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Of Every Grade and Description

Seasoned cornmeal paste with a meat filling, wrapped in corn husks and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Trinity Church (Reno, Nev.). Woman's Guild · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Of Every Grade and Description

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the paste

  1. Scald 1 1/2 cups cornmeal with 2 cups boiling water.

  2. When cool, add 1 cup wheat flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/4 cup sweet lard, and mix well.

  3. Spread a tablespoon of the paste in the center of the inside of 24 well-washed corn husks.

Fill and wrap

  1. Put an olive and a tablespoon of the meat filling on each of 8 of the husks with paste.

  2. Stew the meat filling till done and dry before putting it into the husks.

  3. Roll up the husks containing the meat.

  4. Wrap 2 husks containing only paste around each of these.

  5. Tie the ends together with strings made from husks.

  6. Trim off the ends of strings and wrappers.

  7. Wrap each tamale in a piece of cloth tied on to keep the paste from oozing out while still soft.

Cook

  1. Boil in plenty of water an hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1183Calories
58 gProtein
44 gFat
137 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Trinity Church (Reno, Nev.). Woman's Guild. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Scalded cornmeal forms the body of the paste, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Sweet lard
Adds fat that keeps the paste soft and moist and carries flavor.
Wheat flour
Adds starch that helps bind the paste so it holds together when wrapped.
Lean beef
Provides the main filling, cooked until dry so it does not make the husks soggy.

The step that matters

Stew the meat filling till done and dry. A filling that stays wet will soften the paste and husks and can make the tamales spill or turn soggy during boiling. Cooking it until dry keeps the wrapped tamales firm.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, beef, corn, onion, milk, egg, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, beef, corn, onion, milk, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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