Do not substitute the ancho powder as it provides a specific taste. Penzeys has an acceptable not expectable ancho powder that has a slightly smoky flavor. At the groceries in this area you find dried ancho peppers later this summer.

As a first time tamale maker expect to have the masa all over everything including your face and hair.

Tamales can be frozen. I did not see the show but most dough is cooked so you would be basically reheating but it is best if you place them on a pan to freeze individually then put them in a bag or container after freezing. If not you will have a hard time separating them even with the husks. The husks should be soaked for probably longer than suggested changing the water a couple of times. Good luck with your experiment.

so I found the husks... I can make tamales for a long, long time! I have long given up on being a super neat cook... easier to do all the clean-up at the end. I have dried Anchos, so will probably just zizz some up as fine as possible. I made the red chili sauce and shredded chicken thighs for filling and it's YUMMY!! has a mess of toasted ancho and New Mexico chilies in the sauce.

the tacos will have a potato/chorizo filling with a tomatillo/avocado sauce.

I have a habit or kinda know what i'm gonna do before I ask for advice. I really wanna see if I can do this so will probably go ahead and make the dough tomorrow and make a few. I fully expect then to be totally edible/yummy but will probably not win any beauty pageants.

I like the idea of freezing tamales separate and then packaging. I have one of those Food-saver vac sealers, so would be pretty much single serving.

You can store the masa in the the fridge for one or two days but it will be denser and your tamales won't be as light. But unless you live where good tamales are abundant and you recognize an excellent tamale (that is subjective) no one will notice.

I have made tamales from scratch only with friends way back when. Where I live fresh tamales are readily available and everyone has their favorite. We even have homemade tamale sellers in parking lots. I am partial to a good pork tamale off the back of a truck myself.

"Where I live fresh tamales are readily available and everyone has their favorite"

Ditto. The best tamales are made by "experts" (as watchme said). And they're for sure not easily found in some areas. But you may be surprised because I believe even those for whom tamales are the food of their own culture prefer, when they can afford it, to buy what someone else has made. It is a specialty item.

About the only tamale that I have not found in this area and I have only read about being made in Mexico is a sweet one with dried fruit and just a few nuts for texture. There was a brief show on PBS that toured Mexico showing off the various regional foods and that was the one thing I have never seen or tasted. I have also not found directions for it. I seem to remember that it had another flour rather than just masa which is dried ground hominy.

Good luck! My next door neighbor used to make them for me. They are labor intensive so I've decided just to buy them when I find a good source.

I remember my mother making these when I was a child. My father adored them; my mother hated making them - a lot of bother.

Very true, maifleur. Mexico is a large country and there are significant regional differences in dishes, flavorings, and even the ingredients used in what to non-Mexicans are thought to be standard, common dishes. The differences can be compared to the regional food differences in China.

Love good tamales!

Let us know how they turn out!

I live in New Mexico so we have tamales everywhere. The fruit ones that maifleur is talking about are only sold around Christmas. Occasionally, there will be strawberry ones in season, but those sell out fast. I have no idea how to make them, though. :)

My contractor's wife makes them and they are to die for!! But then she is originally from Jalisco, so knows what she's doing :-) She is actually going to conduct a tamale making class for myself, my sister and my niece so we can do it ourselves!! Although I can't imagine I would be going to that much trouble all that often just for myself. I'll either take advantage of the occasional appearance of the tamale truck or beg shamelessly for her to share a couple when she goes into tamale production mode.

My SD and her wife live in northern New Mexico and run a restaurant between Santa Fe and Taos. I have asked about the fruit ones and have only been met with stares. by them and their foodie friends. Although I did think that the fruit ones were for Easter.

dough has masa harina, quick grits (boiling water for a soak), fresh/frozen corn, baking soda (powder?) lard& butter. whole thing goes for a ride in the food processor.

there's a little Mexican supermarket nearby and thought for sure I was gonna be able to find everything I needed there... nope.

this may be a ONE time thing, but gonna do it. I made puff pastry ONCE. not difficult, took a LONG time, Pepperidge Farm's is pretty darn good.

It is baking soda. I am surprised at the two differing types of hominy, masa harina and grits, but then nothing surprises me with the Test Kitchens recipes.

I am surprised at the two differing types of hominy, masa harina and grits, but then nothing surprises me with the Test Kitchens recipes.

I went to the Test Kitchen website to look at the recipe. I couldn't access the whole thing since I have zero desire to register. But OMG. I had reread to make sure I was reading it correctly. These people obviously have never eaten Mexican food made by Mexican people.

THIS:
Although masa dough (made from corn kernels that have been cooked with slaked lime, ground to a flour, and mixed with water) is traditional, it can be difficult to find in many parts of the United States. Instead, we turned to widely available masa harina, but found that when used alone, it was too fine-textured and the corn flavor was bland. We tried adding both cornmeal and grits to supplement flavor and texture. Although cornmeal had great corn flavor, the texture of the tamales made with it reminded tasters of corn muffins. Grits, on the other hand, had a more granular texture similar to authentic tamales and didn't sacrifice any of the flavor.

They have no idea that masa harina is flour made by the very process the way they say it is not. The bolding is mine. I won't even go into their experiments with with various fats. Lard people, Lard!!!

LOL, Watchme! Exactly!

My husband loved the show and often wanted me to make something. I did do a few things then decided that most of the recipes were either written by people who do not know about some chemical reactions of ingredients, have a large staff of dishwashers, or simply wanted to make a dish more complicated than necessary. The OP talked about putting the various corn products in a food processor going for a ride in the food processor. While it would chop and mix the corn providing some liquid it would also reduce the size of the rest of the particles. Why talk about the masa being too fine then reduce the grits even finer. Not having seen the recipe but it probably suggests soaking both the masa and the grits in separate bowls for a really short time.

While I do agree with them about having all of your ingredients premeasured before you start I also think the average home cook probably does not have the equipment, bowls/cups etc., to hold everything to make a multiple ingredient food. I always snickered when they would separate all of the spices that were to be included at the same time in their individual containers rather than measuring and placing in one container to dump in all at once.

I haven't seen the tamale show or the recipe. America's Test Kitchen is an offshoot of Cook's Illustrated, whose annoying marketing practices I've long tolerated as a subscriber because I think so highly of the work they do and their approach to food.

Rather than the fluffy style followed historically by so many others in this field, founder (and now bought out and departed) Chris Kimball instead focused the recipe development on sometimes unconventional approaches, the science of the processes and repeated trial and error to optimize flavor and the end results. I believe they started a revolution and have had a profound impact on recipe development and recipe book writing ever since. Alumni of CI, like J Kenji Lopez Alt at Serious Eats, similarly has a loyal following and provides interesting, well researched recipes that work.

They don't bat 1000 and as is not uncommon with recipes from other sources, some recipes are clunkers or simply more difficult than many may want to follow. Some are not unlike Julia Chld's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which has exquisite and classical recipes so long as you have plenty of time and nothing else to do.

As far as putting separate ingredients in little containers on the TV programs, usually glass ones for visibility, that's common on cooking shows so that viewers can see what's there.

I was not talking about the tv show. My husband had me buy over 30 of their cookbooks.

I have never made them, but I think inside of me is a Mexican gene that is trying to get out. There are Mexicans in our town that sell them and will bring them to where I work. One time I ordered 75 of those little jewels for a party. They delivered them without fail. Love those tamales. Wish I had a recipe for you, but I don't. Good luck, I bet you will have people loving what you have done for them.