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Tamale Pie

A casserole of seasoned round steak, onions, green chilies, tomatoes, olives, and cornmeal mush baked in broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Tamale Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mush

  1. Bring 2 quarts of well‑salted water to a boil in a large pot.

  2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter or lard in a separate pan.

  3. Stir in ½ cup yellow cornmeal to the melted fat until a mush forms.

Make the filling

  1. Boil the round steak until tender, then chop it with the onions and green chili peppers.

  2. Cook the chopped mixture in the melted fat, adding tomatoes and salt to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the bottom of a large baking pan with the cornmeal mush.

  2. Layer the meat mixture over the mush, then olives, and repeat the layers.

  3. Finish with a top layer of mush, moisten with the meat broth, and bake at 300°F for 1 hour.

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.

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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow cornmeal
Thickens the water and fat into a mush that forms the firm base and top layers.
Round steak
Provides the main meat filling, which becomes tender through long boiling.
Onions
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the chopped meat filling as it cooks.
Green chili peppers
Adds mild heat and fresh flavor to the meat filling.
Tomatoes
Adds moisture and acidity, building the sauce that binds the filling.

The step that matters

Stir the cornmeal into the fat. Cornmeal must be added gradually and stirred steadily so it hydrates evenly; adding it all at once can leave lumps and an uneven, stiff mush.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, tomato, olive):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, tomato, olive. 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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