the salt and chili powder... a wild guess is as good as any other kind here.

{Ingredients and directions for Tamalina mix: 6 cups Tamalina, 6 cups Chicken broth, 1lb lard, 1 1/2 tbs salt, 1tbs chili powder. I heated the water until almost too hot to touch then placed the lard in it. I added salt and chili powder and mixed with an electric mixer until melted. Then I added the tamalina one cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. When all was well mixed I tasted it. It was OK. I let it sit for an hour to thicken up.}

Here the directions said to spread the paste onto the corn husks 1/8 inch thick, and in a square, allowing 1 1/2 inch above and below the square for tying. My discovery was that the paste was much more inclined to stick to the spoon than to the corn shuck. Working on ingenuity alone, I devised a technique of wiping the paste off the spoon and onto the shuck right at the edge of the shuck, which also favored an easier rolling things together. I then developed the technique of placing the frozen stick of meat at this edge and rolling toward the center. I adjusted the distribution of paste with a finger to cover the meat. I am thinking I will use less broth next time as the paste seemed quite mobile during and after the rolling was done. The book now suggest, to be authentic, I should tear one shuck into thin stripes to use as strings to tie the ends of the tamales prior to the final steaming.
I did this to the seven tamales of the test batch, which lead to another "to hell with this" moment.

{Also, shucks were seldom long enough to tie as described so I placed the food materials at the wide end of the shuck and folded the top down. No tieing}

Now, done with the test batch I cleaned up my mess, washing all the things and putting everything away. All was waiting for inspection by the Resident here with knowledge and experience. When she arose I showed her what I had done and asked her to critique my results. As she looked things over, I am pretty sure she had one eye entirely closed and the other only partly open... probably fearing what she would see. After a few seconds she pronounced everything "very good", with only a slight hesitation in her voice.

With this acknowledgement, I proceeded to include all I had learned into processing all the remaining ingredients to finish the job. After steaming the product of my efforts, I lifted the lid of the steamer... it smelled like tamales. I pulled one out and unrolled it... it sort of looked like a tamale. I tasted this product, and much to my surprise, it tasted like a tamale. Then I presented it to the Resident here with knowledge and experience, who proceeded to declare "These taste pretty good. "

The really big surprise: It really did look like a real genuine hot tamale. These are going to be great under a layer of chili.

{these tamales come out a little dry and eat better with a more liquid chili or perhaps a red sauce}