How to make tamales

**63190** · 12-17-2005, 07:43 PM

For any one that wanted know how. I'll post it up after I get my notes in order.
Masa(corse ground cooked corn)
Lard
Baking powder
Salt
Meat of some sort
Mix 1 pound of lard for every five pounds of masa. Add in a hand full of baking powder and 3 and a 1/2 hand fulls of salt.
You can mix by hand, but my dad learned this method to speed it up.

**63190** · 12-17-2005, 07:45 PM

Second step
Soak the corn husks in water.
We use pork for filling. After cooking take the meat out and shred it. Don't through out the water. Let it cool off and then when the fat congeals, throw that in the mix.
The meat is mixed seperately with long red chile. The red chile is dried. We buy it already that way. Remove as many seeds as you can. Boil it for 20 minutes with garlic, onion, salt, and cumin. Then strain it and blend it to chop it into fine pieces. Wear rubber gloves when handling the chile!

**63190** · 12-17-2005, 07:46 PM

Third step
Spread out the masa on the corn husks.

**63190** · 12-17-2005, 07:47 PM

Fourth step
Put a dollup of meat on the husks and fold into thirds. Fold the small end over. It's kinda like folding a snail mail letter.
We cook them in big pot made of galvanized steal. It's about 2 feet tall, foot wide at the bottom, and two at the top. It has a small round plate with louvers in it. This set upon a brick. Next to the brick is a penny.
You layer the tamales so that the steam that cooks it is allowed to pass around them. The penny lets you know when your out of water. You have to add the boiling water to the pot and keep it boiling. Start another pot of water boiling or close to it to add later when the penny stops making noise. Only add enough water to cover the brick.
Steam for about an hour and a half.

**63190** · 12-17-2005, 07:49 PM

Finally, cook and eat. I'm not sure you want to know how bad it really is for you, but it tastes great.

**timvds** · 12-17-2005, 07:55 PM

Thanks!

**63190** · 12-17-2005, 08:55 PM

Bump for finishing. Maybe a mod should move this to the diet forum.

Cheat food.

**Anna Bollick** · 12-18-2005, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by 63190

For any one that wanted know how. I'll post it up after I get my notes in order.
Masa(corse ground cooked corn)
Lard
Baking powder
Salt
Meat of some sort
Mix 1 pound of lard for every five pounds of masa. Add in a hand full of baking powder and 3 and a 1/2 hand fulls of salt.
You can mix by hand, but my dad learned this method to speed it up.

Girfriend, you can buy the instant masa... just add water. Look where the flour and cornmeal and stuff is. Use the same mix to make corn tortillas.

Love
Anna

**Hackamaniac** · 12-18-2005, 11:40 AM

now I know atleast how thanks

**63190** · 12-18-2005, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by Anna Bollick

Girfriend, you can buy the instant masa... just add water. Look where the flour and cornmeal and stuff is. Use the same mix to make corn tortillas.

Love
Anna

We buy it fresh from the Mexican Resteraunt. It's about 5 min's from our house.

You can use that instant stuff, but we like it fresh. More authentic taste.

**Hackamaniac** · 12-18-2005, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by 63190

We buy it fresh from the Mexican Resteraunt. It's about 5 min's from our house.

You can use that instant stuff, but we like it fresh. More authentic taste.

I bet it does taste alot better that way damn making me hungry.

**Poison Ivy** · 12-18-2005, 02:05 PM

Cool I love chicken or beef tamales... YUmm..

I noticed though your not wearing gloves when you prepared the tamales...that's a NO NO Mister!

**Anna Bollick** · 12-19-2005, 12:40 AM

If you live where people grow bananas or plantain, you can use those leaves instead of corn husks. In Central America, they call the northern style tamales, the little ones wrapped in corn husks, "palos de mierda" or some such. I won't bother to translate. But anyway, the big ones wrapped in banana or plantain or plantanillo leaf are each practically a meal, with a whole piece of chicken in there, and a sauce with just a hint of mole. They are nice and juicy and moist, never dry like the northern Mexico style. I used to buy them in Veracruz on southward, into Belize and Guatemala, from street vendors or at the local market. They are much to be preferred. Their drier cousins in the corn husks can do with a bit of salsa or ketchup... they tend to be dry and relatively flavorless. Some folks like them that way, though, I guess.

Maybe someone would care for my menudo recipe? It is the easiest thing in the world to make. (Well, I don't use whole chiles... the dried powder is so much easier for a busy girl like me!)

Maybe a thread for all of our Mexican recipes? Other ethnic foods? I admit, I never really got the hang of cooking Chinese. Just no Italian... girl, that pasta makes me swell up like the Michelin Girl!

Love
Anna

**Power40** · 12-19-2005, 01:16 AM

I also like the ones wrapped in bananas. I guess it depends who makes them, 'cause I've also had some made wrapped in corn husks that were awesome.

**63190** · 12-19-2005, 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by Poison Ivy

Cool I love chicken or beef tamales... YUmm..

I noticed though your not wearing gloves when you prepared the tamales...that's a NO NO Mister!

Those are the hands of my parents. I didn't help this year. They knocked 'em out in a only a few hours. They did wash thier hands. Besides, the masa was still raw at that point. The steam would kill any bacteria they had on them. After cooling, they went into the freezer wrapped in plastic bags.
My dad has made the banana leaf ones before.
Mierda.

My parents stuff is always moist. They only dry out when they've been sitting out under heat lamps or have been thawed out and refrozen a few times.
My dad made banan leaf and black bean, and banana leaf and some white fish of some sort. The corn husks really give a distinct flavor. The banana leaf ones seemed lacking any flavor at all to me.