Aside from bread, stew, and roasted meat,
the tamale is easily one of the oldest meals in history. Recorded in its most
ancient forms as early as 5,000 BC in Mesoamerican history, the lowly tamale actually
has a sizable claim to fame as being a food that helped shape the warring
culture of the Aztec, Mayan, Incan, and other Pre-Colombian civilizations.
However, while this dish's back story suggests that the tamale was created by
the Aztecs, there is great debate on who actually invented the tamale as we
know it today. Unfortunately, no one truly knows.
As the tamales grand legend goes, women
were taken along by war bands in order to serve as cooks for the soldiers. They
were in charge of creating the masa dough for tortillas, roasting meat, making
stew, and otherwise just feeding everyone while the men fought their battles.
However, as the warring nature of the Aztecs hit its peak, the women could no
longer keep up with demand of preparing the nixtamal, or corn soaked in an
alkaline solution, used to make masa dough for the larger and larger war bands.
Instead of making fresh dough every day, these industrious women decided that
something more portable and able to be made in mass was needed. Through these overworked women, the tamale, or
at least the one closer to the one we know today, was born.
This Mesoamerican version of the sandwich
was designed so that it could be made ahead, packed among the other items of a
warrior's repertoire and heated up as needed whether it be steamed or grilled
over a fire. Of course, as the ingredients inside were already cooked, they
could always be eaten cold if the war band need to stay hidden or remain on the
move.
While the world today only knows a select
few varieties of tamale, back in their early history the tamale had
unparalleled diversity. There were plain tamales that were just filled with
masa; tamales stuffed with red, black, green, or yellow chilies; sweet dessert
tamales that were filled with chocolate, honey, nuts, and fruit; and, of
course, tamales stuffed with cooked meat including some more curious offerings like
frog, flamingo, bee, ox, and even tadpoles.
The size and wrappings of the early tamale
varied just as much as the fillings did. While today the world only truly knows
the tamale as being wrapped in a corn husk or banana leaf, originally the
wrapping was dependent on how the tamale would be cooked on the road and what
was available. Avocado leaves, soft tree bark, and even fabric have been
reported to be used when making tamales, but the water resistance and durability
of banana leaves and corn husks eventually won out.
By comparison, today's tamales seem really
quite toned down. However, there is one tradition of the original tamale that
does persist. As the food is so labor intensive, the tamale is primarily saved
for holidays or special occasions. However, as it was originally, this dish
brings all the women of a household together to prepare the ingredients and
assemble hundreds of tamales at a time before steaming them in a massive pot
for the whole family to enjoy, just like women of old.
Tamales are so easy to find at any quality restaurant
that specializes in Mexican or Latin cuisine, but outside of those from Latin
communities, no one really appreciates how much work goes into making them, let
along the necessity that went into their rise to food fame.
