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A 'tamale' or 'tamal' (from Nahuatl ''tamalli)'' is a traditional Native American food consisting of steam-cooked corn meal dough with or without a filling. Tamales can be filled with meats, cheese (post-colonial), and sliced chiles or any preparation according to taste. The tamal is generally wrapped in a corn husk or plantain leaves before cooking, depending on
the region they come from.
Tamales have been made throughout the American continent for over 5000 years . Their essence is the corn meal dough made from hominy (called masa), or a masa mix such as Maseca, usually filled with a sweet or savory filling, wrapped in plant leaves or corn husks, and cooked, usually by steaming, until firm. Tamales were developed as a portable ration for use by war parties in the ancient Americas, and were as ubiquitous and varied as the sandwich is today.

Contents

Tamales in Latin America

Tamales in the United States

Tamales in the Caribbean

See also

External links

Tamales in Latin America

Tamales are a favorite quick dish in Mexico, where street vendors can be seen serving them from huge, steaming, covered pots ''(tamaleras)''. In some places like Zacatecas, the tamal 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.
The most common (and traditional) filling is pork or chicken, in either red or green salsa or mole. Another very traditional variation is to add sugar to the corn mix and fill it with raisins or other dried fruit and make a sweet tamal ''(tamal de dulce)''. Since, as described in the beginning, the cooking of tamales is traditionally by tens if not hundreds, the misscalculation of the ratio of filling to dough isn't uncommon, in which case one might end up with a "deaf tamal" ''(tamal sordo)'' which basically is a filling-less tamal, which might be paired up with a serving of 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 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 countries of Central America.
To make a full meal, the tamal is often accompanied by ''atole,'' hot chocolate, or ''champurrado''.
In El Salvador, Honduras and Colombia they are wrapped in plantain leaves, and there are several varieties, including ''tamal de gallina'', ''tamal pisque'', and ''tamal de elote''. They are generally large, similar in size to the tamales of southeastern Mexico.
In Guatemala, 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 taste)
#Tamalito de chipilin (made with Chipilin, a green leaf)
#Tamal blanco (simple, made with white corn)
During Christmas holidays, tamales of rice 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 rice flour base.
Peruvian 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. A dessert is also made out of white corn. It can be salted or sweet but it has dried grapes, vanilla, oil, sugar (or salt) and are cooked in the oven or in the pachamanca. They are called humitas.
Tamales are also found in Colombia, where there are several varieties (including most widely known ''tolimense'' as well as ''boyacense'' and ''santandereano).'' Ecuador also 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''. Confusion with the nomenclature also leads to the plural form being used as a singular: thus, "a tamales" [rare].

Tamales in the United States

The plural is ''tamales'', and this is the form of the word most often seen in the United States among Latinos, with the singular frequently given as ''tamale'' (incorrect to Spanish-speakers, who use the correct form ''tamal''). As tamales have acquired mainstream popularity in the United States, other fillings have become more common, such as beef; another popular filling is corn (partially mashed, like creamed corn). Tamales are popular as Christmas meals in the southwestern states of the United States. A basic modern southwestern tamal contains a spicy meat filling, usually shredded pork or beef, and is often served with a chili con carne sauce.
The green corn tamal (green, meaning "fresh") is made with fresh white corn, often mixed with cheese, then lined with a long green chile slice before it is rolled and wrapped in a husk. Then the husks are steamed. Tucson, Arizona, claims to be the originator of this tamal, and its popularity extends to southern California.
The tamal is a staple food along the Mississippi Delta, locally known as "hot tamales". It grew in popularity in the early 1900s when Mexican farmworkers introduced it to black workers in the cotton fields in the deep South. Hot tamales in the Delta are more typically made with corn meal instead of masa.
Tamales have taken on a new direction in recent years as Nuevo Latino and New World chefs such as Rick Bayless bring new diversity to this ancient food.

Tamales in the Caribbean

Another variation of the tamal is the pastelle found on the island of Trinidad and Tobago. It is a Spanish derivative left over from the days when Trinidad was a colony of Spain and thus shares many similarities with its Latin American counterparts. Pastelles are wrapped in banana leaves for cooking and have a rectangular shape, roughly about 6"x3"x1/2" in dimensions varying according to preference. The shell is made of cornmeal and the filling commonly consists of well seasoned ground beef occasionally substituted with chicken) with 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 island, 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.
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 Puerto Rico there is the "guanime." It is made with yellow corn meal, coconut milk and a pinch of sugar, wrapped in a banana leaf, and boiled. There is no stuffing. Similar to the stuffed tamal are pasteles, but pasteles are not made with cornmeal masa, but with other locally obtained ingredients, such as plantain, cassava/yuca, and so on.

See also

★ Mexican cuisine

★ Pamonha

★ Zongzi

★ Lotus leaf wrap

★ Pasteles

★ Hallaca

★ Corunda

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

★ Colombian Tamal recipe from the Boyaca Region.