It's almost tamale season, and for several years I've wanted to try
making homemade tamales but never got around to it -- probably because
I'm intimidated a little by them. This year I think I'm gonna go for
it. I have the corn shucks already, and several quarts of goose fat in
the freezer that needs to be used for *something* before it goes off
(I'll use it instead of lard because decent lard is very hard to find.)

Should I make chicken or turkey or pork tamales? Besides the shredded
meat, what else goes in the middles? I've seen recipes that call for
raisins and weird stuff like that, but I think that's more an Oaxaca
thing than what I want. I'll probably make them pretty hot, so I was
thinking of using a little dehydrated onions and garlic, and a mixture
of canned chipotles in adobo and reconstituted dried ancho peppers. Or
maybe guajillo or pulla peppers instead of the anchos...

Has anyone here done this before?

When the Mexicans I work with (remotely, from Guadalajara) find out
about this, I'll never hear the end of it. :-)

Bob