No “possibly” about it, the filling is inside, not mixed with the masa, and tamales are steamed, not baked.
Isn’t it possible to have a tamale that’s just corn, though, without the filling? Granted that you’d only make them that way if you were very poor and couldn’t afford anything else, but wouldn’t that still be a tamale?
And I stand corrected on the steaming vs. baked.
It has to have a filling. Tamales refer to more than one tamal (no such thing as a tamale.) No filling and it’s just a hunk of steamed masa–:p:D
Now I’m okay pointing out there’s no such thing as a panini, either.
Which can be edible, but isn’t a tamale. Got to be something inside.
What is open to interpretation. We had some abso-frakking-lutely amazing tamales last year that were filled with a chili-chocolate mixture that both sated and stoked. Whoever’s grandmother made those is a truly blessed individual.
That’s not true – for example, tamales de elote have no filling. The hispanic market down the street from me imports them frozen from Central America – either El Salvador or Guatemala.
Yeah, I was going to say, but you beat me to it. Tamales do not at all have to be filled with anything. I’ve had some fantastic tamales that were just freshly made masa steamed in a plantain leaf.
ETA: Even Wikipedia gets it right:
The thing is, for a pure masa tamale to be worth eating, it needs to be made with really fresh masa. There is a guy from the Yucatan I know who makes his own nixtamalized corn and grinds it into masa. The “fantastic tamales” made from just corn that I refer to above were made with some weird kind of black corn that this guy said was hard to find in the US, but particularly good for this dish.
“Tamales de elote” literally means “ear of corn tamales.” The masa is made from freshly ground sweet corn kernels, and as far as I know, they’re not supposed to have any filling. I don’t know if they make them in Guatemala, but they do make them in El Salvador. My mom sometimes buys a dozen at the Mexican supermarket deli or from a Salvadoran restaurant. They’re delicious.
As far as the difference between types of dishes that involve wrapping something in a tortilla, has anyone brought up chilaquiles or enchiladas yet? Besides me, I mean. Not sure whether these count, but since they’re made with tortillas, I thought I’d mention them. I used to patronize a catering truck that served these dishes in addition to tacos, burritos, etc. Lent was always an interesting time to eat there, because they would add fish tacos and fried potato tacos to the menu. The latter consisted of cooked potatoes wrapped in a corn tortilla, fried, and served with sour cream and green chili sauce. Greasy, delicious, and yet virtuous enough for Lent. 
I’ve also seen that on a menu as a burrito suiza.
It’s interesting to me that tacos can be made with flour tortillas. I would’ve said that a taco is (virtually) always made with a corn tortilla, whereas a burrito is (virtually) always made with a flour tortilla.
Absolutely incorrect. Tamales dulces and tamales de elote have no “filling”.
But just about everything I’ve read on this thread so far is pretty much wrong.
Edit: I posted this before reading the posts that follow the one I cited and now see others have corrected the error.
So let’s say I want to make one of them thar Mexican dishes at home, and want shredded beef, not ground beef. How do I make the shredded beef?
Cook your beef well. Then shred with a pair of forks instead of slicing. Think “pulled pork” only with beef.
What kind or cut of beef?
What do you have? Really, it can be just about anything. Chuck roast is cheap. Good flavor, too.
Salvadoran tamales dulces sometimes have a filling - they can contain raisins, prunes, cinnamon sticks, and even pineapple. On the rare occasions my family makes tamales for Christmas, my mom makes a batch of tamales dulces, and she always puts at least a couple of raisins and a cinnamon stick in each.
(edit: shouldn’t this be on the tamale thread?)
From my experience having grown up in El Paso and spending much time across the border. A burrito most certainly does not have rice and beans in addition to the main filling. burrito typically is just the filling - breakfast style can be egg and chorizo, egg, egg and ham, etc. Other kinds are meat, typically… A burito de lengua (tongue) is an example. There are bean burritos - refried with a bit of cheese. I have never ever seen a Mexican burrito with rice in it.
ETA:
Burritos tend to be smallish- nothing like chipotle style burritos! I remember the first time mom had one- she didn’t recognize it as Mexican food at all.
…
Those fried potato tacos sound DELICIOUS. I must have some. :eek:
To be fair, Chipotle barely makes any pretenses at being Mexican or Tex Mex. They’re pretty much the second-whitest burrito place I’ve ever been to, with the exception of Freebirds World Burrito. (Man, I could go for some Freebirds. I hear they finally opened up a location in Oklahoma. How long do ya suppose until they have a location in the Far East? :D)
Actually, I should make one correction or clarification to this. Enchiladas, so far as I understand it, are not usually baked in Mexico, just take the tortilla dipped in a chili-based sauce and wrap it around the filling. I’m just trying to cover all the bases of Mexican and Mexican-American (which I personally think of as a regional northern extension of Mexican cuisine, but you can just as well look at it as a Mexican variant of American cuisine. Who cares.) cuisine up there with all the possible combinations and permutations.