Making Tamales

We have been wanting to make homemade tamales for a long time now and finally on Saturday, we did it!  Tricia is of Mexican heritage and she grew up making tamales.  In addition to being able to enjoy eating delicious tamales, it was a nice family tradition.  Everyone had a job to do.  We decided to incorporate this family tradition in our family.  Tricia called her mom and got some tips from the expert and then we got started.

We had a 9 pound (Bone-in) chuck roast from the steer that we butchered and we cooked it for four to six hours with onion, garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper.  It yielded 3 1/2 pounds meat once we shredded it, removing the bone, reserving the broth and 1 pound (or 2 cups) fat.  We didn't throw away the fat, though. The fat or tallow is an important ingredient in making tamales.

That is a big chuck roast!

Tricia shredded the beef roast up real good, chopping it with a knife.

She moistened the meat with some of the broth and added chili powder, garlic, cumin and salt.

Then she began moistening her corn husks while we worked on other tasks.  The husks were weighted down so that they would get wet, making them easier to work with when we started rolling them.

She poured 8 cups of dry masa harina in a big bowl.  This is some non-GMO masa that she purchased from Azure Standard Co-op.

To the masa she poured 2 cups of warmed beef tallow, 6 cups of warmed beef broth, 4 teaspoons salt and chili powder.

Then she mixed it all up, kneading it with her hands until the consistency became just right.  She had to add a little warm water until the masa was perfectly workable.

Now here is where the fun part came.  To set the mood, we put some salsa and mariachi music playing in the background sung by Selena (who was from Corpus Christi where Tricia is from). Then the assembly line started. Tricia cut the corn husks after drying them and using a butter knife, we spread the masa onto the husks - not too thick and not too thin, enough to cover the husk.

Russ took one rounded teaspoon of meat and lined it a little to the right of center on the masa.

Then you simply roll it up, pinching the bottom and folding over the top of the corn husk.

It started off kind of slow, but Tricia told me that this old gringo (me) got pretty fast at it.  We stacked them in dozens off to the side.

When all was said and done, we had enough masa to make 7 1/2 dozen tamales. Our meat would have made about 8 1/2 dozen tamales had we not run out of masa. Now that we have our quantities figured, next time we'll make 10 dozen tamales and that should need 4 1/2 pounds meat, 11 cups of dry masa and 2 eight ounce bags of corn husks.

Of the 7 1/2 dozen we made, we decided to eat 2 dozen of them for supper.  We stood them up to steam them, adding water in the bottom and we allowed them to steam for 45 minutes.

Then, it was time to eat!  I kind of tore these up getting them out of the husk, so it is not a great picture, but you'll have to excuse me.  I was more ready to eat than I was at executing a really good picture.  We added some homemade salsa on top.  There wasn't much talking around the table as we were busy eating.  They were really good!  I think Tricia was pleased with the outcome.  I know we were.

Tamales freeze well, so we froze the remaining 5 1/2 dozen in the deep freeze. Tricia will bag these up in Zip Loc bags and we'll be able to thaw them, steam them and enjoy them again sometime soon.

Homemade tamales - a new tradition in our family.  Good to eat and a lot of fun to make!