Homemade Pork Tamales
 

I just made homemade pork tamales for the very first time this week-end. We love tamales but have always bought them in the past. So this past week I was looking at the Whippoorwill Holler YouTube channel & she showed how to make the tamales with the recipe & everything. They turned out absolutely delicious! I tweaked the Red Sauce a bit & added it to the pork roast liquid while in the slow cooker. Other than that I followed it exactly like she showed. Here's a link to her recipe. I'm really enjoying watching her homestead videos. Her & her husband seem to be such sweet, sweet people. Oh, one thing I learned is that you don't want to stuff them in the steamer to tight. Mine took about twice the time to cook. :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL79rkAE_5Q

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I too love Tamales and have made my own twice. They are a lot of work but they do freeze well. When I want tamale flavor without all the work, I will make tamale pie. It is basically a giant tamale done in a casserole dish cooked in a water bath in the oven instead of the individual ones wrapped in corn husks and steamed. It is almost as good as traditional tamales.

We vacationed near Tucson AZ & I made a stop in a grocery store where I heard a woman order 50# of tamale meat ! Hope she had help coming !

Tamales are a Christmas tradition at our house. Everyone loves them. Sometimes they even help me make them, which makes it all so much easier. We always make the pork ones for those that are traditionalists, but then we make others that are a bit more offbeat: veggie, cream cheese and olives, corn, green chiles and Mexican cheese, picadillo, sugar and cinnamon (dulce,) wild mushroom...the list is endless.

Making the sauce is a job in itself. You can simplify things by starting out with enchilada sauce (green, or red,) and tweaking it from there. We used to use lard for the dough, but now we use a veggie shortening, which makes the dough lighter and I think, tastier. Some people add baking powder to their dough for a light, fluffy tamale, while others go without. We've done it both ways and we can't decide which is better. We ALWAYS put an olive in the center of the savory ones.

~C

OMG my sister and I just got thru discussing making these tamalas from Whipperwill Holler video..fantastic video..she has a lot more videos also..my sister just ordered the masa spreader from Amazon..we plan on making these around Christmas time..going to be so much fun...

I can eat tamales day and night !
I use the chicken broth in the masa instead of water. I also found that a teaspoon of cloves in the filling makes it taste just like Tex Mex tamales. I also use J. Dean Hot sausage instead of pork or hamburger meat. I make about 50 to 60 at a time. I just wished it didn't take so long to make them. syl

I love tamales, but there's no way I'll make them(LOL), wayyyyyyyyyy too much work. LOL