Tamale

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"Tamal" redirects here. For the town in Ghana, see Tamale, Ghana. For other uses, see Tamal
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Tamale

Wrapped and unwrapped tamales Oaxaqueos (from Oaxaca,

Mexico) filled with mole negro and chicken

Course Main course

Place of origin Mesoamerica

Region or state North America, Central America

Main ingredients Corn masa, banana leaves

Variations corn husks

 Food energy
110 kcal (461 kJ)
(per serving)

Similar dishes Humitas, pamonha

Cookbook: Tamale Media: Tamale

A tamale

A tamale (Spanish: tamal, Nahuatl: tamalli)[1] is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made

of masa or dough (starchy, and usually corn-based), which is steamed in a corn husk or
banana leaf. The wrapping is discarded before eating. Tamales can be filled with
meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, chilies or any preparation according to taste, and both the
filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned.

Contents
[hide]

1Origin
2Etymology
3Mexico
o 3.1Ancient Mexico
3.1.1Aztecs
3.1.2Pre-Columbian Mayas
o 3.2Modern Mexico
4Central America
o 4.1Guatemala
o 4.2Belize
o 4.3Nicaragua
o 4.4Panama
o 4.5Costa Rica
5South America
o 5.1Argentina
o 5.2Ecuador
o 5.3Peru
o 5.4Brazil
o 5.5Venezuela
o 5.6Colombia
6Caribbean
 o 6.1Cuba
o 6.2Trinidad and Tobago
o 6.3Curaao, Bonaire and Aruba
7United States
8Philippines and Guam
9See also
10References

Origin[edit]
Tamales originated in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 to 5000 BC.[2]
As making tamales is a simple method of cooking corn, it may have been brought from Mexico
to Central and South America. However, according to archaeologists Karl Taube, William
Saturn and David Stuart the tamales date from the year 100 A.C. They found pictorial
references in the Mural of San Bartolo, in Petn, Guatemala. Although the tamales may have
moved from one country to another, there is no evidence of where the migration of the tamales
went from north to south (Mexico to Central and South America).[3]
The Aztec and Maya civilizations, as well as the Olmeca and Tolteca before them, used
tamales as easily portable food, for hunting trips, and for traveling large distances, as well as
supporting their armies.[2] Tamales were also considered sacred as it is the food of the gods.
Aztec, Maya, Olmeca, and Tolteca all considered themselves to be people of corn and so
tamales played a large part in their rituals and festivals.[4]

Etymology[edit]
The diversity of native languages in Mesoamerica led to a number of local words for the tamal,
many of which remain in use. The Spanish singular of tamales is tamal. The English
word tamale differs from the Spanish word by having a final vowel.

Mexico[edit]
Ancient Mexico[edit]
Aztecs[edit]
In the pre-Columbian era, the Aztecs ate tamales with these ingredients: turkey, flamingo,
frog, axolotl, pocket gopher, rabbit, fish, turkey eggs, honey, fruits, squash and beans, as well
as with no filling.[5] Aztec tamales differed from modern tamales by not having added fat.[5]
One of the most significant rituals for the Aztecs was the feast of Atamalcualiztli (Eating of
Water tamales). This ritual, held every eight years for a whole week, was done by eating
tamales without any seasoning, spices, or filling which allowed the maize freedom from being
overworked in the usual tamale cooking methods.[6]
Pre-Columbian Mayas[edit]
In the pre-Columbian era, the Mayas ate tamales and often served them at feasts and
festivals.[7] The Classic Maya hieroglyph for tamales has been identified on pots and other
objects dating back to the Classic Era (2001000 CE), although it is likely they were eaten
much earlier.[8] Several different types of tamales are mentioned in Dresden Codex: iguana
tamales, turkey tamales, deer tamales, and fish tamales.[9]
Modern Mexico[edit]
A batch of Mexican tamales in the tamalera

In Mexico, tamales begin with a dough made from nixtamalized corn (hominy), called masa, or
a masa mix, such as Maseca, and lard or vegetable shortening. Tamales are generally
wrapped in corn husks or plantain leaves before being steamed, depending on the region from
which they come. They usually have a sweet or savory filling and are usually steamed until
firm.
Tamale-making is a ritual that has been part of Mexican life since pre-Hispanic times, when
special fillings and forms were designated for each specific festival or life event. Today,
tamales are typically filled with meats, cheese or vegetables, especially chilies. Preparation is
complex, time-consuming and an excellent example of Mexican communal cooking, where this
task usually falls to the women.[10] Tamales are a favorite comfort food in Mexico, eaten as both
breakfast and dinner, and often accompanied by hot atole or champurrado and arroz con
leche (rice pudding) or maize-based beverages of indigenous origin. Street vendors can be
seen serving them from huge, steaming, covered pots (tamaleras) or ollas.
The most common fillings are pork and chicken, in either red or green salsa or mole. Another
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 de dulce. Commonly, a few "deaf", or fillingless,
tamales (tamales sordos), might be served with refried beans and coffee. Most recently the
roasted pepper and Monterey Jack cheese (chile con queso) tamales have become a favorite
recipe.[citation needed]
The cooking of tamales is traditionally done in batches of tens or sometimes hundreds, and the
ratio of filling to dough (and the coarseness of the filling) is a matter of preference.
Instead of corn husks, banana or plantain leaves are used in tropical parts of the country, such
as Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and the Yucatn Peninsula. These tamales are rather square
in shape, often very large 15 inches (40 cm) and these larger tamales are commonly known
as "pibs" in the Yucatn Peninsula. Another very large type of tamale is zacahuil, made in
the Huasteca region of Mexico. Depending on the size can feed anywhere between 50 and 200
people, it is made during festivals, holidays, quinceaeras, and on Sundays to be sold at the
markets.[11][12] Another less-common variation is to use chard or avocado 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 the Spanish conquistadors took back to Spain as proof of
civilization, according to Fray Juan de Zumrraga.
Tamales are usually eaten during festivities, such as Christmas, the Day of the Dead, Las
Posadas, La Candelaria Day (February 2) and Mexican Independence Day.

Central America[edit]
Nicaraguan nacatamales

Salvadorean tamales are made in banana or plantain leaves, and the masa (corn meal) is often
seasoned with chicken stock.

In Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, tamales
are also wrapped in plantain leaves. The masa is usually made from maiz (dent corn in the US,
not sweet corn, which is called elote).
In Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras, tamales without filling 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)
Tamal de chipiln (made with chipiln, a green leaf)
Tamal blanco (simple, made with white corn)
During the Christmas holidays, tamales made with corn flour are a special treat for
Guatemalans and Hondurans. The preparation time of this type of tamale is long, due to the
amount of time required to cook down and thicken the flour base
Guatemala[edit]
Guatemalan cuisine is known in particular for its hundreds of varieties of tamales; some
popular ones include tamales de gallina (chicken), tamales dulces (sweet), and tamales de
elote (in Costa Rica, the name can also refer to a type of corn pastry). In Guatemala, a variety
of tamales is called tamales colorados, which have chicken or pork filling and a tomato-based
sauce (recado), (hence the colorado, which means 'to blush'). It may also contain olives, red
bell pepper, prunes or raisins, capers, and almonds.
Belize[edit]
The tamale is a staple in Belize, where it is also known by the Spanish name bollo[citation
needed]
or dukunu, a green corn tamale.[13]
Nicaragua[edit]
Nicaragua has a large form known as nacatamales.
Panama[edit]
In Panama, where they are considered one of the main national dishes, tamales are fairly
large. The most common fillings are chicken, raisins, onions, tomato sauce, and sometimes
sweet peas. Pork is also used. Another variation is Tamal en olla, or tamal in pot, which simply
is the tamal mixture, not wrapped in either plantain or banana leaves, and served directly from
the pot onto plates. Tamales are usually served for all special occasions, including weddings
and birthday parties, and are always found on the Christmas dinner table.
Costa Rica[edit]
Tamales in Costa Rica vary according to region and season. Most notable are the varieties
from the Central Valley and Guanacaste. One sort of tamales, "tamales mudos" (mute tamales)
are typically served during certain festivities throughout the year. Sweet tamales and corn
tamales are popular during Holy Week. Tamales in Costa Rica are typically eaten with Salsa
Inglesa (English sauce), usually Salsa Lizano, a locally prepared Worcester kind of sauce.

South America[edit]
One version of tamales, called humita, is found in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.
It can be either savoury or sweet. Sweet ones have raisins, vanilla, oil, and sugar; salty ones
can be filled with cheese (queso fresco) or chicken.
Argentina[edit]
Tamales are found in northwestern Argentina (the provinces
of Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca and Tucumn). Tamales salteos are made with shredded meat of
a boiled lamb or pork head, and corn flour wrapped in chalas. Tamales jujeos use minced
meat, corn and red peppers.
Ecuador[edit]
Ecuadorian humitas can be filled with fresh cheese, pork, chicken or raisins, and they are
usually wrapped in corn husk or achira (canna) leaves. Humitas are cooked in the oven or in
the pachamanca. They are not tamales by Peruvian and Argentine standards. In Chile, the
food known as humitas is almost identical to tamales.
Peru[edit]
In Peru and Bolivia the tamales tend to be spicy, large and wrapped in banana leaves. In Lima,
common fillings are chicken or pork, usually accompanied by boiled eggs, olives, peanuts or a
piece of chili pepper. In other cities, tamales are smaller, wrapped in corn husks and use white
instead of yellow corn.
Brazil[edit]
In Brazil, a similar food is called "pamonha", but is more similar to the humita than the tamale,
and has different origins.
Venezuela[edit]
In Venezuela, another variant similar to tamale is called hallaca, which is also a popular dish
in Ecuador. They are wrapped in plantain leaves and filled with a stew that may contain beef,
chicken, pork, almonds, raisins and olives. They are traditionally eaten for Christmas. Also, the
Venezuelan bollos are similar to tamales, wrapped in corn husks, filled with hot peppers or
plain, and eaten as a side dish.
Colombia[edit]
In Colombia, they are wrapped in plantain leaves. The several varieties include the 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 is 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. Related foods
are the envuelto and bollo limpio which are made of corn, cooked in a corn husk, and resemble
a Mexican tamale more closely but have simpler fillings or no filling at all for they are often
served to accompany various foods, and the bollo de yuca made of yuca flour, also cooked in a
corn husk, eaten with butifarra and sour milk(known in the country as suero costeo).

Caribbean[edit]

A tamal dulce breakfast tamal from Oaxaca, Mexico. It contains pineapple, raisins and blackberries.

Cuba[edit]
In Cuba, before the 1959 Revolution, street vendors sold Mexican-style tamales wrapped in
corn husks, usually made without any kind of spicy seasoning. Cuban tamales being identical
in form to those made in Mexico City suggests they were brought over to Cuba during the
period of intense cultural and musical exchange between Cuba and Mexico, between the
1920s and 2000s.[citation needed]
A well-known Cuban song from the 1950s, "Los Tamalitos de Olga", (a cha-cha-cha sung
by Orquesta Aragn) 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
tamale 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.[14]
Trinidad and Tobago[edit]
In Trinidad and Tobago, it is called a pastelle and is associated almost entirely with Christmas.
Raisins and capers along with other seasonings are added to the meat filling. The entire thing
is wrapped in a banana leaf, bound with twine and steamed. The sweet version is
called paymee.[15]
Curaao, Bonaire and Aruba[edit]
On Curaao, Bonaire and Aruba, it is called "Ayaka" in Papiamento. The name is derived from
the Venezuelan "Hallaca". It is usually eaten with Christmas. They are made with corn meal
and there are different kinds of filling, usually consisting of a tomato based sauce with meat
such as chicken, tuna or beef. Fruits, nuts, capers, olives, etc. can be added depending on
family recipes and kind of meat used. The Ayakas are usually wrapped in banana leaves.
United States[edit]
Tamales have been eaten in the United States since at least 1893, when they were featured at
the World's Columbian Exposition.[16] A tradition of roving tamale sellers was documented in
early 20th-century blues music.[16] They are the subject of the well-known 1937 blues/ragtime
song "They're Red Hot" by Robert Johnson.

Delta-style tamales from Clarksdale, Mississippi.

While Mexican-style and other Latin American-style tamales are featured at ethnic restaurants
throughout the United States, there are also some distinctly indigenous styles.
Cherokee tamales, also known as bean bread or "broadswords", were made with hominy (in
the case of the Cherokee, the masa was made from corn boiled in water treated with wood
ashes instead of lime) and beans, and wrapped in green corn leaves or large tree leaves and
boiled, similar to the meatless pre-Columbian bean and masa tamales still prepared in
Chiapas, central Mexico, and Guatemala.
In the Mississippi Delta, African Americans developed a spicy tamale made
from cornmeal (rather than masa), which is boiled in corn husks.[16][17][18] In northern Louisiana,
tamales have been made for several centuries. The Spanish established presidio Los Adaes in
1721 in modern-day Robeline, Louisiana. The descendants of these Spanish settlers from
central Mexico were the first tamale makers to arrive in the eastern US. Zwolle, Louisiana, has
a Tamale Fiesta every year in October.
In Chicago, unique tamales made from machine-extruded cornmeal wrapped in paper are sold
at Chicago-style hot dog stands.[16]

Tamale pie

Around the beginning of the 20th century, the name "tamale pie" was given to meat pies and
casseroles made with a cornmeal crust and typical tamale fillings arranged in layers. Although
characterized as Mexican food, these forms are not popular in Mexican American culture in
which the individually wrapped style is preferred.[19]
 The Indio International Tamale Festival held every December in Indio, California has earned
two Guinness World Records: the largest tamale festival (120,000 in attendance, Dec. 23,
2000) and the world's largest tamale, over 1 foot (0.3 m) in diameter and 40 feet (12.2 m) in
length, created by Chef John Sedlar. The 2006 Guinness book calls the festival "the world's
largest cooking and culinary festival."

Philippines and Guam[edit]

Binaki, a type of sweet tamale from Bukidnon, Philippines

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In the Philippines and Guam, which were governed by Spain as a province of Mexico, different
forms of "tamales" exist. Some are made with a dough derived from ground rice and are filled
with seasoned chicken or pork with the addition of peanuts and other seasonings such as
sugar. In some places, such as the Pampanga and Batangas provinces, the tamales are
wrapped in banana leaves, but sweet corn varieties from the Visayas region are wrapped in
corn husks similar to the sweet corn tamales of the American Southwest and Mexico. Because
of the work involved in the preparation of tamales, they usually only appear during the special
holidays or other big celebrations. Various tamalrecipes have practically disappeared under the
pressures of modern life and the ease of fast food. Several varieties of tamales are also found
in the Philippines. Tamales, tamalis, tamalos, pasteles, are different varieties found throughout
the region. Some are sweet, some are savory, and some are sweet and savory. Mostly
wrapped in banana leaves and made of rice, either the whole grain or ground and cooked with
coconut milk and other seasonings, they are sometimes filled with meat and seafood, or are
plain and have no filling. There are certain varieties, such as tamalos, that are made of a sweet
corn masa wrapped in a corn husk or leaf. There are also varieties made without masa, like
tamalis, which are made with small fish fry wrapped in banana leaves and steamed, similar to
the tamales de charal from Mexico, where the small fish are cooked whole with herbs and
seasonings wrapped inside a corn husk without masa. The number of varieties have
unfortunately dwindled through the years so certain types of tamales that were once popular in
the Philippines have become lost or are simply memories. The variety found in Guam, known
as tamales guiso, is made with corn masa and wrapped in corn husks, and as with the
Philippine tamales, are clear evidence of the influence of the galleon trade that occurred
between the ports of Manila and Acapulco.

See also[edit]

Food portal
 Latin America portal

Botok
Conkies
Humitas
List of maize dishes
List of pork dishes
List of stuffed dishes
Pasteles
Pepes
Suman (food)
Zongzi

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ "tamale - English-Spanish Dictionary -
WordReference.com". www.wordreference.com. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Daniel., Hoyer, (2008). Tamales (1st ed.). Salt Lake City, Utah: Gibbs
Smith. ISBN 9781423603191. OCLC 199465927.
3. Jump up^ William A. Saturno, Karl A. Taube and David Stuart 2005 The Murals of San Bartolo,
EI Peten, Guatemala, Part 1: The North Wall. Ancient America, Number 7. Center for Ancient
American Studies, Barnardsville, NC.
4. Jump up^ Tamales, comadres and the meaning of civilization : secrets, recipes, history,
anecdotes, and a lot of fun. Clark, Ellen Riojas., Tafolla, Carmen, 1951-. San Antonio, Tex.:
Wings Press. 2011. ISBN 9781609401344. OCLC 714645014.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b Olver, L. (2000). Food Timeline. Food Timeline FAQs: Aztec, Maya, & Inca
foods and recipes. Retrieved August 30, 2012, from link
6. Jump up^ Manuel., Aguilar-Moreno, (2007). Handbook to life in the Aztec world. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195330830. OCLC 81150666.
7. Jump up^ LeCount, Lisa J. (December 2001). "Like Water for Chocolate: Feasting and Political
Ritual among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize". American
Anthropologist. 103 (4). doi:10.1525/aa.2001.103.4.935. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
8. Jump up^ Staller, John Edward; Carrasco, Michael (2010). Pre-Columbian Foodways:
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica. New York:
Springer. pp. 349354. ISBN 978-1-