On 2014-04-05 4:49 PM, The Cook wrote:

>
> It is possible that the woman was making tamales for an large extended
> family and could not afford enough meat to make them like the
> "gringos" think they should be. If you have plenty of money or are
> making them for a limited number of people you can use as much meat as
> you want.
>


That may have been the case with the authentically made tamales I had.
The family had recently immigrated here from Mexico and the mother
wanted to open a restaurant. They lived next to my new neighbour's old
house. Our neighbour has big parties several times a year, more or less
pot luck and this family (mother, two sons and their wives and two
kids) bring enough food to feed a couple dozen, but not usually meat
dishes. These tamales did not have much meat or spice. They were pretty
bland. They were pretty much like those I had had years earlier in a
Mexican restaurant. They didn't taste much different from grits. I like
grits well enough as a starch dish, and I just figured that tamales are
a hell of a lot of work for a similar result.

Not having much of a Hispanic community in the area, and not having any
good Mexican restaurants, they don't seem to have caught on around here.