People who make homemade tamales, usually have a quirky ritual, an improvisation, a tried-and-true rule, a tip from a sage abuelita, a fusion style approach or an unlikely, unconventional ingredient that ends up being delicious. They also have lots of anecdotes and memories of tamaladas.
If this is true for you, too, share your tip, rule, ritual or anecdote with us!
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Here are some examples — but there are as many ways to approach this request as there are tamal-makers!
We want to know what makes your tamales season bright. Tell us about an ingredient or recipe, a favorite tamal maker, a family tamalada memory.
Examples:
In my family, in making tamales, the “water test” must be performed in preparing the masa dough. This is akin to the wall test for spaghetti. The tamal test is a little bit different—even though masa does end up on the wall … and the floor … and the cat ... and somehow, on the Christmas tree. Here’s the test: When you think it’s ready, put a dollop of masa in a glass of room temperature water. If it floats, it’s ready. If it doesn’t float, it’s not ready. Don’t proceed until it floats or you will single-handedly ruin everyone’s Christmas. And their New Year's Eve!
In my house, we don bandanas—instead of hairnets—while we labor to prepare the tamales. It’s just an extra measure we take in preparing so much food that will be consumed by so many members of our family. At first, we feel self-conscious and giggle at how we look. Over the years, the bandana has become a uniform for this little club that brings us together. Whenever I see a bandana, I smile to think about all the Christmas seasons I've spent making tamales with my family. When I visit my mom back home, I see that she has photos of her bandana-wearing, tamal-making daughter on her refrigerator—after all these years.
When we are setting about to make tamales, my mom turns on the small TV in her kitchen and tunes in to the Hallmark channel and a Christmas movie marathon. But it isn’t long at all that we’ve lowered the volume because our own conversations while we work are far more interesting. They never make tamales in Hallmark movies. And anyway, eventually we put on some music—a little Juan Gabriel or Paquita la del Barrio–and dance around while we work.
In recent years, while we work on making tamales at my mother’s house, we recall earlier years when a particular clerk at a tortilleria would greet us during those early dawn hours when we purchased the ingredients we needed. He always had a funny thing to say to us that we still recall and laugh about today. We think it’s kind of miraculous that in my hometown, there are still a few tortillerias where one can buy authentic ingredients for making tamales. May these places that have endured for generations live on forever in San Antonio, Texas!