I’m thinking of taking up the tradition of making tamales for the holidays. I bought all the ingredients and read the recipe. Now I need to know, what do you use to steam these babies for an hour?
I have one of those collapsible vegetable steamer baskets and a big pot. Do I use that and just keep adding water every few minutes?
I’m making a small batch of approximately 16 tamales, not one of the big batches using 7 pounds of meat.
Also, if you make tamales for the holidays, are you sick of it, or do you think it’s fun? Is it worth doing?
They’re a lot of work, but they’re fun. My wife and I have been learning to make them, and we’ve gotten about five good batches so far (and threw out the first batch altogether!).
We steam the tamales in what was marketed as a pasta cooker, i.e., metal pan inside of a larger metal pan. The inside pan has holes in the bottom. It cost about $12, which is significantly cheaper than the $60 or so for the “traditional” tamale steamers my wife is always pointing out. I need to add water every 15 minutes or so, because the inside pan goes deep – I can only fit about 3/4" of water (you don’t want the water inside the inside pan).
We fit about 25 to 30 in our pan. The famous “masa spreader” for tamales doesn’t work so well. Use a wet, metal spatula to spread the masa. We’ve also found that if you let the masa set a couple of hours in the fridge it spreads a lot easier, and doesn’t seem to negatively impact the quality.
We steam ours about an hour and a half.
We also soak the corn husks overnight to make them flexible. Don’t be afraid to use a second corn husk if the masa escapes from the first one (or if they’re small husks).
Although you don’t need one, using a tortilla press will make your tamale-making experience much, much better. Especially since your only other option would be to use a wet spatula to spread the masa. With a tortilla press, just put down some wax paper, then your pre-soaked corn husk, throw on a small ball of masa, more wax paper, then press. Peel off the wax paper, add your filling, and close your tamale… next!
With a press (which only costs about $10 around here, maybe more if your not-so-close to Mexico, but probably not), you’ll be able to make >5 tamales in the time you’d make one without. Trust me.
Also, if you’re going into production to make tamales, you may as well make zillions of them; don’t limit yourself to 16 (especially since you’ll screw some up). And I applaud your decision to bring tamales to your holiday table! I’ve been having them for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas for as long as I can remember…
Doh! This seems like a perfect idea! But, how do you make sure the masa’s spread in rectangularish fashion instead of pefectly round? My wife’s been wanting a tortilla press, ostensibly to make tortillas (even though they’re a dime a dozen in Mexiquito). I guess this would be a good time to invest the $12.95 (as they are here) for one.
Why are tamales a “Christmas” tradition? The Mexican bakery and the “real” Mexican restaurants in Mexiquito seem to sell them all year around. I ask this 'cos maybe we’ve been silly making them when the mood strikes us (although as I’d said previously, we do little batches, so maybe it’s a labor thing).
its not to say you can’t have them year round, but they def. are a christmas tradition. kinda like a turkey dinner just screams thanksgiving.
in my family, it is a great tradition… its a time for all the women to get together and gossip and chat and laugh!
never used a tortilla press though. we usually make them assembly line style. Usually the younger girls sort out the husks, etc. Time is not of the essence though.
also, there are loads of recipes for tamales…one of my favorites is sweet tamales.
Damn, wish you had made this post about 4 days ago. I ran across a locally produced program from one of the Denver PBS stations and they featured tamale making.
One of the woman created this Tamale spreader, is was a plastic spatula like thing. You get a blob of your Masa mix (or whatever your tamale consists of) and it scraped it perfectly on the husk.
If it helps you you might be able to email them about it and ask if they have the reference for it at http://www.kbdi.org
The only thing about tamales is the time consumption. Oh and virtually any mock up to steam them should be fine.
I think http://www.mex-sales.com is the masa spreader that we bought in Little Mexico, that we hate. If not, my apologies to this little company.
techchick68, is this the spreader you saw?
It seems to be a great product, well-liked by many. I first encountered it at http://mexicanfood.miningco.com, but in our experience, the masa only sticks to it, and the spreader doesn’t work too well. It could be that the masa recipe we use doesn’t get along with the spreader – we use the recipe on the Maseca bag.
On that note, we use “Maseca for Tamales,” mostly because, well, it has the recipe for the masa on the bag, and it’s worked so far. Let me try to make this a factual question, for the purposes of keeping this thread from getting moved: what other varieties of “Maseca” work for Tamales without substantial changes to the recipe? Also, do I have to use Maseca? Can’t I go to my local grocery and get pretty much any type of corn flour? You know, like for making corn bread?
No le hace, hombre! When you squish it, you get a big disk in the midst of which you put your filling. The rectangular shape forms as you fold the husks into the shape of the tamal.
[li] Make sure to use real masa made with lard. It will have the rich and silky flavor that makes for a great tamale.[/li]
[li] I recommend stongly against using a tortilla press when forming the masa into the husks. Too much pressure will give the masa a leaden consistency and result in an undesirably dense tamale. I have always used a spatula or large spoon to dole out the masa. Be sure to spread it out laterally without smashing it down too much. It helps if the masa has been whipped before use in order to make it airy and light. There is nothing like a nice, fluffy tamale.[/li]
[li] Make your pork mole the night before. Be sure to cut the meat into relatively small pieces if you are not going to the trouble of cooking down a big chunk of pork shoulder or Boston butt. Also make sure to let the meat mixture cool completely. This allows the spices to marry up with the meat and makes it easier to spoon the filling into the tamales. Mole requires many hours of cooking in order to both lose its “vegetable” edge (from the ground pumpkin seeds in authentic products) and fully penetrate the meat. This is especially true if you are making tamales with chicken mole.[/li]
[li] Avoid stacking the tamales too high in the steamer. One or two layers is the most I ever do in order to avoid compressing them too much. Again, piling them up high will smash them down and give you an overly dense filling.[/li]
[li] For an interesting change-up, try using a pipan verde to make green tamales. The pork is cooked in the exact same way and the flavor is a real eye opener compared to the usual mole.[/li]
[li] Be sure to soak the corn husks in water before using them. If the husks are too small, use a smear of masa to join them together into a larger expanse.[/li]
[li] Most of all, making tamales is thirsty work. I recommend swilling huge quantities of a good Mexican beer to cool down in the steamy hot kitchen.[/li]
Have fun and enjoy these splendid examples of authentic Mexican cooking. There are much easier to make than it seems. I obtained great results the very first time that I made them.
That could be it but the pictures they showed of that masa spreader wasn’t very good. In the show the lady did it with ease, obviously she’s had experience with it but the other lady didn’t and it seemed to work well for her.
I recently got a book (actually 2) from Rick Bayless that has several recipes for tamales in it and somewhere he mentioned the brand he uses. For the life of me I can’t find it but the recipe calls for (say for 16 tamales) 1 pound of course-masa for tamales or 1 3/4 cup dried masa harina with one cup plus 2 tbsp hot water then allowed to cool.
If I remember correctly, masa should be the consistancy of Play-Doh, not too wet and not too dry. Slighty, more moisture content than you’d find in pasta dough.
If you have any Mexican specialty stores in your area you can get fresh masa which is what he recommends over and over.
Ah, you guys bring back memories. Very pleasant ones. And you’re making me very hungry.
Tamales are definitely special occasion food. Christmas, Thanksgiving, or to show off at a fund raiser for the local church. All sorts of tamales.
As I remember it, my friends motrer would put the masa on the husk with a big spoon and smooth it out with her wetted fingers. If you arrange them in a traditional steamer correctly they won’t mash each other. She also patted tortillas by hand, an almost lost art by then (late 50’s, early 60’s). Refried beans made with fresh lard, smeared on a fresh tortilla is pure heaven.
Sweet tamales. Yum.
I also remember something very much like a tamale, but without the husk and fried in grease.
Damn, I’m hungry.
Peace,
mangeorge
Thanks for all the info! I think that as a novice, I will stick to the simple recipe on the Maseca for Tamales bag. I checked out the “old Mexican woman” page, and was frightened away by the admonition that it would take 10 to 12 hours. That’s a little too much for me!
So I’ll make the meat-chili mixture the day before, and cool the masa before trying to spread it, oh yeah, and whip it real good.
I hope it tastes good. I hate to waste two pounds of perfectly good pork.
Usually, these are chicken or pork tamales made for the holidays that have raisins incorporated into the meat mixture. Here is a link to a tamale thread at about.com’s cooking site.
well, a very easy way to make tamales, especially if you don’t have the time:
go to any mexican bakery. they SHOULD sell the masa prepared, esp if they sell corn tortillas there. then you add the lard (or shortenig as prefered) and meat, etc.
let me give you the approx recipe for the sweet tamales. when I talk with the mama, I will get a more exact recipe.
we usually do this by taste anyway…
add to the masa:
crushed pinapple (canned ok)
raisins
marsachino cherries
shredded coconut
pecan pieces
sugar is added
as is:
cinamon
anise
note: these are not American sweet. they are “sweet” if you understand.
Usually they are served to the kids as the meat ones are “hot”. or adults like them for desert. these are also nice cold.
as for the tamales without the husks, fried…those sound like gorditas.
get some of the tamale masa (any left over is ok). make it in to a small tortilla shape, about 5 inches in Diameter, 1/4" thick. fry. split it length wise (like a hamburger bun)but NOT all the way. stuff with your regular taco type stuff. VERY VERY good.
Chihuahua? Yo quiero El Grande Estado de Chihuahua! Viva Ojinaga!
Most of the Mexican food I’m familiar with these days is more Chihuahua-style, and the Mexican food I grew up with (via Mom) is more Tamaulipas-Nuevo Leon style (she’s from the Rio Grande valley), so maybe it’s just a northern Mexico thing, but I’ve never seen sweet tamales con carne, either.
And I’ll have to respectfully disagree with Zenster, but with a little practice and a well-whipped masa, a tortilla press can make tamales that are just as good, light, and fluffy, in a lot less time.
What about holding the wrapped tamale closed? Do I need to go out and find tamale-wrapping string? Or will they stay closed reasonably well by themselves? Do I use waxed paper on top of the corn husk?
And you’re making me very hungry.