re: Delta Tamales

Where is the Manuel’s recipe?

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Where is the Manuel’s recipe?

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recipe from the NOLA TP

posted below in case that link ever disappears

Judy Walker
PUBLISHED MAY 3, 2007 AT 3:18 PM | UPDATED JUN 25, 2019 AT 11:28 AM
Comments

This recipe ran in the Times-Picayune in the early 1970s and is similar to Manuel's Hot Tamales, which did not return after Hurricane Katrina.

Homestyle hot tamales

Makes about 90

3 pounds ground chuck
4 medium onions, finely chopped
3 ounces chili powder
2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
4 or 5 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1/2 cup plain corn meal plus more for rolling

Mix by hand in a large bowl the meat, onion, 2 ounces chili powder, 1 can tomato sauce, water, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne and 1/2 cup corn meal. Prepare two shallow bowls, one with water and one with additional plain corn meal. Take about 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture at a time and shape into a small log. Roll lightly in additional corn meal.

Roll in paper that has been passed through water (one paper at a time). Close one end and roll up, folding remaining edge under. Put tamales in rows in opposite directions in a large roaster that can be covered and used on the stove.

Bring two quarts water to a boil and add remaining tomato sauce and 1 ounce chili powder. Cover tamales with mixture, adding more water if needed. Cover and simmer for 2 hours on stovetop. Serve warm with buttered crackers. Tamales re-warm well in microwave.


what I did different: I did NOT add the cayenne since my dad is recovering from throat cancer, and I made them for him. I cooked the seasoned meat first and let it set in the pot in the refrigerator for a few days to season like chili or gumbo. Then took the chilled meat and made the meat logs using a jerky gun. Lightly dusted in corn meal, rolled in wet tamale papers, and cooked in the seasoned water

Within the Delta, the city of Greenville is a hotbed of hot tamales. In the early part of the twentieth century, river commerce drew many Sicilians to the area. It’s possible that migrant Mexican laborers who came through the Delta might have shared their tamale tradition with these Italian immigrants. Delta tamales may have developed from the African American dish called cush. Lumumba Ajanaku, a tamale vendor in Yazoo City, talks about cush in his interview: “Some say [hot tamales] come from an old word that we use called cush, you know. A lot of the Africans would just take meal and season the meal…because a lot of them didn’t have enough money to buy meat like they wanted, so they would take the meal and season the meal. And the meal would taste so good it tasted like meat was in it.”
--from that article.

Maybe the dish known as cush cush came from this in some way? My grandmother made cush cush, much to my enjoyment.

ETA: I appreciate the education on tamales here. There once was an old man who came through my hometown selling the juicy seasoned tamales, probably the "delta style" when I was a kid and that was all that I knew for a long time. I've since ordered tamales at restaurants now mostly disappointed, never getting that same quality as I had once known.

This thread has me obsessed with the tamales we got from Coney Island on south side of Monroe back in the day (in the 70s) and explains why nothing has ever seemed near as good since.

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Alabaster

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Yep. Just figured out where I'll lunch tomorrow. LINK

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Manuel's

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This is what I grew up on but didn’t realize they were considered delta tamales. When I worked at Ben’s Pizza in high school, we sold a shite ton of Manuel’s Tamales

Pretty sure the bowl of water is to soak the tamale wrappers in before wrapping. I first used coffee filters because the parchment paper wrappers had not been recvd yet.

I cooked the seasoned meat first, let cool, and placed pot in fridge for several days. The orange looking stuff is the chilled grease


Then used a jerky gun to make the tamale logs that were chilled and cold. If the meat is warm it falls apart. Cold meat with the grease acts as a binder to keep them from falling apart.



It honestly looks like cat turds. Lightly dust in corn meal since it expands



Manuel’s were full of grease from the ground chuck and wrapped in newspaper. Due to the volume of tamales, Manuel’s were laid flat and stacked on top each other. I only cooked 6 dozen and stood them up

I have a deer roast I was thinking about making tamales with after reading your post. Do think I should mix the venison with a pork shoulder or ground chuck?

Personally, I’d save that deer roast and make a brown gravy with smothered onions.

I bought 2.5 lbs of fine ground chuck at local meat market for $10. Came out perfect texture and consistency.

I hate to bump this thread, but I am attempting to make these today with a few tweaks, will update with pictures once completed.

The part I am confused about is how the outer piece of the tamale takes shape if I'm just rolling it in the corn meal, just doesn't seem sufficient enough.