Skip to main content
Main

Spanish Tamales

A corn-based tamale with raisins, eggs, butter, milk, sugar, and spices, wrapped in corn leaves and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Spanish Tamales

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Roll the raisins in flour.

  2. In a bowl, combine the beaten eggs, melted butter, milk, sugar, and grated corn.

  3. Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt, and mix well.

Wrap and cook

  1. Overlap two or three large corn leaves like shingles.

  2. Place a tablespoon of the batter on the leaves, fold the edges up, and roll tightly.

  3. Tie the rolls with twine and boil in salted water for 30 minutes.

  4. Serve cold.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and set into a soft, custard-like texture when cooked.
Fresh corn
Supplies the main body and natural sweetness of the batter.
Flour
Adds starch that thickens the batter so it holds its shape when boiled.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the batter as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and adds to its tender texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Rolling the tamales tightly. If the rolls are loose, the batter can escape or swell unevenly in the boiling water, so tight wrapping and secure tying help the tamales hold their shape while they cook.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, milk, sugar, corn, flour, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, milk, sugar, corn, flour, cinnamon. 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.

You might also like

Corn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesCream of Corn SoupCream of Corn Soup50 recipesGreen Corn SoupGreen Corn Soup46 recipesCornmeal GruelCornmeal Gruel41 recipes