tamale

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Tamales on a plate.

A tamale (Spanish tamal, from Nahuatl tamalli) is a traditional Mexican dish of Mesoamerican origin, namely from the Aztec empire, which was soon widespread by Spanish conquistadores throughout their other colonies of what is now Latin America, consisting of steam-cooked corn dough (masa) with or without a filling. Tamales can be filled with meats, cheese (post-colonial), and sliced chillis or any preparation according to taste. Tamales are generally wrapped in corn husks or plantain (post-colonial) leaves before cooking, depending on the region from which they come.

Their essence is the corn meal dough made from hominy (called masa), or a masa mix such as Maseca, usually filled with sweet or savory filling, wrapped in plant leaves or corn husks, and cooked, usually by steaming, until firm. Tamales were one of the staples found by the Spanish when they first arrived in Mexico. Alternatively, tamales are said to have been used as a portable ration for use by war parties in the ancient Americas, and were as ubiquitous and varied as the sandwich is today. The diversity of native languages in the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica led to a number of local words for the tamal, many of which remain in use.

Tamales in Mexico

A batch of typical Mexican tamales in the tamalera

Considered by Mexicans one of their most beloved traditional foods, few countries have such an extensive variety of tamales as Mexico. Almost every region and state in the country has its own kind of tamale. It is said that there are between 500 and 1000 different types of tamales all around the country. Some experts estimate the annual consumption in hundreds of millions every year.

Tamales are a favorite breakfast/dinner comfort food in Mexico that take several hours to prepare and make. Tamales are also eaten as dinner, and are often accompanied by hot Atole or Champurrado, maize-based beverages of Aztec origin that are mixed with pecan nuts, chocolate or vanilla, all of these common flavorings in Prehispanic Mexico. Street vendors can be seen in every corner serving them from huge, steaming, covered pots (tamaleras). In some places like Mexico City, the tamale is often placed inside a wheat bread roll to form a torta de tamal, which is substantial enough to keep the breakfaster going until Mexico's traditionally late lunch hour, which is the largest meal of the day.

The versatile nature of Tamales allows them to be prepared in more sophisticated ways, giving way for a new kind of Tamale, as in Nueva Cocina Mexicana culinary trend among Mexican upscale chefs.

An unwrapped Tamale Oaxaqueño, from Oaxaca, Mexico. This particular tamale is filled with mole negro and chicken.

The most common fillings are pork and chicken, in either red or green salsa or mole. Another very traditional variation is to add pink colored sugar to the corn mix and fill it with raisins or other dried fruit and make a sweet tamal (tamal de dulce). Since the cooking of tamales is traditionally done in batches of tens if not hundreds, and the ratio of filling to dough (and the coarseness of the filling) is a matter of discretion, there are commonly a few "deaf", or filling-less, tamal (tamal sordo), which might be served with refried beans and coffee.

Instead of corn husks, banana leaves are used in tropical parts of the country such as the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and the Yucatán Peninsula. These tamales are rather square in shape, often very large— 15 inches (40 cm) or more— and thick; a local name for these in Southern Tamaulipas is Zacahuil. To the south, banana-leaf tamales are also common in the neighboring Central American countries. Another less-common variation is to use chard leaves, which can be eaten along with the filling.

Tamales became one of the representatives of Mexican culinary tradition in Europe, being one of the first samples of the culture that the Spanish conquistadores took back to Spain as proof of civilization, according to Fray Juan de Zumarraga. Today, tamales are mainly consumed as comfort food in Mexico and is also eaten during festivities, such as the Day of the Dead, Posadas and Mexican Independence Day.

Tamales in other countries of Latin America

Big Nacatamales, a typical Nicaragua tamale.

In Cuba, before the 1959 Revolution, street vendors sold Mexican-style tamales wrapped in cornhusks, typically made without any kind of hot chile seasoning in order to accommodate the milder Cuban taste. The fact that Cuban tamales are identical in form to those made in Mexico City suggests that they were brought over to Cuba during the period of intense cultural and musical exchange between Cuba and Mexico, between the 1920s and 1950s. A well-known Cuban song from the 1950s, "Los Tamalitos de Olga," (a cha-cha-cha sung by Orquesta Aragón) celebrated the delicious tamales sold by a street vendor in Cienfuegos. A peculiarly Cuban invention is the dish known as tamal en cazuela, basically consisting of tamal masa with the meat stuffing stirred into the masa, then cooked in a pot on the stove to form a kind of hearty cornmeal porridge.

Corn-husk wrapped tamales are also popular in southeastern Cuba.

In Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Panama they are wrapped in plantain leaves, and there are several varieties, including tamal de gallina, tamal pisque, and tamal de elote (in Costa Rica, the name can also be used for a type of corn pastry). In Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, in addition to the El Salvador versions, there are tamales without filling which are served as the bread or starch portion of a meal:

• Tamal de elote (made with yellow corn, sometimes with a sweet or dry taste)
• Tamalito de chipilín (made with Chipilín, a green leaf)
• Tamal blanco (simple, made with white corn)

During Christmas holidays, tamales of corn flour are a special treat for Guatemalans. The preparation time of this type of tamal is long, due to the amount of time required to cook down and thicken the flour base.

In Panama, tamales are considered one of the main national dishes. The Panamanian tamal is fairly large. The most common fillings are chicken, raisins, onions, tomato sauce, and sometimes sweet peas. Pork is rare. Another variation is tamal de olla, which is cooked in a pot and then served directly onto plates. Tamales are usually served for all special occasions, including weddings and birthday parties, and are always found on the Christmas dinner table.

Peruvian and Bolivian tamales tend to be spicy, larger, and are wrapped in banana leaves. Common fillings are chicken or pork, usually accompanied by boiled eggs, olives, peanuts or a piece of chilli pepper mainly in Lima, the capital city. In other cities tamales are smaller and wrapped in corn husks. They differ from the tamales made in Lima in that they use white corn instead of yellow corn as people in Lima do. Another version is called humita. It can be salted or sweet. Sweet ones have raisins, vanilla, oil, sugar. Salty ones can be filled with cheese (queso fresco) or chicken. Humitas are cooked in the oven or in the pachamanca. In Brazil there is two kinds of tamales known as pamonha: sweet or salty, both filled with cheese.

Tamales are also found in Colombia, where there are several varieties (including most widely known tolimense as well as boyacense and santandereano). Like other South American varieties, the most common are very large compared to Mexican tamales — about the size of a softball - and the dough softer and wetter, with a bright yellow color. A tamal tolimense is served for breakfast with hot chocolate, and may contain large pieces of cooked carrot or other vegetables, whole corn kernels, rice, chicken on the bone and/or chunks of pork. A related food is the envuelto or bollo, which is cooked in a corn husk, and actually resembles a typical Mexican tamal more closely. Ecuador has a variety of tamales and humitas, they can be filled with fresh cheese, pork, chicken or raisins. Ecuadorian tamales are usually wrapped in corn husk or achira (aka Canna) leaves. Nacatamales are also tamales. See nacatamal.

The tamal is also a staple in Belize, where it is also known (in English) by the Spanish name bollo.

Tamales are also found in the Dominican Republic & Puerto Rico. Instead of tamales they are known as pasteles (NOTE: the word pastel or pasteles can also mean pastry (implied to be sweet) in Spanish). Instead of corn the dough is usually made of green plantains, yautia (dasheen) and green bananas. The wrap is primarily composed of plantain or banana leaves. These countries also have "guanime", or "guanimo" in some areas. It is made with yellow corn meal, coconut milk and a pinch of sugar, wrapped in a banana leaf, and boiled. There is a version with filling called guanimes rellenos. This filling may be ground beef,chicken or pork, resembling the filling of numerous fried items.

Tamales are also found in the north of Argentina (the provinces of Jujuy and Salta). Tamales Salteños are made with shreded meat of a boiled head of a lamb or pork and corn flour wrapped in "chalas". Tamales Jujeños use minced meat and corn and red peppers. Humitas are not tamales by argentine standards.

Tamales in other countries

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Tamale

Another variation of the tamale is the pastelle found on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. It is a Spanish derivative from the days when Trinidad was a colony of Spain and thus it shares many similarities with its Latin American counterparts. Pastelles are wrapped in banana leaves for cooking and have a rectangular shape that is roughly 6″×3″×½″ (15×8×1.2 cm) in dimensions. The shell is made of cornmeal and the filling commonly consists of well-seasoned ground beef or chicken and prunes, raisins, capers, and olives. The result is a rich contrast of sweet, savoury, and salty flavours. It is a staple favorite of the Christmas holiday seasonal foods on the islands, rarely if ever seen during the rest of the year. It is served for breakfast, as a supplement to other meals such as lunch and dinner, or on its own as a simple snack along with other, seasonal favorites such as sorrel (roselle).

In Louisiana this dish is cooked in the same way. It is wrapped in banana or plaintains leaves, and is usually filled with pork or beef with creole spices.

In Asia, in the Philippines, Tamales is one of the many traditional specialties which are called "kakanin". This was introduced into the Philippines by Mexicans during the Spanish colonization and became a special delicacy. The rice-based Filipino tamales is an indigenized version of the Mexican tamales. The Filipino tamale is a steamed delicacy made with a mixture of ground white and brown (toasted) rice, ground peanuts and coconut milk topped with strips of chicken, chorizo and slices of harboiled eggs and wrapped in banana leaves.

External links

• Mexican Tamales, history and recipes
• Spanish Influence on Trinidad Cuisine
• Hot Tamale Trail - Tamales in the Mississippi Delta
• Tamales, Another Treat from the Delta

References