The making of tamales is a laborious undertaking. After going through a week of cooking for Thanksgiving two weeks ago, I’m not going to do an all day marathon and get these things done in record time. I’ve watched a great video…multiple times…on the how-tos of tamale making so I think I have a pretty good idea of what’s involved. 

The cook in the video makes everything from scratch, including the red chili sauce. I don’t have access to dried red chilis like guajillos, ancho chiles, or chiles de arbol here in the nether regions of West Virginia. So, I am making do with a ready made red enchilada sauce from a can. Yesterday, I seared medium chunks of a good sized Boston butt pork roast. I placed the meat in my 8 qt. cast iron Dutch oven along with half an onion, two bay leaves, some Kosher salt, some whole black peppercorns, and four whole cloves of garlic. I added 10 cups of water, brought it to a boil, covered it with the heavy lid and lowered the heat to a simmer for about three hours. 

The meat came out fork tender, just like the lady in the video said it would. I scooped the meat out of the broth, shredded it with two forks, and covered it tightly with Saran Wrap. When it was cooled, I strained the broth into quart jars, covered them tightly, and everything went into the fridge. I’ll assemble the tamales today sometime then steam them. It’s labor intensive and I can see why women get together in groups and make hundreds of them at a time. It is a tradition in most Hispanic cultures.

Other than that, and cleaning the kitchen twice, I didn’t get much else accomplished. We’ll see what today brings. The nice thing about getting the pork prepared yesterday…if I don’t feel like making the tamales today, I can bag up the cooked meat and freeze it then get it out when I’m ready. Easy peasy!

And the big bonus? It was still nearly 60° T 11:00 last night! Guess who slept in the camper???

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“My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”

Isaiah 32:18 ESV