Tamales de Chile (1893)
Reader ratingsTamales de chile from Vicenta Labadie de Chaves’s New Mexican recipes of 1893: pork cooked in red chile and salt, on the same beaten masa as the sweet tamales they refer back to.
- Recipe makes
- About 16 tamales
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
The pork simmers for 1½ to 2 hours and can be cooked a day ahead. Soak the husks while it cooks. The tamales steam for about 1¼ hours and rest for 10 minutes.
Red chile pork tamales, one split open, with a bowl of the filling.
The story behind the recipe
Vicenta Labadie de Chaves’s chile tamales take one line in Favorite Dishes, the 1893 cookbook of the Lady Managers of the Chicago World’s Fair. “Lomismo,” it begins: the same, except that instead of sugar, cinnamon and raisins, meat with chile and salt goes in the middle. Everything else, on our reading, is in her sweet tamale recipe.
The same, 118 pages away
The line is printed on page 72, straight after her two chicken dishes, so on its own page “the same” has nothing to point back to. The recipe it almost certainly depends on is her Tamales de Dulce (1893), the only recipe of hers with all three, which the book prints 118 pages later among the desserts. That one gives the method: white corn made into nixtamal, ground fine on the metate, beaten until a piece floats on water, worked with lard, wrapped in corn husks, tied and steamed. Here the masa takes no sugar, and the filling is “carne con chile y sal,” meat with chile and salt, and nothing more.
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
She doesn’t say which meat, or which chile. We use pork, simmered until it falls apart and cooked down in red chile, as the tamales in the 1903 Landmarks Club Cook Book used pork with red peppers. We keep her filling to meat, chile and salt; New Mexican recipes today often add garlic, and you can too. The masa is made from masa harina for tamales, and the pork’s own broth makes a good part of its liquid. We set the amounts. Use ground New Mexico red chile, sold mild or hot, and not chili powder, which is a spice blend.
What Did the Southwest’s Tamales Look Like in Print? follows the two recipes across the book and tells who Vicenta Labadie de Chaves was.
Lomismo, con la excepcion que en lugar de echarles azucar, canela y pasas ...
Recipe makes: About 16 tamales
Ingredients
For about 16 tamales. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 16 tamales.
Filling
- Boneless pork shoulder, in 2-inch pieces1 lb
- Water for the pork4 cups
- Ground New Mexico red chile, mild or hot3 tbsp
- Salt, or to taste1/2 tsp
Masa
- Dried corn husks20
- Masa harina for tamales2 cups
- Warm pork broth or water, or as needed2 cups
- Lard, at room temperature1/2 cup
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 lb boneless pork shoulder, in 2-inch pieces
- 4 cups water for the pork
- 3 tbsp ground New Mexico red chile, mild or hot
- ½ tsp salt, or to taste
- 20 dried corn husks
- 2 cups masa harina for tamales
- 2 cups warm pork broth or water, or as needed
- ½ cup lard, at room temperature
Equipment
- Medium saucepan with a lid
- Large bowl for soaking the husks
- Stand mixer or large bowl and wooden spoon
- Cup of cold water for the float test
- Large pot with a steamer insert and a lid
Instant-read thermometer
Instructions
Put the pork and the water for the pork in the saucepan, bring to a boil, skim off any foam, then cover and simmer gently for 1½ to 2 hours, until the meat falls apart when pressed with a fork.
Lift out the pork and pour the broth into a measuring jug, topping it up with water if it falls short of what the masa needs. Shred the meat with two forks, discarding any gristle.
Put about a third of the broth back in the pan and whisk in the ground red chile. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring, until it thickens a little. Stir in the shredded pork and the salt and cook for 5 minutes more, until the sauce clings to the meat and the mixture is moist but not runny. Taste and add salt if needed. Let it cool. Keep the rest of the broth for the masa.
Meanwhile, put the corn husks in the large bowl, cover with very hot water, weigh them down with a plate and leave for at least 30 minutes, until soft and pliable.
Mix the masa harina with about two-thirds of the warm pork broth or water to a soft dough that holds together. Cover and leave for 15 minutes.
Beat the lard until light and fluffy, about 1 minute with a mixer. Beat in the masa a handful at a time, then the rest of the broth a little at a time, and keep beating for about 5 minutes, until the dough is light and spreads like thick hummus. Add a spoonful more broth if it is still stiff.
Drop a pea-sized piece into the cup of cold water. If it floats, the masa is ready. If it sinks, beat for 2 minutes more and try again; after about 10 minutes of beating in all, go on even if it sinks, and the tamales will be a little denser.
Tear 2 of the husks into thin strips for ties. Lay a husk on the counter, wide end toward you. Spread a heaped spoonful of masa over the wide half in a rectangle about 4 by 3 inches, leaving a margin at the sides. Put a smaller spoonful of the pork down the middle. Fold the sides of the husk over so the masa closes around the filling, fold the narrow end up, and tie it with a husk strip. Repeat with the rest.
Pour water into the pot to just below the steamer insert, and stand the tamales upright in the steamer, folded end down, packed close enough to hold each other up. Cover with any spare husks, put on the lid and bring to a boil.
Steam over medium heat for 1 hour to 1¼ hours, adding boiling water when the level drops, until a husk peels away cleanly from the masa and the filling in the center reads 165°F (74°C).
Take the pot off the heat and leave the tamales to firm up for 10 minutes. Unwrap to eat; the husk is not eaten.
Nutrition
335calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 16 tamales
- Servings
- 8
Estimated per serving of 2 tamales from USDA FoodData Central values for the listed ingredients.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
About 3 tablespoons of masa and 1½ tablespoons of filling to each tamale.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Cook the pork the day before if you like, and keep it covered in the refrigerator with its broth. The tamales keep for 3 days in the refrigerator, or 3 months in the freezer; resteam them in their husks for 15 to 20 minutes, until the center reads 165°F (74°C). Make the sweet and chile tamales from one batch of masa by doubling it, beating in the sugar after the float test, once you have taken out half. Her masa has no salt; if you like a seasoned dough, beat ½ teaspoon of salt in with the lard. Contains no wheat, milk or egg.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Vicenta Labadie de Chaves, in Carrie V. Shuman, comp., Favorite Dishes (Chicago, 1893), Tamales de Chile and Tamales de Dulce
Recipe details
- Course
- Main course
- Dish family
- Meat & Poultry
- Region
- American
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1890s
- Main ingredient
- Pork & ham
- Difficulty
- Intermediate