Tamal (South American cuisine) : The tamal is a paper pre-Hispanic Native American (it would be more than 5.000 years old). Tamales are made from pasta corn flour or dry puree of beans, or even a mixture of several flour, cooked with lime, oil (or lard in Mexico).
The dough is rolled out in the shape of small pancakes in cob leaves corn to banana leaves. We then add a farce who can be salt (meat, stew) or sweet (fruit, often raisin ou ananas); everything is wrapped in the support sheet, then steam cooked or in broth.
Tamales were originally intended for warriors due to their ease of transport. They were as varied as can be the sandwiches today.
Tamales exist in different Latin American countries. In some they are given the name " huminta " or " humitas ". However, they seem to come from the Mexican highlands. The word “tamal” is precisely the Hispanicized form of the náhuat “ tamalli which means "surrounded".
In Venezuela tamales are called "hayacas" and are prepared for New Year's Eve de Holidays.
“Tamal” is a generic name given to several Native American dishes. It is usually steamed, wrapped in leaves from the cob of the same plant of corn or bananae, bijao (large plant from Brazil), maguey (agave Mexican), avocado and even in aluminum foil or plastic. They may or may not be stuffed, and the stuffing may contain meat (beef, porc or other), peppers jalapenos, fruit, sauce, cheese, beans, coco scratched, dry roots, etc.
They can also have a sweet or salty flavor.
The origin of the tamal has been claimed by several Latin American countries, although not enough evidence has been obtained to attribute it to any particular culture or country. Various varieties of tamales have been developed in almost every country in the Americas.
There is evidence that the predominant cultures of Mexico brought corn to other cultures and regions, but also dishes as well as different ways of cooking corn. The tamal being a simple method of cooking corn, it is therefore possible to think that it could have been invented in one of the regions of probable origin of corn, that is to say from Mexico to South America, then to other cultures and regions. However, cultural exchange may also have brought the tamal from another region to Mexico.
Tamales are described in Mexico by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in his General history of the things of the new Spain at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. “They also ate several types of tamales; a few are white and pella-like, not completely round or completely square…other tamales they ate were quite red…”.
Archaeological evidence presents the tamal as part of the daily life of a few Mesoamerican cultures, in addition to being used in religious ceremonies, in offerings and for placement in tombs.
In the case of the Maya, there are sculptures and paintings from the Classic period and the early Postclassic.