# Anyone canned tamales?



## reese (Jul 6, 2004)

I'm in the process of making up a bunch of tamales...typically I freeze them, but with a potential hard winter, = power outages, I thought maybe I ought to can some...if I can...or had some pointers. 

SO...has anyone canned their tamales, any tips? 

Thanks in advance...Reese


----------



## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Well, I've not tried this, but here is a recipe from one of my canning books.

*HOT TAMALES*

1 soup bone
1 lb. lean beef
1 lb. pork
1 onion, cut in quarters
3 cloves garlic
3 tsp salt

Cover above ingredients with water and cook until meat is tender. Put meat through food chopper using finest blade. Also grind with the meat 2 fresh cloves garlic and 1 large onion. To the ground meat mixture add the following:

4 T chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup fat fron 1/4 lb. rendered suet
2 cups broth in which meat was cooked
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 T flour

Cook all together until thick. It is then ready to spread on the meal which has been prepared as follows:

4 1/2 c. meal
1 T salt
1/2 c fat from 1/4 lb. rendered suet
2 tsp chili powder
4 1/2 c broth or hot water

Mix all together until smooth and of the consistency to spread. Cut vegetable parchment paper into 6 x 3 inch strips and scald it-have pieces damp but not wet. Spread meal mixture 1/4" thick on paper. Allow enough space at each end and one side of paper to turn these over. Through the center of the dough spread about 2 tsp of the meat mixture. Roll up,folding sides and ends of paper. Into a clean pint jar place 1 tablespoon hot water. Pack tamales into pint jar. To prevent difficulty in packing last tamale in jar, place between 2 knives and slip into center of pack. Place cap on jars and process 60 minutes at 10 lbs. pressure.

The recipe doesn't specify a wide-mouth jar, but that would seem logical. It doesn't say how many this makes, either.


----------



## reese (Jul 6, 2004)

Thanks....have my own recipe, but knowing how to pack them and process them...helps...I would think wide mouth jars would be the wise choice too.


----------



## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

I have never done them canned, always frozen, and as far as I know there is no 'approved' or tested processing times for them but there may be. 

My main concern would be the corn or maize meal. Since both of those are strongly recommended against in home canning because they are thickeners that will retard the heat penetration and because of the way they break down during processing, I can't see how tamales would work. But that is just my opinion.


----------



## reese (Jul 6, 2004)

Thanks...didn't think about that...hmmm...Yea I only freeze them myself, but was hoping for another option. Will have to do some serious research before doing this.


----------



## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Try one or two jars and see how they turn out. It was from a Kerr canning guide. Kerr was bought out by Ball which in turn was bought out by someone else, then someone else, then someone else......


----------



## tinknocker66 (Jul 15, 2009)

may i suggest just giving the leftovers to me  .I havent had a good tamale since i lect CA. and moved to WA.


----------



## judylou (Jun 19, 2009)

Here is a discussion of the same question I found on another forum if you want to read it.

http://mrssurvival.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39639


----------

