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Tamale Pie

A baked dish of cubed steak and pork with olives, raisins, dried chilis, and cornmeal gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. 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 meat

  1. Cut the shoulder steak and pork shoulder into 1‑inch cubes.

  2. Cover the meat with 6 cups of boiling water and cook for 2½ hours, salting to taste.

  3. Thicken the gravy with 3 tablespoons of cornmeal.

  4. Boil the garlic and dried chilis until tender, then rub through a sieve.

  5. Add the olives and raisins to the meat mixture.

Make the cornmeal crust

  1. In a separate pot, add lard to 2 cups of boiling water.

  2. Gradually add 1 cup of cornmeal and cook for 15 minutes, salting to taste.

  3. Let the mixture cool enough to line a baking pan, reserving some for the top.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the meat mixture in the pan and cover with the remaining cornmeal mixture.

  2. Bake for 1 hour at 300°F (150°C).

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. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Olive + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pork + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,716 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork shoulder
Becomes tender and rich during long simmering, giving the filling its main body and flavour.
Shoulder steak
Adds beefy flavour and meaty texture to the filling during the long cook.
Cornmeal
Forms the thickened gravy and the cornmeal base that lines the pan and tops the pie.
Dried chilis
Provide the main chili flavour and colour once boiled and pressed into the sauce.
Lard
Adds fat and richness to the cornmeal mixture, softening its texture and flavour.
Raisins
Add sweetness that balances the savoury chili and meat.

The step that matters

Cooling the cornmeal mixture before lining the pan. If the cornmeal mixture is too hot it stays loose and cannot hold a shape. Letting it cool and thicken lets it form a firm lining and top that holds the filling.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, olive, clove, garlic):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, olive, clove, garlic. 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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