Robert Johnson, the legendary blues songwriter and
performer, lived a short and troubled life in and around the Mississippi
River Delta Region of the United States. His haunting, seminal work
covered many of the topics that have become commonplace in the blues
music vernacular—relationships between men and women, loneliness
and separation, jail, whiskey, the devil and hot tamales.
Hot tamales? Absolutely! The Delta is, without a doubt,
one of the centers of daily hot tamale production and consumption
in North America. There are dozens of restaurants in small towns
all over Western Mississippi, Eastern Arkansas and Northern Louisiana
that make and serve these spicy treats. Tamales seem to cross all
cultural and economic lines, as they are served at tiny roadside
stands, gas stations, lunch counters, barbecue joints and fine eating
establishments. A pretty good case can be made that tamales are
the one common food thread in all parts of the Delta—more
so than even barbecue or fried chicken. This theory of mine is wholly
unscientific, but it’s based on the fact that I can think
of more places to get good tamales than I can good ’cue.
There are numerous small stands, restaurants and businesses
in the Delta that sell tamales. The best advice that one can give
a seeker of red hots is to just stop when you see them on the sign.
They are probably going to be the best tamales you have ever eaten…until
you get to the next stop.
Hal and Mal’s Restaurant & Brewery
200 S. Commerce Street
Jackson, MS
601-948-0888
halandmals.com
Malcolm and Hal White, owners of Hal and Mal’s
Restaurant and Brewery in downtown Jackson, MS, have had tamales
on their menu since they opened the doors to this converted railroad
freight depot almost twent years ago. Their tamales are a good
example of what a true Delta tamale should be—on the smallish
side with a spicy beef filling rolled inside of a masa dough,
wrapped in a corn husk and then steamed through. “Tamales
are just something that you have to have on your menu around here.
People expect them to be there and will ask for them,” says
Malcolm. Hal and Mal’s also has a very extensive menu of
Southern favorites and Gulf seafood, all of which can be enjoyed
with a beer of your choice made in the brewery on the premises.
Abe’s Barbeque
616 N. State Street
Clarksdale, MS
662-624-9947
Abe’s Barbeque restaurant is located at the
famed “crossroads” where highway 61—the so-called
“Blues Highway,” running between New Orleans and Chicago
up the east side of the Mississippi River—meets Highway
49. Opened in 1924, Abe’s looks like a roadhouse restaurant
should: There’s an old sign out by the highway featuring
a dancing pig, the building itself is made of cinderblock, and
there are large, wall sized signs painted on the side of the building.
Signs like these were common all up and down rural highways in
the South in the days before interstates. They served to catch
the eye of passing motorists and reminded them that it was a long
way to where they were going and that they should probably stop
for a bite and a cool drink. You’ll get your tamales here
served as a bundle of three with crackers and sweet coleslaw,
or on a combo plate with a spicy pulled pork sandwich.
Hick’s Restaurant
305 S. State Street
Clarksdale, MS
662-624-9887
Just down the road from Abe’s, Hick’s
Restaurant has a convenient drive-thru window for tamale lovers
on the go. A couple of dozen of these corn husk–wrapped
spice bombs will keep you sated during the long drive up and down
Highway 61 and make a great gift for some lucky person at the
end of your trip. One of the best things about tamales is that
they freeze well, giving diners the chance to enjoy some long
after the trip is over.
Doe’s Eat Place
502 Nelson Street
Greenville, MS
662-334-3315
doeseatplace.com
Up the road a bit in Greenville is Doe’s Eat
Place, located in an old
grocery store. Doe’s is a Mississippi dining institution,
family owned since its inception in the 1940s, that many informed
eaters consider to be the best steakhouse in the world. But steaks
are not all that Doe’s is famous for. The tamales here,
served four to a plate with crispy saltines and a piquant red
sauce, are delicious and on the spicy side as Delta tamales go—a
perfect foil for a prime cut of beef and a couple of cold beers.
The Signa family has franchised locations of Doe’s in
Fayetteville and Little Rock, Arkansas, and several years ago
they opened up a family owned branch in downtown Oxford, MS. These
tamales are so good that Delta native Bill Clinton used to have
them delivered to the White House on a regular basis. Clinton
is a regular guest at the Little Rock location of Doe’s
and in fact, his famous Rolling Stone interview with Hunter S.
Thompson and William Greider took place here just after he received
the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1992.
Pasquale’s Tamales
213 Plaza Street
West Helena, AR
877-572-0500
pasqualetamale.com
No less of a blues center than Clarksdale, Helena,
AR was home to Sonny Boy Williamson and his famous radio show,
“The King Biscuit Flour Hour.” Helena is also the
home to Pasquale’s Tamales. In their small plant, Pasquale’s
turns out several thousand tamales per day, each bundle of three
tied together with a strip of corn husk. These tamales are wrapped
and simmered for six hours in a spicy broth that gives them that
“just right” dose of heat. Pasquale’s has built
a very large mail order following over the last few years —
order enough to keep some in the freezer for those cravings.
---
Brooks Hamaker is a freelance writer and Louisiana
native. He is
a longtime resident of Abita Springs, LA.
---
Delta Tamales I
Yield:
9 dozen • Zest Factor: Medium
The main difference between these two recipes is
that the first one browns the meat before using it as filling,
while the second cooks the meat directly in the tamale itself.
Both of these techniques are used to make tamales in the Delta.
An electric roaster oven is a portable oven that plugs in—see
page 95 for where to get one.
For the tamales:
10 pounds beef tips
3 tablespoons salt
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne
4 bay leaves
8 ounces canned green chiles
4 tablespoons peanut oil
6 large onions
4 cups premade tomato sauce
4 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
6 teaspoons chili powder
2 (1-pound) packages corn
husks (about 96 husks)
8 cups masa harina
4 cups lard
3 tablespoons baking powder
To cook:
1 (28-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup chopped onions
Place the beef tips in a very large pot, and add
water to cover. Add the first 5 ingredients, and simmer over low
heat until the meat is falling apart. Strain meat, reserving stock.
Finely chop the meat, or coarsely grind with a meat grinder. Set
both the reserved stock and ground meat aside. Chop the chiles,
reserving any juice. In a sauté pan, warm the peanut oil
over medium heat. Add the onions, and sauté until translucent.
Add the reserved meat to the onions, chiles, peppers, tomato sauce,
tomato paste and the chili powder. Add enough of the reserved
stock to cover the ingredients. (If there is not enough liquid
to cover the meat, add extra stock or water.) Simmer the mixture,
covered, for 90 minutes. Remove meat mixture from pot, and strain,
reserving the stock. Keep the reserved stock warm.
Meanwhile, soak the corn husks in hot water until
pliable. Mix the masa, lard and baking powder together, and begin
slowly mixing in enough warmed stock to make a spreadable dough.
Roll the tamales:
Lay one corn husk flat on a work surface, and spread about 3 ounces
of the masa dough evenly onto the husk. Add about 2 ounces of
the meat mixture, roll over until the dough seals the filling
inside, and fold one end of the husk over.
Place the tamale folded-sidedown, and repeat with
remaining corn husks. If the dough starts to become stiff, sprinkle
in some water.
Place tamales into an electric roaster oven with
a rack on the bottom, or in a large pot on the stovetop with a
tightly fitting lid.
Pour the tomato sauce and onions over the top of
the stacked tamales, and steam for 2 1⁄2 hours at 325°
on the oven or over medium heat.
The liquid level should be about halfway up the
tamales. As the tamales cook, add more canned stock or water as
necessary to keep the liquid at the proper level.
Check the tamales by peeling back one of the corn
husks. If the tamales aren’t yet firm, continue to steam.
Delta Tamales II
Yield: 9 dozen • Zest Factor: Medium
For the tamales:
2 (1-pound) packages corn husks (about 96 husks)
5 pounds ground beef
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 teaspoons cayenne
1 cup cornmeal, plus extra
5 tablespoons salt
1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1⁄4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chili powder
1⁄4 cup cumin
1 (28-ounce) can tomato sauce
3 small onions, very finely chopped
7 to 8 cups masa harina
To cook:
2 (28-ounce) cans tomato sauce
1⁄4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chili powder
1 cup chopped onion
Soak the corn husks in hot water until pliable.
Meanwhile, mix the ground beef, garlic powder, cayenne,
cornmeal, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, tomato sauce and
onions together with 1 cup of water. You should have a firm-textured
mixture.
Place some of the masa on a plate or in a shallow
baking dish. Pinch off a ball of the filling mixture, and
roll it into an oblong shape about 3 inches long and the thickness
of your thumb. Roll in the masa until well-covered.
Place the tamale in the center of a corn husk, and
fold the husk around the filling until sealed.
Repeat with remaining filling.
Place tamales into an electric roaster oven with
a rack on the bottom, or in a large pot on the stovetop with a
tightly fitting lid. Add the remaining 2 cans of tomato sauce,
remaining chili powder and onion.
Steam for 2 1⁄2 hours at 325° on the oven
or over medium heat. The liquid level should be about halfway
up the tamales. As the tamales cook, add more canned stock or
water as necessary to keep the liquid at the proper level.
Check the tamales by peeling back one of the corn
husks. If the tamales aren’t yet firm, continue to steam.
---
<<
See list of SFA Member Contributions
The
origins of this geographic and gastronomic anomaly are as murky
as the water that flows in the Yazoo River. Historians seem to agree
that migrant workers from Mexico, hired to pick cotton and run the
gins during the fall picking season, brought the dish with them
sometime in the late 19th century. It’s pretty easy to see
how their popularity might have spread. When the other workers were
dining on cold potatoes and hog maw, the Mexican guys were unwrapping
still-warm tamales for their lunchtime repast. At some point, one
of the field workers probably couldn’t stand it anymore and
asked for a taste. As one might expect, the guy wanted another one,
as did all of his friends, and soon the popularity of the tamale
spread to the point that commercial vendors sold them up and down
the river, from Memphis to New Orleans. It makes sense, given that
all of the ingredients are locally available and relatively inexpensive,
and tamales are pretty easy to construct and to transport (the traditional
method for sales “to go” is to pack the tamales, in
the husk, in a coffee can).
The
prices have changed considerably since Robert Johnson sang those
words, but good tamales are still available all over the Delta region.
While you can get many opinions and find many styles and cooking
techniques for barbecue — beginning with the type of meat
and moving outward from there—you won’t get the same
kind of argument about tamales. The people here know how to make
them the way people like them, and that’s about all that there
is to it. Though many store and restaurant owners in the Delta were
immigrants from places like Lebanon, Sicily, Italy and Hungary,
they saw that their customers were buying a particular kind of tamale,
and they started making those too—there doesn’t seem
to be much “cross-culturalization” of tamale ingredients.These
tamales probably have a bit less chile than one might find in El
Paso or across the border, are somewhat smaller in size, and are
likely cooked in a sauce that is more redolent of tomato than pepper,
but generally they’re what I’d imagine were sold by
vendors all over the Delta many years ago. That’s not to say
you won’t find 
heated
(but mostly good-natured) debates about the pluses and minuses of
a specific tamale maker’s wares. But the argument will always
end the same way. Some cool head will prevail and suggest that rather
than fight about tamales, everyone should simply eat them and quit
yapping.
