TAMALES

06-09-02, 02:00 PM
TMOM3
TAMALES
Does anyone out there know how to make homemade tamales?

06-09-02, 05:27 PM
dogspit
Plenty of tamale makin' info at this URL:
http://www.jalapenocafe.com/tamale.html

06-09-02, 06:22 PM
ArCHimeDes
Hi TMOM3, dogspit has given you an excellent site for making homemade tamales. May I make a few suggestions to this recipe.

The traditional shortening to use is lard, they sell it in most grocery stores. I know it is not healthy, but you probably will not make tamales everyday. The little buggers are a pain. Also, after you cook the pork butt, if you let it chill over night with the juices and liquid from cooking, you will find that most of the fat has solidified. This can be scooped out and used in place of the shortening as well. This is homemade lard. I never use butter.

With the corn husk, it helps if you put them into a big pot of water and let it come to a boil, then remove from heat. Let the husk stay in the water until they are pliable then drain well.

Instead of the chicken stock, use the broth from the pork butt in the masa mix.

Masa is also available in most locals stores now.

It helps to spread the masa on each corn husk if the masa is slightly chilled and your fingers are damp.

They may seem a little tricky at first, it helps if you have a few friends in and make a big picture of sangria and have tamale making day.
You cannot really mess them up, even if there is slight crack in your corn husk, the steam will still make the masa stay together. Have fun!

06-10-02, 06:24 AM
Fritzzs
Go ahead and use lard...there is a flavor that you will not have if you go with anything else...It has been found that lard is no more harmfull for you than anything else...Unless of course, you sit down and eat 3 pounds in a sitting...
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Post Script by DG

"It has been found that lard is no more harmfull for you than anything else..." - Fritzzs

This does not seem to be the case. Below from Wikipedia -
Lard is an animal fat produced from rendering the fat portions of the pig. Lard was a commonly used cooking oil though its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by saturated fat and cholesterol.

Toward the late 20th century, lard began to be regarded as less healthy than vegetable oils such as olive and sunflower because of its high saturated fatty acid and cholesterol content.

Lard is one of the few edible oils with a relatively high smoke point, attributable to its high saturated fatty acids content. Pure lard is especially useful for cooking since it produces little smoke when heated and has a distinct and pleasant taste when combined with other foods. Many chefs deem lard a superior culinary fat because of lard's range of applications and taste.

Each 100 grams of Lard contains the following:

* 900 Calories
* 39g Saturated fat
* 95mg Cholesterol
* 45g Monounsaturated fatty acids
* 11g Polyunsaturated fatty acids
* 0.6mg Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
* 0.1mg Zinc
* 0.2mg Selenium
* unknown Hydrogenated fat
* unknown Trans fat