Más Tamales.

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Más means more in Spanish.
Yep I picked up more stuff to make tamales.
That's what I'll be doing for New Years Eve but I'll cook the pork and make the masa the day before.
More corn husks.
Red ripe jalapeños.
Habaneros.
More >>>>real<<<< lard from the Mexican market leftover from making carnitas.
A 10 pound pork butt.
A pound of guajillo chilies because you can't have enough.
And so on.

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Now it's a 12 pound pork butt.
I had one in the freezer that is running at -4F in a factory vacuum sealed bag.
I taste tested it and it is as fresh as a daisy with no weird taste or smell.
That's after about 2 years.
It's in the oven at 250F after I brought it to a good boil on the stove top.
It'll stay in the oven all night at around 225F.
Fresh pork not kept at such a low temperature will go rancid.
Since it was factory vacuum sealed there isn't any freezer burn.

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The peppers. 🌶

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The giant pork roast was turned down to 200F in the oven all night in a 16 quart kettle with lid on and salted water.
This morning looked thoroughly cooked and tender.
Turned oven off and went to work.
Getting home early and it'll take that long to cool off anyway.

[karstopography]

Tamales are wonderful when they are wonderful. I’ve never made them. There seems to be an ideal masa to filling ratio. The masa shouldn’t be too dense in my opinion, but full of great corn flavor. Some tamales I’ve had would be what I think are overstuffed with filling. Some are almost nothing but masa. I’ve had some good ones, but cannot remember the details. I like some heat, but I’ve had tamales that are too spicy.

Once a long time ago I shot a feral boar hog and we, dad, had tamales made by I’m not sure whom. This was a good sized South Texas feral boar, maybe not the biggest, but at least 150 pounds or so. For whatever reason, those were delicious tamales. No telling what parts of the animal they used, but I remember the meat having an ideal fat to lean ratio and being especially tender and seasoned just right. I think the deal was we supplied the boar and they made the tamales on shares. Maybe dad paid them some money too.

Someone comes by my wife’s office from time to time selling tamales. They are good. We usually get a dozen or two.

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I got home at exactly 1:30.
The first thing I did was wash my hooves and pull the pork butt out of the oven.
The internal temperature was 150F the water temperature was around 140F.
That's with the oven on all night at 200F and turned off for 9 hours.
Simply amazing.
And here's the wee bone that just came out with a pull.

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Got the beast out of one kettle and into another one with a basket so it can drain and cool.
The bone weighed 5 ounces.
Now I have a giant kettle of pork broth to make the other goodies with like the masa and rehydration of the chilies.
And at no time did the temperature get to an unsafe level for those that thought it would.

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I have no idea what I'm doing.
The powder is toasted cumin and clove with salt and black pepper added.
Red jalapeños habanero yellow onions.
The chilies in the kettle are guajillo ancho and Morita soaking in pork broth.
Garlic in another container.

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Making the salsa in the blender by adding a little of the juices from hydrating the chilies.
But first test it to see if it is bitter.
Mine wasn't.
Added the cooked garlic and made a paste then put in the cumin powder mix one teaspoon at a time.
Adding regular pork broth I put in one of the onions.
By gradually adding the hydrated chilies it came up close to the top.
That's when I started adding the red jalapeños and habanero two at a time and blending.
Was taste testing as I went adding salt as needed.
Got three of them in tasting and had to stop and take a tasting break.
Not due to heat but to just cleanse the palate.
I find this essential when preparing a food with many flavors.
I don't expect to put in all the habaneros but wanted to have them on hand.
And they had the seeds removed.
I'm looking for the distinct habanero flavor without too much heat.
Probably not gonna happen but I can take the heat.

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Decided to stop fooling around and put the rest of the chilies in.
Not the hydrated ones but the habanero and jalapeño.
After blending I ran everything through a fine mesh strainer into another kettle.
After everything went through I put the pulp back in the blender and added more broth.
Then back through the strainer.
What I got was a very creamy salsa no skins and no seeds.
In my opinion the flavor is astounding.
I did this like I have seen countless Mexican women do.
I consider it pretty darn authentic.

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Next I put some oil in my enameled Dutch oven heated it up and fried the salsa, yes fried the salsa because that's what many do.
Added some salt and more of the cumin clove powder.
Chopped up another roasted onion.
Then I added the cut up pork and mixed in.
Since the pork was cold I put the lid on put stove on low to let it heat up and meld all the flavors.
This stuff isn't anything close to being spicy hot.
The flavor has a sweet yet savory taste due to the ripe chilies.
Nothing overpowering and you can't taste clove.
You honestly can't pick out anything but it all comes together.

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I had a little of the salsa leftover and more rehydrated chilies.
Added the rest of my roasted onions I can't remember how many habaneros maybe 8 and two red jalapeños.
Some chicken bullion for the salt and flavor.
Blended it all up and now have more salsa for the rest of the pork.
I'll probably make the tamales in two stages.
It's a lot of tamales and that second batch come hell or high water is going to be hot.

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@karstopography
My idea of the perfect fat to meat ratio is about the same as a good sausage.
Just about what you get in a pork butt.
My idea of a perfect masa to filling ratio is sort of complicated.
The masa should be 1/2 the radius of the tamale more or less.
So let's say the diameter of the tamale is 1 inch the thickness of the masa would be 1/4".
This would give the diameter of the filling 1/2".
Or you could go less and have the masa 1/8" but nothing less and not more than the 1/4".
A lot has to do with the making of the masa and how long you cook the tamale.
You can over cook them.
I have yet to consistently make the perfect tamale mostly due to the assembly process.
As far as hot is concerned I like them hot enough to get a good hot taste but not so hot i have to stop eating them.
Not nowhere as hot as Roy Smithhart's red extra hot sausage used to be in Clute.
That stuff was ridiculous and he told me he wouldn't even eat it.
He told me the reason he made it was because the Cajuns complained about his sausage not being hot enough.
The regular stuff was good.

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Everything is ready for the assembly except me but I gotta do it.
Used some of the salsa in the masa for flavor and color.
Also added chicken bullion for flavor and much needed salt.

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No idea how many but they came out super fantastic.
I had one for supper.

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The perfect tamale for breakfast.
Total count was 45.

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New batch of masa made with Maseca Amarillo.
Thought I would give it a try.
Same stuff you make yellow corn tortillas from but is also good for tamales and much much more.

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I'm finished.
70+ tamales cooking on the stove, I think I've made close to, if not a little more than 200 tamales.
I knew I could do it.

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I checked the price of HEB delicatessen tamales.
At 11.69 for 5 tamales I've made $467 worth of tamales.
I don't think they come close to mine.
This outrageous price for tamales is the reason I made so many.
I couldn't put myself to pay that much for a tamale.

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The tamales past the taste test at work.
Gave Salazar a bakers dozen to take home.