Jack Tyler wrote:

> In Tabasco this week, I had the best tamales I have ever had. The only
> difference was that they used banana leaves instead of corn husks to
> wrap them. The banana leaves allowed the steam to get in, but held the
> moisture inside and made the most moist tamales ever.

Actually, the moisture inside the corn husk wrapped tamale probably
escapes through the permeable leaf.

If you wrap your tamales with something impermeable, and you get the
moisture content (and the time of cooking) just right, they will steam
themselves from the inside out and the masa will turn orange from the
chile sauce.