"Hazels65" > wrote in message
...
> The tamale was recorded over 5,000 years ago in precolumbian.
>
> http://www.culinary-cooking-schools-...y_tamales.html


Nice work! Thanks for the link. I agree with Krusty--some nice sounding
tamales out there.

One part annoyed me though--and one runs into so much wrong information in
cookbooks, the food section of newspapers, etc.

"As the warring tribes of the Aztec, Mayan, and Incan cultures grew, the
demand of readying the nixtamal (corn) itself became so overwhelming a
process, a need arose to have a more portable sustaining foodstuff."

But nixtamal isn't corn, exactly. It's corn treated with lime or wood ash.
I thought only Mexico and Central American countries did that--and hence not
the Incas. Can anyone confirm that? Do and did they do nixtamalization in
Peru?

I could be way off...

Peter