On 4/28/2011 12:55 PM, Mark Thorson wrote:
> " wrote:
>>
>> I saw a video on line about how they make the tamales. They use
>> cornmeal instead of masa harina, and the tamale is formed by a
>> machine. I noticed they added melted lard rather than solid lard. I
>> guess I am wondering if there is any problem forming the tamale by
>> hand. I have made "regular tamales", and was wondering if anyone might
>> have any insights in making this Solly's style.
>
> There was a 2006 interview with Jewel McCain (current
> proprietor of Solly's Hot Tamales) which was transcribed
> into a 68-page pdf file. I donloaded it last year, but
> it seems to have disappeared from the net since then.
> In it, she says they make their tamales using a machine
> made by the now-defunct Curry Manufacturing. This machine
> has two chambers, one for dough and one for filling, and
> coextrudes them. I have two of these machines. I haven't
> used mine yet.

We lived in Corpus Christi, TX in 1979-80. A friend and her family only
made tamales just before Christmas, usually 200 dozen. The whole
extended Tex-Mex family got together over two weekends, men and women,
and made tamales. There's were made of pork and Masa with home ground
spices and chiles. They had one of those machines too, had been in the
family for years is what I was told. Once you learned to use it it was
very easy to make the tamales. The hard part for me to learn was the
rolling in the corn shuck. You should have seen those folks, I think
they were crossed with a machine they could turn them out so fast. Our
reward for helping was about ten dozen tamales, they didn't last until
Christmas at our house. Best I have ever eaten but the recipe for the
spices and herbs was a family secret, the eldest daughter kept it and
passed it on to her eldest daughter. Unfortunately she had two boys and
no girls so the next younger sister got it when she died of Lupus.

Amazing family, parents waded the Rio Grande, couldn't speak English,
had very little education. They had three boys and two girls. The eldest
boy finished high school and went to work in a chemical plant at
eighteen. The other four kids all went to college, my friend had a MS in
Nursing, she was the eldest girl. Her brother younger than her became a
Supreme Court Justice in the State of Texas, the next boy was the
Federal District Attorney in Alaska last I heard, which was probably 25
years ago. The youngest girl, also the last I heard, was the Chief
Probation Officer in Hidalgo County, TX. All because their parents
wanted them to be the best they could be. Unfortunately none of them
taught their kids to speak Spanish, pretty much a requirement in South
Texas nowadays.

I can still smell and taste those tamales sometimes.