The first culinary use of the rendered tallow came with quite the learning curve. I’ve eaten tamales many times, in many different iterations, but had never made them. Fortunately, I came across an excellent video tutorial. While a basic understanding of Spanish helps, this video is easy to follow without.
The rendered tallow is worked by hand until it resembles frosting. The batter is then kneaded with warm vegetable broth to insure complete hydration of the Maseca corn flour. It is said that to test when the batter is ready, a small chunk will float in a glass of chilled water. That chunk remained floating during the entire process of filling and steaming two batches. I am still extremely proud.
For the filling, I used a 2.5 pound boneless pork loin (what I had on hand) simmered in vegetable broth in the slow cooker on low for roughly six hours. I used two different salsas to dress the meat: leftovers from my most recent canning and a green tomato/avocado based sauce.
For dinner, we ate them immediately as is. Fortuitously, I preferred the green (topped with red), while my partner preferred the red. For breakfast, I made myself a feast with an over-medium egg and fresh cilantro garnish.
The recipe is straightforward, the fussiest part is creating the correct consistency. I needed to add twice the liquid called for to form a spreadable batter. At its base, all you need is lard (or tallow), vegetable (or other) broth, salt, baking powder, and Maseca corn flour which is easily found at any major grocery store. The filling can be any shredded meat with sauce or it can be made vegetarian by substituting Crisco for lard with corn, beans, peppers, and cheese. Without someone to teach me, having a video that really shows the textural changes the batter undergoes while kneading was tantamount to my success.
Tamales were a lot more work than I anticipated, but the flavor was better than anything I’ve had before. To achieve this, I recommend using an extremely flavorful broth and not skimping on the salt. Luckily, tamales freeze very well and we have a few more meals to enjoy in the future.
Eat - Drink - Both 