I had never really given much thought to making tamales at home until one fateful day during culinary school when we covered the cuisine of the American Southwest (with its heavy influence from its neighbor to the South, Mexico). On this day, my partner and I were assigned to scratch-make tamales, the popular and portable Mexican comfort-food classic that one can now find at any decent Mexican food joint here in the U.S. Like any good sandwich, tamales are designed to be eaten on the go and are made up of a few components; a dried cornhusk wrapped around a doughy filling called masa, along with some other kind of meet, cheese or vegetable filling. On this day in school, I prepared the tinga filling (basically, a stewed and shredded pork dish) while my partner prepared the masa and coordinated the assembly duties. We had fun making the tamales and I thought that it would make for a festive dish to replicate at home, especially when the kind folks at Stillman’s Farm provided me with (through my CSA) another bone-in section of pork shoulder to work with.
I began by cutting the pork, a 5lb Boston butt, into roughly 2″ inch chunks. Lacking a band-saw, there wasn’t much I could do once I reached the bone, so I just cut around it as best as I could. Don’t discard that piece; there’s lots of flavor in that bone and it should be cooked along with the rest of the pork pieces.
An hour prior to cooking, the pork pieces were tossed in a dry rub.
I prepared the dry rub by stemming and seeding a few dried New Mexico and California chilies. I toasted the chilies in a small skillet for a few minutes before placing them into a spice grinder, along with some Ancho chile powder. I ground this mixture up and added it to some freshly toasted and ground cumin and coriander seed, along with some paprika, salt, garlic and onion powder.
Cooking can sometimes be quite the dirty job.
Over medium heat, I browned the pork pieces very well on all sides. I used my trusty dutch oven for this step.
Once all sides were browned, I removed the pork from the pan and set it aside.
Some fat will render out of the pork as it browns. To this fat, I added one roughly chopped onion and cooked it until it softened, about five minutes. Next, I added a few smashed garlic cloves and cooked the mixture until I could smell the garlic, about a minute, then I poured in a bottle of beer. I’ve experimented with cheap domestic lager and fancier porters and really any kind of beer works here. After the beer, I added dried oregano, a few bay leaves, cumin, some of the leftover chili powder I used for the pork rub, a chipotle pepper (the kind that are canned in adobo sauce) and a few roughly chopped tomatoes. I added the pork back to the pot and brought the liquid to a boil, then covered the pot and placed it in a 325 degree oven and cooked the pork until it was fork tender (roughly two hours in my oven).
While the pork cooked, I prepared the masa, which is prepared using a special kind of flour called masa harina. Masa harina is made from corn that has been put through a process designed to ‘unlock’ the niacin found within the corn’s kernels, thus permitting our body’s digestive system to absorb this valuable nutrient. After this processing, the corn is dried and ground in order to make masa harina, which can then be reconstituted to make masa. There, that’s not confusing at all, is it?
When we made tamales in school, we used a ratio of two parts masa harina to roughly one part liquid and roughly one part shortening or lard. I decided to experiment here and used my reserves of rendered pork fat. I only had about 1/2 cup of this homemade lard, so I cheated and added in a few tablespoons of rendered chicken fat. Store bought lard would’ve worked out just fine except that none of the three stores that I went to had lard in stock.
I placed the fat into the bowl of my stand mixer and beat it until it was light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, I combined two cups of masa harina with some cumin, chili powder, baking powder and salt, then slowly worked these dry ingredients into the beaten fat.
Next, I slowly added about a cup of chicken stock.
Using my mixer’s paddle attachment, I worked the mixture until it resembled wet cookie dough, then I covered it and placed it in the ‘fridge until the pork finished cooking.
Once the pork was fork tender, I removed it from the dutch oven and set it aside. I then reduced the liquid in the dutch oven until it was nice and thick. When the pork was cool enough to handle, I shredded it using a pair of forks.
I added the shredded pork to the reduced cooking liquid, then prepared my kitchen countertop for tamale assembly. In addition to not being able to find any lard, I also couldn’t find any dried cornhusks at any of my local megamarts. I suppose that I could’ve just gone to a Mexican grocery store, but that would’ve been too easy. Fresh corn is in season now and where there is fresh corn, there are also fresh corn husks. When most people buy fresh corn at the supermarket, they peel away the husks and immediately discard them. Figuring that the supermarket was just going to dispose of them anyway, I helped myself to a large bag of discarded fresh corn husks, much to the amusement of some of the supermarket’s employees. As an added bonus, since they were fresh, they were also pliable; normally the dried cornhusks must be soaked in order to roll them without tearing.
To make a tamale, lay out a cornhusk and flatten it out as much as possible. The wider the husk, the better, though if you have a few narrow husks, you can overlay them on top of each other as needed. Spoon out a small amount of masa onto the husk. The wife was kind enough to offer her assistance here while I documented the tamale production process.
Use your hands to evenly distribute the masa across the cornhusk.
Add a small amount of the pork filling on top of the masa, then roll up the cornhusk, using butcher’s twine to keep it closed. When rolling, you want to try to keep one end totally closed and one end open.
Arrange the rolled up tamales into the basket of your favorite steamer, closed end down.
Steam for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the masa is cooked through and the pork filling is hot. Cut away the string and serve immediately.
While I was pleased with the pork filling and the taste of the masa, my masa was way too dry and chalky. Next time I prepare it I’ll be sure to use more liquid perhaps a bit more lard, just for good measure.
