10 Facts about Tamales

Post On: September 21, 2018

Let me show you the interesting Facts about Tamales. Have you ever heard about this food before? The primary ingredient of tamales is the dough called masa. Corn is used as the base for the dough. It is a type of traditional Mesoamerican dish. The banana leaf or cornhusk will be used to steam it. Before you eat the tamales, you have to discard the wrapping of tamales. Alternatively, you do not have to discard the wrapping by eating the food from the inside. You can prepare various kinds of fillings to make tamales. You can choose chilies, vegetables, fruits, meats or cheese as the fillings. Do not forget to season it before to make it tasty. Here are other nice facts about tamales.

Facts about Tamales 1: the origin of tamales

Can you guess the origin of tamales? They can be traced back in 8000 to 5000 BC in Mesoamerica.

Facts about Tamales 2: the spread of tamales in other areas

The native culture of Guatemala and Mexico spread the tamales preparation into the countries and regions in Latin America.

Tamales

Tamales

Facts about Tamales 3: the purpose of making tamales in the past

Do you know that tamales were considered as the easy portable food during the civilizations of Tolteca, Olmeca, Maya and Aztec? Therefore, they created tamales for food during the long distance travel and hunting trips.

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Facts about Tamales 4: a sacred food

Tamales are considered as a sacred food for the Olmeca, Aztec, Tolteca and Maya people. They considered tamales as the food of the gods. As I have stated before, the base of the food is made of corn. Corn was considered as the primary for those indigenous people. There is no need to wonder that many festivals and rituals of these people involve the use of corn.

Facts about Tamales 5: the ingredient for the tamales by the Aztecs

The common ingredients of tamales created by the Aztecs during the pre-Columbian period included rabbit, beans, squash, fruits, honey, turkey eggs, fish, pocket gopher, frog, flamingo and turkey. Sometimes, they created tamales without any fillings.

Tamales Facts

Tamales Facts

Facts about Tamales 6: the modern and Aztec tamales

Fat was not found in the Aztec tamales. That is why the modern and Aztec tamales are different.

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Facts about Tamales 7: feast of Atamalcualiztli

Feast of Atamalcualiztli is known as eating of water tamales. This feast played an important role in the life of the Aztecs.

Facts about Tamales 8: the importance of tamales among the Mayas

The Mayas served tamales during the festivals, feast and festivities. It was believed that the center of the Mesoamerican diet was on tamales.

Facts about Tamales

Facts about Tamales

Facts about Tamales 9: what is masa?

Masa is a term used to call dough created from corn. The people can choose between the savory and sweet filling inside the tamales. The latter one can be filled with fruit.

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Facts about Tamales 10: the popular filling

The most popular fillings for tamales are chicken and pork.

Are you impressed reading facts about tamales?