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Mexican Tamales

A traditional Mexican dish of corn dough wrapped in husks and steamed, filled with a spicy red pepper and pork mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mexican Tamales

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Boil the corn with lime and enough water to cover until it begins to peel.

  2. Cool the corn, then rub it between your hands to separate the skin from the kernels.

  3. Rinse the corn in several waters and soak it overnight in water.

  4. The next day, grind the corn in a mortar or food processor.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix the ground corn with warm water and salt, then beat in the melted lard until the dough floats in water.

Make the guiso

  1. For the guiso, toast red peppers without burning them, then soak in tepid water until soft.

  2. Remove seeds and veins, then grind with fried bread, chocolate, cinnamon, and a little stock.

  3. In a saucepan, heat the mixture, then add minced pork and let it boil before using it as stuffing.

Assemble and steam

  1. Prepare washed corn husks and place a generous spoonful of dough on each husk.

  2. Add guiso (stuffing) on top, tie up the husks, and steam for about 4 hours.

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. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Corn + limetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together773 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Lime + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Corn + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe corn
Provides the starch base that becomes the dough once ground.
Lard
Adds fat and moisture, giving the dough a tender, spreadable texture.
Lime
Softens the corn hulls so the skins loosen and the kernels can be ground.
Red peppers
Give the guiso its colour and mild, earthy flavour when toasted and ground.
Fried bread
Thickens the guiso and adds body to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Beating the lard into the dough. The dough should float in water when it is ready, which shows it has been beaten enough to hold air and become light. Under-beaten dough stays dense and heavy after steaming.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, pepper, bread, chocolate, cinnamon, pork):

  1. Cherryfits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, pepper, bread, chocolate, cinnamon, pork. 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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