OMG, Johnny that is too funny!
True story, I was running errands with the SO and we swung by Walmart (classroom supplies). I was passing through the food section and asked the Hispanic stocker, “Do you carry tamales in a can”?
He said in a very flat deadpan “They don’t make Tamales in a can”.
The only ones I can find are labeled “Beef in Chili Sauce” - are those the ones?
I’ve had plenty with all sorts of fillings. Pork may be more traditional, but that’s true for all Mexican food. Yet, like the rest, we often see beef or chicken used, too. Beef tamales are the ones I see the most often at restaurants and in the frozen section. This is seasoned shredded beef, not hamburger meat.
According to Wikipedia, they can be filled with meat, cheeses vegetables, fruits, chillies, or “any preparation according to taste, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned.” My sister had sweet tamales when she was in Mexico, which I assume are the fruit ones.
Sure. Though the ones with chicken taste exactly the same, in my experience. The sauce overwhelms any different flavor in the meat, and it’s all the same consistency.
I had tamales from a trendy restaurant a few nights ago. They were chicken, and while the tamale itself was good, they had no red chili sauce!!! To me that is no tamale at all. The sauce is what makes it.
Maybe the canned meat section at Kroger has the answer in a can. 
When it comes to real tamales, I prefer them without sauce. The masa-filling combo is the essence for me. As was mentioned, the filling can be anything.
These is the ones in question:
https://www.barcodable.com/upc/037600216296
And has been pointed out the chichen taste the same due to the overwhelming sauce. However unlike mentioned above, I don’t find them hard on my digestion at all. They are not very spicy.
Yeah, it’s a pretty interesting phenomenon from several points of view. I recall reading that they were popular street food in the early 20th century as far north as Chicago. (Okay, I’ve just noticed that the Wiki entry mentions this and says that Robert Johnson’s “They’re Red Hot” is supposed to be about tamales.)
I recommend to anyone who’s interested that they try making them at home. It’s not actually as hard or time-consuming as people say, although I certainly don’t follow a traditional recipe. Over 30 years ago, a friend from Mexico invited me over to have some that his mother had made that evening, and it remains one of the great food experiences of my life. She baked them in corn husks (incredible aroma), but I just roll them in parchment paper (the stuff you put between baked goods and the oven tray) and steam them in a pressure cooker.
It wasn’t Derby brand, was it?
Indeed, my mother had a frustrating time trying to explain what a tortilla even was to a grocer in Ohio during the '60s.
Umm, that’s called a Frito Pie around here. I have never heard of a pepper belly. Language is weird.
Even here, where you could get fresh tamales pretty easily, the Gebhart and Hormel varieties got eaten. They’re edible in the way that canned chili can be, filling, meaty, and you can usually dress it up to be actually good. These days, I’d rather start that kind of meal with frozen ones since they’re now actually more common than the canned ones around here.
Like ThelmaLou, if I’m having quality tamales, I want them straight. The straight corn taste of the masa blends perfectly with the spicy meat. The canned ones a require some sort of sauce, and the frozen ones can usually benefit from them. Almost any one of the options are good: queso, chili con carne, green chili sauce, ranchera sauce.
Oh, yeah? People think you’re weird for calling it a ‘Frito pie’, when it’s clearly a ‘walking taco’! 
‘Pepper belly’ seems to be confined to the western part of the Mojave Desert known as the Antelope Valley. I’m not surprised few people outside of the area haven’t heard the term. (Kind of like people outside of Southern California don’t know what a chili size is. 
)
Around here, “pepper belly” is a somewhat antiquated racist slur usually applied to Hispanics.
:eek: Wow. I’ve never heard that term before. (South Texas here.)
I haven’t either! (Native Southern Californian, current Washingtonian.)
I am in PA. I remember hearing men of my grandfather’s generation use it to describe Hispanics and sometimes Italians.
Me, too. Mainly from my Texican relatives.
Just got back from grocery shopping. The wife gave me "that look "when I snagged a can and tossed it into the cart.
This kind of tamale was a rare but well remembered treat from my childhood. I probably haven’t had them in 25 hears. I also remember them in glass jars but that memory isn’t quite so sharp. That crimson grease, though.
Coincidentally, the bar I was at last night was visited by The Tamale Guy. Well, it was a guy selling Mexican-style tamales in corn husks out of a cooler, not the ‘famous’ guy in the article. Anyway, he had both pork and chicken versions available.
You’re well on your way to a proper Mother in law.
Found them:
https://www.peapod.com/c/8X/8XGOS.jpg
ConAgra stopped making Derby Tamales in 2009, as it turns out - they just weren’t selling enough.
If the same fate were to befall our favorite beef tamales, well I shudder to think.
BTW, a case of 12 cans is available on Amazon for only $18.72. That’s only $224.64 per gross, people! 
There are many different types of tamales. Different regions have different recipes. They may be savory or sweet. They may be small such as tamales de bola found in Chiapas to the very large zacahuil originally from the Huasteca area of San Luis Potosí. In Michoacán, they serve corundas and uchepos. Oaxaca, of course, tamales de mole, the Yucatán has their unique offerings. In Guanajauto, el tamal de muerto. In Sinaloa, shrimp tamales. There are tamales de ceniza, de boda, ayocote, picadillo and many more.
A dog turd with a can of chili, crushed Fritos, grated cheese, and chopped onions on top would taste at least acceptable. Anything edible underneath would be an improvement.
Around here, tamales are generally available with pork (most common), beef, or chicken, plus one I’ve never seen outside Arizona, green corn. Usually the last has a few intact kernels to prove its origin, I suppose, a dab of a soft white cheese like queso fresca, and sometimes a few diced green chilis – not too many as the flavor is delicate.
You’re the gourmet around here, Eddie