Sohla Cooks 3000-Year-Old Tamales for the Holidays | Ancient Recipes With Sohla
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It’s holiday season in the Ancient Recipes kitchen, so Sohla creates a holiday staple with truly ancient origins — tamales!
THE RECIPE
Masa Dough Recipe:
— 1 pound fresh masa
— ½ teaspoon kosher salt
— Dried corn husks
1. Beat together fresh masa and kosher salt with 1 tablespoon of water at a time until spreadable.
Mayan Iguana Filling Recipe:
— 4 dried guajillo chilies
— 2 dried chipotle chilies
— ½ pound tomatillos
— 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into quarters
— 1 pound boneless iguana meat
— 1 tablespoon dried epazote
— 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
1. Use scissors to trim the stems off the guajillo and chipotles chilies and cut open. Remove the seeds.
2. In a dry skillet or comal, toast the chiles until fragrant and darkened.
3. Cover with warm water and soak at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
4. In a dry skillet or comal over medium-high heat, char the tomatillos and onion until blackened all around.
5. Add the tomatillos and onion to a molcajete or blender. Drain the chiles and add them in as well. Crush them all together in the molcajete adding water as you go to bring them together. Or if using a blender, add just enough water to cover and blend until smooth.
6. In a medium saucepan or dutch oven, add the iguana meat, chili puree, epazote, salt, and enough water to almost cover the meat (add water if needed, the puree might be enough liquid). Cover and bring to a simmer.
7. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer, and cook uncovered until the iguana is tender.
8. Using two forks, shred the iguana meat into small pieces.
Aztec Guava Filling Recipe:
— 1 pound guavas, roughly chopped
— 2 dried chipotle chilies
— 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
— One 3‑inch cinnamon stick
— ½ teaspoon kosher salt
1. Combine the guavas, chipotles, coriander, cinnamon, and salt in medium saucepan and add enough water to come halfway up the fruit.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook gently, breaking up the fruit with a wooden spoon, until the fruit is totally tender and jammy, about 1 hour.
3. Pass the mixture through a colander or food mill to remove the seeds and spices.
Assembling & cooking the tamales:
— Corn husks
1. Soak the corn husks overnight.
2. Spread the masa evenly on the husk creating a thin layer.
3. Add in a spoonful or two of either filling.
4. Roll the tamale onto itself either in the traditional tamale shape or in the historical ball shape. Tie it together to keep its shape
5. Place a layer of medium sized rocks at the bottom of a large stock pot. Add enough water to come up about halfway on the rocks.
6. Place soaked corn husks on top of the rocks.
7. Add the tamales on top of that, being careful not to have any filling spill out.
8. Steam the tamales until the masa is tender and done
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CREDITS
Host
Sohla El-Waylly
Created By
Brian Huffman
Executive Producers
Sarah Walker
Brian Huffman
Jon Erwin
Executive Producer
Sohla El-Waylly
Co-Producer
John Schlirf
Writers
Jon Erwin
Diana Davis
Historian — Scripts
Ken Albala
Guest
Delia Lubin
Post-Production Supervisors
Jon Erwin
John Schlirf
Editors
John Schlirf
Aaron Mackof
Colorist
John Schlirf
Mixer
Tim Wagner
Manager, Rights & Clearances
Chris Kim
Executive Creative Director, A+E Networks
Tim Nolan
VP, Marketing Production, A+E Networks
Kate Leonard
VP, Brand Creative, History
Matt Neary
Music Courtesy of
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A+E Signature Tracks
Additional Footage & Photos Courtesy of
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#Sohla #Cooks #3000YearOld #Tamales #Holidays #Ancient #Recipes #Sohla
Here we are! Tamales!
Did you use the correct side of the husk? The smooth side, because even lard lamented tamales will stick to the rough side.
I remember it getting below freezing in Florida a few years back. And they were falling out of trees and people were eating them saying their delicious.
She sounds like a “No Sabo Kid” with the pronunciations of the ingredients. 😂 I appreciate her taking on the challenge though.
pig ears are outstanding
thank you for bringing light to indigenous culture & history. most people only say “Latino” or “Hispanic” when they talk about indigenous culture in Latin America. it’s frustrating trying to explain to people that a tamale or tamal is originally an indigenous food.
Maybe wet the temale husks first…?
Do-over with soaked husks!
Conquest? Invasion. We weren’t a prize to win. It was an invasion.
Since Tamales are so popular ALL over South and Central America, why not look into Tamales from the south America, like Inca Tamales.
Both Aztec and Mayans are Negroes.
so how would you know?
The racism just continues
pushed by ignorance
and lack of concern
I love watching this show! Please keep making episodes!
I just ADORE this show!! Thanks!!
easy to say tamales
but nobody meke tamales just, blablabla„
If you’re reading this, would you consider an episode on coquito and its relationship with egg based posset? Or perhaps mofongo which was originally boiled and mashed, or pasteles which are similar to tamales, but don’t have a true origin history. Hojaldre (Puerto Rican spice cake) also has an unknown origin.
Don’t be too upset. I have never had a tamale.
‘They didn’t have cookbooks’ is an interesting way of saying that the Spanish destroyed all of their literature and language 18:07
Why are onions part of the Mayan filling? Weren’t those brought over post conquest?
The masa is grinding up on a metate, not molcajete.
Delias is located in the Rio Grande valley where I am from and she is the most popular for tamales
I think you should have soaked the husks before using them. That might help with the sticking and the density is the masa. The husk probably absorbed the moisture from the masa.
Sohla … what about an episode about goulash?!
What’s the best lizard? Chicken of the tree.
these are so great! I hope some day they can make some more of them
I LOVE THIS SHOW! I’m pretty sure I’ve watched every episode and I absolutely love how she mixes ancient recipes with the history behind them. It really makes you appreciate the food so much more and her attitude is just joyful, I can’t help but smile watching this show! Thank you so very much for such a quality gem of entertainment and education! ❤
Hello, Soha? You will find different types of tamales , starting in Mexico and ending in somewhere of South America ; 😅my gran gran gran abuela always said that if you want a tasty and well done tamal ; the word tamale doesn’t exist….. it’s tamal or tamales based on one or móreme
I think I bored my self…
2) decide the type leaf cover the ones ; my preferred ones is covered by banana leaves
It can be covered by the dry leaves the corn already. Super nana made all of it if she we were coming. Cheese, sour cream maybe onions….. zzzzzz
Wait wait, nooo open de windows. The fumes of the chile burn … oh well…
My fav filling is pork. Now, this kind of food was every one’s favorite food but it was easier to find the good ingredients, those were the
macehualtin and tlacotlin (I googled , I. couldn’t temer, lol
3) now, The filling. I’ve tried in I sensed something and then GAAAAAAH. An tastes 😮 NOT like watermelon sugar, the fruit. Besides, there a lot of white Iines that makes the meat tough. The round tamal is not Mexican. The leaves stuck ( my theory). I have two theories. To this day, tamales vendors keep the food inside huge metal containers with water, and inside, doing what you did. Maybe. Or k😊
Amaranth is probably growing in your parking lot, BTW
It’s called metate
Sohla, to make the ball tamal the masa needs to be more dry on a wet hand. Put the meat in the middle and close your hand around it.
I just watched a documentary where a lady was using a 30 pound pestle, and she said “we don’t go to the gym, this is what empowers us.” and it sounded a lot like the women I know who work in manufacturing moving heavy parts all day say. It also reminds me of a martial arts story I heard about a baker in the old days who had massive muscles from all the kneading.
giffy!
My favorite batch of tamales, I blended a small can of chipotle chille with a large can of orange juice concentrate, and slathered that over a pork roast. I used a turkey roasting bag with a layer of six, thinly sliced onions, and set the roast on those. I baked it at 300° F for three hours.
The onions carmelized beautifully!
I carefully poured the broth into a bowl and used that to make my masa. The onions and drippings went into a blender, got turned into a paste, and got mixed in with the shredded pork.
These were some of the best orange-chipotle pork tamales I have ever eaten. The family still talks about them.
We buy her tamales and they are absolutely phenomenal.
Me, hoping to find out what the Indians used instead of lard. 😮 What was their source of fat?
Apparently, no fat? Hmm.
I am so glad just found her ! Where do you get ur aprons? Help a short girl out .
You could spend hours making tamales or just run to the store and buy them.
You should make 3000 year old pozole 😆
Little correction, the corn would be ground in a metate, not a molcajete. They were pretty similar but the metate was larger and flatter.
my tia made green corn tamales at christmas time in Tucson they were the best, basically just a very sweet tamale.
Delia has been in the U.S. for how long & doesn’t speak English as a first language ?? Right there is the problem; she came and has refused to assimilate which is pure bs.
Love Sohla and this show so much! Would love to see an episode on dolmas. Thanks for doing what y’all do!
I’ve been watching a few of these ancient cook videos, but this one catched my attention. Here in Brasil we call guava paste (goiabada) and cheese Romeo and Juliet, because it’s such a good combo. And I also prefer to eat green guavas (goiabas, in Portuguese).
Also, we have some versions of what could be our temales. Pamonha, is made out of corn and cooked inside of the husks just like temales, but in some parts of Brasil they are sweet (usually with just corn, coconut milk and sugar) or savory (much more like a temale with various fillings). It’s interesting to see so many similarities in our cultures. I love these videos. Sohla slays ♥
If you left the masa thicker, you could have made it into a ball, then stuffed it with meat and sauce, wrapped it in husk, then steamed them.
I love tamales and living in Texas we can get delicious tamales. I’ve had beef, pork, chicken, potato and sweet tamales but I think I’m going to have to draw the line at iguana 😮
I just can’t stand your meat choice
I am so sad there is no place to try tamale anywhere near where I live, like I made some, but I have no clue how accurate I got with the texture and all.
I tried tamale de elote, which where great, some with rehydrated hibiscus and chicken and with turkey and an aip salsa verde dince I reakt badly to most nightshades
Wonderful episode. I would inquire how much evidence is there that meat was a main ingredient in tamales? Certainly for ceremony or special occasions but on the daily In every tamale?
Horrible! What is this? My ancestors didn’t cook like that! Your recipe & method are just sad!
Tamale in the singular is tamal.