Hot tamales! Ay yi yi -- what now?

November 26, 2013 5:08 PM

A local group of Latina women make tamales to help raise money for community support of our county's Hispanic workers. They offer a variety of kinds of tamales for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. This year we're having a vegan Thanksgiving, so for the first time I ordered a dozen vegetable-only tamales, and picked them up this afternoon, as instructed.

I assumed they would be wrapped, possibly frozen. Instead I got a large cardboard take-out box full of steaming hot, freshly made tamales. But we're not eating them until day after tomorrow -- what now? I've taken them out of the box, and put them in a single layer on a couple of plates to cool. (Mr. k picked them up, he speaks only English, they spoke only Spanish. Lots of "gracias" on both sides, but no other info.)

They're wrapped in corn husks, and I'm guessing contain corn meal and vegetables. I'll refrigerate them until Thursday, but am clueless on how best to reheat them. Oven? Steam? How high? How long?

Trusting tamale-eating mefites to help me out!

posted by kestralwing to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

At the risk of not answering your question, are you sure they are vegan? The masa is traditionally prepared with lard, even though the filling may be just vegetables. I would worry about serving them to vegan guests without a caveat, if there was a language barrier and you can't be sure. Again, sorry not to answer the reheating question but maybe it's moot and you can eat them yourselves.
posted by payoto at 5:17 PM on November 26, 2013 [12 favorites]

Ditto above. If there's enough of a language barrier that frozen /hot is unclear then I would be very surprised if the masa did not have lard.
posted by PMdixon at 5:21 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Tamales are super simple to reheat, just about any method will work, but the microwave is actually the best way. About five minutes for seven tamales, or until hot. This really is better than the oven, with the advantage of being easier and quicker, too. Tamales aren't meant to be crispy, and the microwave will preserve the texture.

And vegetable lard is much more common than animal lard nowadays.
Just had some this way last night. Oddly enough, they were vegetable tamales from some charity, too.
posted by catatethebird at 5:23 PM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Yeah, they are traditionally made with lard.

Re: reheating them, you don't have to do anything special. Leave them in the husks, and put them in a warm oven for 20 minutes or so. Or if you can't wait that long, put them in the microwave. They'll be delicious either way.
posted by donajo at 5:24 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There's no way the tamales are vegan.

That said, the microwave will work pretty darn well, but I'd actually suggest steaming them. I've found that microwaved tamales tend to have an inconsistent texture (some parts hardened, some parts softened) and baked tamales tend to be dry. They're steamed to cook them in the first place to keep the tamale moist - steaming them to reheat them will keep them that way.

I usually steam tamales to cook them for about an hour. I suspect you could reheat a dozen in twenty minutes in a steamer easily.
posted by saeculorum at 5:25 PM on November 26, 2013 [5 favorites]

(I agree, tamales are tasty when crispy, and I often fry them, but I don't think any traditionally steamed food is meant to be crispy, and if the goal is to have them as close as possible to their original state, the microwave will work great, maybe sprinkle the husks with water if they have dried out.)
posted by catatethebird at 5:33 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

To, uh, actually answer the question, I always microwave wrapped in wet paper towels. May not work well enough masse tho.
posted by PMdixon at 5:35 PM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

I always microwave wrapped in wet towels, but for a big group it might be possible to steam them in a big pot, using a steam basket or veggie steamer. My concern would be that they'd get too soft and crumbly - maybe prep the pot and then put one or two in to test?

The Spanish for lard is "manteca," and if you become as concerned about the veganity of your tamales as some mefites, you could always call the charity and ask if their tamales are made with it. To make things difficult, vegetable shortening can also be called 'manteca vegetal' (also 'grasa vegetal', grasa meaning fat). Personally, I am a don't ask don't tell vegetarian when it comes to holiday tamales. Yum!
posted by theweasel at 5:53 PM on November 26, 2013

Response by poster: To answer the vegan question: the ladies specifically stated "vegan, organic, non-GMO" in their flyer, but our one vegan isn't super strict about it. I'm calling it our "vegan Thanksgiving" to enjoy the horrified looks on people's faces, quickly changing to bright smiles.

Thanks for the answers so far -- sounds like whichever method I use should work okay.
posted by kestralwing at 5:55 PM on November 26, 2013

If you have a crockpot, that is another way to keep the tamales warm or re-heat.
posted by jadepearl at 6:06 PM on November 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: If they used instant masa, like Maseca brand, (the primary one used around here), it's generally mixed with just water. I have friends that do something similar, and believe me, they're using a masa flour.

According to this, it looks like it might well be truly vegan: http://www.veganmexicanfood.com/tamales.htm

We've reheated in both the microwave and in the oven (foil advised). They tend to get brought home in either styrofoam or foil, and just tossed in the fridge like that - we've never had a problem with them drying out.

Making them myself, yes, that's a challenge. Just re-heating them? They're pretty hard to mess up, in our experience.

But oh... you got tamales for Thanksgiving and just got vegetables, no dessert ones? What a silly, silly, person... make sure you try some sometime.

And now I'm craving the dratted things, and I'd bet my favorite tamale-maker isn't doing any this week, because her kids love turkey and mashed potatoes, so she does an American-style Thanksgiving.
posted by stormyteal at 7:28 PM on November 26, 2013

Freeze 'em, then microwave 'em. I bought tamales by the dozen for a while once a week or so, and they come out great like that. The microwave is almost as good as steaming 'em. (I mean, really, just eat them all while they're hot, but if you HAVE to keep them…)

Ignore everyone who thinks they know better on the vegan stuff — it's good to be aware of, but AskMe doesn't like vegans and does like shooting the collective mouth off whether or not they're right.
posted by klangklangston at 8:24 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Mexican here. It's definetly tamales season right now (and every year around this time) and I can confirm that as long as you have good tamales in the first place, there is almost no way of messing up the reheating. I would put a bunch of them on a pyrex or corningwear type container, sprinkle them all with a little water and maybe cover with moist paper towels, and into the microwave they go. Be sure to serve them with refried beans.

And for anyone reading: the spanish singular of tamales is tamal, not tamale.

Enjoy your tamales thanksgiving!
posted by CrazyLemonade at 1:41 AM on November 27, 2013

Best answer: Mexican here too!! My favorite time to eat tamales is not when they are freshly coming out piping hot from the pots (that's my second favorite), my first favorite is when they are reheated! They have a better taste a day or so later so no worries that you have to reheat. The way we reheat them is to put them on a hot flat skillet and "grill" them. As the pic shows it's okay to burn the husk a bit to heat the tamal properly.

Mmmm.. our family eats tamales alone, with no sides except salsa. My mom's homemade salsa for tamales is:

chile de arbol (you can buy bags of this at a Mexican grocery store, they are dried chiles)
tomatillo
a tooth of garlic
salt

Clean the tomatillos, peel the covering and rinse them. Toast/roast the chiles and tomatillos on a flat skillet (comal). Put the chiles and the tomatillos in a blender with a tooth of garlic and a sprinkle of salt, fill with water half way. Blend. If it comes out too thick, add more water until its just right.

Aprovecho! Enjoy!
posted by xicana63 at 6:12 AM on November 27, 2013 [2 favorites]