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Pan Tamales

A layered casserole of cornmeal mush with meat, olives, raisins, and tomatoes, baked slowly.

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 ↓

Pan Tamales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cook the meat in plenty of liquid until tender, then cut into small pieces.

  2. Butter a baking dish.

Layer

  1. Layer a thin layer of mush in the dish, followed by meat, olives, raisins, salt, pepper, and tomatoes.

  2. Repeat the layering with mush, meat, and seasonings.

  3. Top with a final thin layer of mush and pour the meat liquid over it, adding butter if the meat is lean.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 ½ hours.

  2. Serve from the baking dish with butter on top.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal mush
Forms the firm, sliceable layers that hold the filling together as it bakes.
Lean beef, chicken, pork or veal
Provides the main savoury body and protein of the filling, tender after simmering.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that season the layers and keep the dish from drying out.
Olives
Add salty, briny flavour that contrasts with the sweet raisins and rich meat.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping moisture and flavour in lean meat.

The step that matters

Top with a final thin layer of mush and pour the meat liquid over it. Mush that is too thick or layers that are too deep can bake dry or dense. Keeping the layers thin and moistening the top with cooking liquid helps the dish stay moist as the starch sets during baking.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

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