Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The tamale family tradition

The smell of Christmas morning at my grandmother's house when I was growing up was a mix of scents that until a few years ago I had never really identified. But it's a smell I learned to recreate the first time I made tamales with my father's side of the family a few years ago.

My aunts and older cousins worked with my grandmother every year to make tamales. I don't know why, but my sister and I were never involved in the tradition. It wasn't until I was in graduate school and working on a class writing assignment that I got my first invitation to make tamales. I asked my aunts for a recipe, and instead they told me to come along to help the weekend before Christmas.

I soon realized why. As with many family recipes, or meals that are handed down year after year, there isn't really an actual recipe. My aunts know the basic flavor profile, but other than that making tamales is sort of a matter of throwing in the right spices until the sauce, masa dough and meat start to taste right.

Since I've made tamales with my aunts, I've attempted to make them on my own twice, the most recent time being last weekend. I invited over a few friends and purchased all the ingredients - the corn flour, shortening, spices, rump roasts and more - but unfortunately only one of my friends could make it over.

It made for a long day, but it was worthwhile when the house started to smell just like my grandmother's house used to smell when I was a kid. We ate our share of tamales out of the first batch and stored away the rest for a few lucky friends and family. It wouldn't be the holidays without it.


The filling for the beef tamales is made by cooking rump roast with beef broth and spices in a crock pot all day, then shredded the meat and adding more spices. The sauce is a tomato-based sauce with the same spices as the beef.

The masa dough for a Monterey jack and green chili tamale is seasoned with the same spices as well as the liquid from the green chilies.
A pile of tamales wait in a pan to be steamed.




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