Tamales: How to make the best masa dough?

Question

So we're talkin about this as a sub-thread and I want to SPECIFICALLY cover the best materials and ways to make the masa dough component of a tamale. 
Since you can fill a tamale with anything I would like to concentrate on ingredients and the process for making and cooking the masa dough to perfection. 
I have had rubbery ones and fluffy tender ones. Are there different styles or is everyone aiming for light and delicate? Is one masa better than another? Does anyone grind it fresh, from scratch, using dried posole (hominy)?
I have made tamales several times and I have helped in assembling them. I have always used lard. One said they used butter and chicken broth; others corn oil...
I have some Tequesquite, which I believe is used in tamale masa dough, like baking powder.

Then there's the magical "cold water test": after combining the fat or oil (in whatever form), and leavening agent to the masa, drop a small ball of dough in a glass of cold water. If the ball floats, it's ready for making into tamales. This must have something to do with the leavening agent reacting and making the ball light with gas.
Help by sharing your ingredients and method.

Answer

I'm really curious about tequesquite... How to use it? How much to use? How uch would be the equivalent to triple-acting baking powder?
I found this discussion, which got Harold McGee involved, but didnt seem to put anything to bed: http://www.zarela.com/?tag=tequesquite
and this description: http://www.uv.mx/popularte/flash/scriptphplen.php?sid=246&len=In

Yes, I could buy some tomatillos (and make chili verde!), just so I could have the husks. 
I am not sure whether I must do this: "using teqeusquite as a leavener": bring 10 tomatillo husks and 1 cup of water to a boil with a small piece of tequesquite and cook until this dissolves. Let cool and settle. Strain before using. 
What is a small piece? My teqeusquite is a coarse powder and looks quite "dirty". It is Nicomex brand and doesn't have a quality classification or grade mentioned. 
It is supposed to be a combination of chloride and sodium carbonate but some say it is more complex than just those two ingredients. I could obviously use baking powder, but it seems like it might be like using sea salt rather than plain salt, so I want to use it at least once!

Answer

I didn't have time to read all the replies so excuse me if I repeat anything. If you want the best, you need to take the dry corn and perform the nixtamal process which essentially soaks the dry corn in a water/cal--not sure in English what it's called--slaked lime or something like that. Then grind it in a corn grinder. Lard is essential--I've never tried a good tamal that didn't have lard. Check with Rick Bayless--Authentic Mexican for a good recipe.

Answer

For the best masa (using lard!) I add hot chicken stock to masa harina a bit at a time to make a thick dough. Then beat lard until fluffy and floats (the whipped lard itself) in water. Gradually add the dough to the lard while still beating. Finally beat in some salt. That's it.

Answer

Here is a masa dough recipe from a local food guy who recently taught a class to a bunch of Houston CH's:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2008/12/your_holiday_season_tamale_mak.php

Everyone said they were the best tamales they have had. I wished I could have gone, but missed it. Hopefully he will do it again.

Answer

One thing I'm really having a problem with is the amount of baking powder (if I use it instead of the tequesquite). Various recipes go from 3/4 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons for four cups of masa flour. I don't want them getting to tasting metallic, yet I want them fluffy.

Answer

Ok, The tamales are steaming.

I didn't poke the tops down with the dough, and it made 14. I think I did it right. One thing people should mention is the consistency should be like cookie dough (well, mine was anyway). I'm quite pleased it passed the water test (the lard and the masa), but it didn't take very long to beat (with a silicon spatula).

Answer

Ok, I do not like tamales. Donna seems to like them, but they taste weird to me.

They're fluffy, but they're a little bit beefy and orangy from using the stock from the carnitas. I suppose technically the flavours match, but I don't like the texture or taste.

Well, you can't win them all. The pork and broth left over was nice, and we had some of that with the "no knead foccacia" I started drunk last night

Answer

For what it's worth, my frijoles were fail too. I soaked the beans for 24 hours, but they just don't have the same consistency of canned beans.

Answer

This is for scargod and soop - since you seem to be all about cooking mexican food, and I'm not talking the eat-nopal kind of food, but more along the tex mex kind, I have some links for recipes and blogs that you may be interested in. 

One is The Homesick Texan. There are some great recipes on there for tex-mex and other texas food, as well as many others. http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/

Also google Robb Walsh. He has written a few cookbooks that include the history of the food, and his tex mex cookbook was praised by Rick Bayless. If you are intrigued I can give you some links for some of his recipes on the internet for barbacoa, truckstop chili, enchiladas, and other things.

Answer

Everybody is trying to help Soop and I'm not getting any answers about Tequesquite. :(
Should I dissolve it in water and how much should I use?? 
Help... Please?

Answer

A world of beans.... for decades I have experienced inconsistent results with dry beans. When they cooked to perfection I was thrilled. But often, regardless of the soaking and identical cooking process, they would be mealy, or crumbly, or tough skinned or just not very good. I think what you can buy out there is an inconsistent product - hard to tell if it was last years harvest or 5 yrs ago, or grown with care or agri-farmed on poor soil. Then I tried the heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo (Napa, CA) and the beans are just incredibly good. The beans become the stars, not just a background texture.

Answer

ok, i've read most of these posts and haven't found what i'm looking for. i do appreciate all the info, though! my mother-in-law is from new mexico and hers are the only tamales i've ever cared for. i have never tried to make them before, but this year is the first they haven't had a tamalada in the 23 years i've been in the family. so, i thought i'd try and make some of my own. she gets a box of dried nm chile every year (we live in south tx) and boils, then peels it. she freezes these in bags, and uses as needed. for her tamales, she purees the chile and adds some of that to the masa...(the masa has a reddish tinge) i've been searching, but can't find a recipe as a guideline for making the masa. i'm sure there's a recipe out there, but don't know where to look. (i'm one of those cooks that needs an outline!)
making tamales is really scary!!!! i would appreciate any input! thanks in advance.

Answer

My MIL made the most amazing tamales. I can't ever remember her kitchen not being a mini tamale factory the demand was so enormous.

She did several things that made hers standout from the usual tamale. Her dough was tender, light.. melt in your mouth.

She soaked the dired red chilis in hot water, added cumin, roasted garlic (mashed) and salt. Put it all into a blender and blended until it was liquified. This she added to her meat with a couple other family secret additions.
She used lard in her masa. The standard comes in a blue box found on your local grocer's shelves kind and mixed by hand. Whipped using a hand mixer until it was light and fluffy. Her liquid was the red chili liquid added to the chicken stock. Note *stock*, not broth. There is a big difference between the two. We made the stock the day before, a chicken in a ouch of cheesecloth along with an onion, celery, and carrot). The chicken was always used for making chicken tacos or burritos or whatever chicken concoction she decided was the call of the day while we all waited anxiously for her tamales.
To her masa she added Gebharts chili powder, baking powder and mixed by hand, adding salt as needed. 
We bought her a stand mixer for Christmas to make the task easier. She tried it several times however abandoned the mixer and went back to her hand mixing technique claiming using the stand mixer made her dough tougher. I have to agree, it did. There was something lost in the texture of the dough in the batches she made using the mixture.
She's gone now and I miss her and her tamales terribly. Mostly her though, we became very close over the years. She shared the secrets of her tamales with me and mine, while never quite as good as hers, are raved about by the same people who ordered tamales by the dozens from my MIL. They comment their just like hers although I can taste the difference. She had the "touch for the dough" which was only equaled by her "touch for life". 
Her dough was blended, by hand, until it was light and fluffy taking 5 minute breaks in the mixing process to allow the dough to rest before returning for another round. I remember her telling me being gentle with the dough was the key. "Treat it like you would your child, gentle and kind" was her reminder as I mixed mine.

I'm a tamale addict of sorts and traveled most of the US trying variations along the way. None have compared to hers. No skimping on the filling hers were long and slender but flavorful meat packed gems wrapped in husks and steamed upright, nestled on layers of crumpled foil to keep them out of the water, covered in a moist towel as they simmered in covered soup pots. 

The message here I guess is it doesn't take fancy tools to make tamales. It doesn't take hard to find ingredients. It takes patience, lots of taste testing, a gentle hand and a dash of love at each stage along the way. 

To note: she always made extra dough to be used for bean and cheese filled tamales the grandkids were so fond of and for the mango filled tamales she made only enough of to keep them a special treat.

Answer

I read a lot on here about creaming the lard to make a good masa. But just wanted to add that in my family (grandmother born and raised in Guadalajara, and my mother was raised in Sacapo, Michoacan) use a different method and still get good tamales. They get masa harina (or you can treat your own dry hominy with an alkaline solution, process it, etc) anyways if done with masa harina they mix into it water or stock along with salt to taste, and some baking powder (diluted in a portion of the liquid) into the masa until they get a dough the consistency of peanut butter, then melt the lard and work it into the dough. They work the masa until everything feels really incorporated and it makes a cracking sound (idk they say "tronar" which translates to cracking) but yeah don't have the exact measurements but just wanted to throw it out there for ideas.

Answer

What kind of lard? And if using oil how much oil to use

Answer

I used 2 cups mass harino and 2/3 cup of lard 1 tap baking powder, I mixed it with about 12 oz. chicken broth. It seemed quite wet so I added more mass a bit at a time. Beat it by hand and it looks good. It won't float in cool water. What should I do?

Answer

Hey everyone! I love making tamales and it's about that time again this year I can't wait! I read through the comments and have to go with these points: Lard, no leavening agent and the one comment about treating the masa gently. This is the way I believe, except for the whipping of the lard I mix by hand and take my time. I use masa harina too, I don't do prepared masa as I find every store has a different way of doing theirs and sometimes they tend to be too salty. When I get the masa to the consistency I like I take a half stick of butter and drizzle it on the top and stir it twice and that's it! Last year I did beef with red chile, and chicken with cheese and green chile, and I did a couple of dozen with chicharron with a roasted red chile. I think this year I'll do pork and chicken, but who knows as long as there's plenty am I right? Cheers to all the tamale masters!

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