Tamales Essay

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Making Tamales The tamale, also known as tamal, is popular throughout the world. The tamale gets its meaning “wrapped food” from the corn husks, which surround the outside of the tamale. Though nobody knows when or who invented the tamale it is said to have been traced as far back as 5000 BC and was served as battle food for the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas soldiers. Today, tamales are often served on special occasions such as Day of the Dead, New Years, Christmas and other holidays. The three main components of the tamale are: the carnita, masa, and hoja de maiz. Carnitas are shredded pork which is the filling inside the tamale. Masa is the dough that surrounds the canitas. Hoja de maiz are corn husk wrappers which are husks that surround …show more content…

To this add onions, salt, oregano, cumin seeds, peppercorn and garlic bringing it to a boil. In order to help keep the peppercorns and cumin seeds separate, you can put them in a cheese cloth and tie it before you put it in to the meat pot or you can use a tea ball. As the meat starts coming to a boil foam rises to the surface in which you will need to skim the foam off. Then you must reduce the heat to low and let the mixture simmer. For approximately 1 1/2 hours, you will need to let the mixture only simmer and occasionally adding water to keep the pot from going dry. After the cooking time is up remove the pot from the heat. Then allow the pork to cool in its broth and when the pork has cooled off remove it from the broth. Refrigerate the broth to use for making the masa dough later. You can use two forks or a food processor with the plastic dough to shred the pork. Mix the cinnamon, paprika and black pepper thoroughly into the meat. Cover the cooked pork and refrigerate until ready to make the tamales. The cooked pork can be stored to up to 3 or 4 days. When you need to make the tamales reheat the …show more content…

First, you can take 1 or 2 softened corn husks and take them in your hand with the pinched looking end toward the end of your fingers and the smooth side of the corn husk up. 2. You must now slightly overlap the corn husks. If the corn husk rips you need to overlap two together and keep wrapping. 3. You can either use a butter knife or your hand to take the masa and spread it over the corn husks covering the top 2/3 and also 2/3 of one side. You want the Masa to be 1/4-inch thick. 4. You than need to add about a tablespoon of Carnitas and spread it down the center of the masa evenly leaving 1/2 inch at the bottom and top. Also leaving room on the sides of the masa to close around on the shredded meat. 5. When carefully rolling the tamale start with the side with the masa dough. Then turn the right side over to the center of the carnita. After that fold the left side over the filling allowing the plain part of the husk to wrap around the carnita. Then you must fold the end down over the bottom end. 6. You must then roll the tamale like you would with a blanket around you but not too tight because you may end with Masa all over your hand which you will no longer be able to

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