Posted on 03/23/2023 6:15:47 AM PDT by Red Badger
(Last Updated On: March 16, 2023)
NATIONAL TAMALE DAY
Sweet or savory, National Tamale Day on March 23rd celebrates a traditional Mexican dish made from a cornmeal dough and filled with a variety of meats, vegetables, or fruit.
#NationalTamaleDay
Traditional tamales are made with a dough called masa. When making tamales, you spread the dough on a corn husk or banana leaf before adding the fillings. Then you wrap the leaves around the entire package and steam it into a fragrant, mouthwatering meal. While they are popular street food in South America and the southern United States today, the tamale likely has its origins in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 to 5000 B.C.
Masa is made from nixtamalized cornmeal. Nixtamalized corn has been soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution such as limewater or hardwood ash to remove the seed husk.
Savory tamales consist of beans, rice, cheese, pork, chicken, turkey, and various vegetables and seasonings. Traditionally, people enjoy the tamale fresh from its steamy package, unenhanced by salsa and crema. However, that isn’t to say that you shouldn’t drizzle a little hot sauce or guacamole if you choose.
Dessert tamales satisfy sweet tooths of every kind. Think fruity, caramel, and creamy steamed hand pies. Usually a smaller version of the hearty, savory tamale, these dessert tamales provide a little indulgence at the end of a meal.
HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL TAMALE DAY
Discover a delicious new recipe on National Tamale Day.
Take a cooking class to learn how to make authentic tamales.
Share your favorite tamale recipe with others.
Teach others how to make authentic tamales.
Visit your favorite street vendor or restaurant for savory and dessert tamales. Be sure to give them a shout-out on social media.
Let us know what your favorite kind of tamale is.
Attend a tamale festival or celebration. There are over 40 across the nation.
Try this delicious tamale recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch.
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/mexican-tamales/
When you celebrate, use #NationalTamaleDay to share on social media.
NATIONAL TAMALE DAY HISTORY
In 2015, Richard Lambert, owner of Santa Barbara-based Tamales-To-Go, founded National Tamales Day to celebrate the family’s love of tamales and his signature dish. They chose March 23rd to encourage the enjoyment of tamales all year long and because the only food competition on the calendar was Melba Toast.
Tamale FAQ
Q. Are tamales sweet or savory?
A. Tamales are versatile and can be made either sweet or savory.
Q. Can tamales be frozen?
A. Yes. It’s important to allow the cooked tamale to come to room temperature before sealing in an airtight, freezer-safe container.
Yeah I read the post. I’ve had food that wasn’t great loads of times, but the can I bought seemed unusually bad. Maybe that is just how they are created to taste, but it seemed to me to be almost rancid.
Having canned food that is off would be extremely unusual, canned food is either perfect or deadly uneatable if the can leaked or bulged.
I don’t know what your experience could have been unless you were taking medication or having an off day tastewise or pulled a Gerald Ford.
Try another can.
Even if I served some canned bread with it all?
Hot and brown going in, hotter ‘n browner going out.
Double barf!
But, you have at :-)
I do enjoy a good tamale. I’d never had them until I moved to Houston a bazillion years ago. Texas ain’t my place; I lived there for 3 years, but I did very much enjoy the Tex-Mex food.
My fav is FAJITAS!..................
Leave the gun. Take the tamales......................
Yes, I agree. Canned anything is a shelf stable version of whatever it’s trying to mimic.
LOL.
Yeah i will probably try another- i like quick easy meals sometimes- but definitely a different brand- maybe that is just how that brand tastes- but wow- if so- not sure how folks stand it-
I love authentic Tex-Mex tacos.
There used to be a restaurant in Columbus, OH called Talita’s that had the BEST Tex-Mex food. Talita was originally from Brownsville, TX as I recall. We were thinking of going back on a recent visit, but it appeared to be permanently closed on a web search. I think it bit the dust because of CoVid. Such a shame, it was around for quite some time.
We have a plethora of Mexican, Tex-Mex and Southwest Cuisine restaurants here in our town.
And almost as many Thai-Chinese-Japanese restaurants!..................
You’re close enough to the border to get so many.
There were others in Cbus besides Talita’s, but Talita’s was the only authentic Tex-Mex one IMHO.
We have some decent ones here where I live now, but still none can compare to Talita’s. Something about her crunchy corn tacos filled with savory beef are just reminiscent of the type I would get back in Texas. No frills and scrumptious with a capital S.
That definitely is for when the SHTF. I hope things don’t ever get that bad, but they might!
Now you’re cookin’!
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