Commercial tamales run in nine steps: soak the husks, cook the filling, cool the filling fast, mix the masa, spread and fill, fold, steam, cool the tamales fast, and freeze and bag them. The two cooling steps carry the food safety: cooked filling and steamed tamales both have to pass from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours and to 41°F within 6 hours in all, and a big pot of pork or a rack of hot tamales won't do that on its own. Steaming until the masa pulls cleanly from the husk is the doneness test. In the example below, a Maryland tamale maker runs a holiday production day.
The short version
- Nine steps: soak, cook, cool filling, mix masa, spread, fold, steam, cool, freeze.
- Cool cooked filling fast: 135°F to 70°F in 2 hours, to 41°F in 6.
- Spread masa by weight for even tamales.
- Steam until the masa pulls from the husk.
- Cool steamed tamales fast before freezing.
- Freeze, bag by the dozen, and date.
- TaroStack records the filling and the tamales as their own batches, linked by lot. More below.
The nine steps
| Step | What happens | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Soak husks | Dried corn husks soaked until pliable | Husk lot |
| 2. Cook filling | Pork and chile cooked until it shreds | Pork lot, time |
| 3. Cool filling | Spread in shallow pans in the walk-in | Temperatures and times |
| 4. Mix masa | Masa, lard, broth and salt by weight | Masa lot, weights |
| 5. Spread and fill | Masa spread by weight, filling added | Masa weight |
| 6. Fold | Folded and stood in the steamer | Count |
| 7. Steam | Steamed until the masa pulls from the husk | Time |
| 8. Cool | Spread on racks in the walk-in | Temperatures and times |
| 9. Freeze and bag | Frozen, bagged by the dozen, dated | Dozens, lot |
Making them by the hundred dozen is in how to make tamales in bulk, and how long the frozen dozens keep in tamales shelf life.
An example: a holiday production day
Paint Branch Tamale Co., the made-up tamale maker in Hyattsville, Maryland, I use in these examples, runs pork tamales in a shared kitchen in December. One day:
| Step | What happened |
|---|---|
| Cook and cool filling | Pork shoulder lot PS-1210, cooked Wednesday; 70°F at 1 hour 40, 41°F at 4 hours 30 |
| Mix, spread and fold | Masa lot MA-1205; 1,800 tamales at 2.4 oz of masa, four folders |
| Steam | 75 minutes; masa pulled cleanly from a test tamale in each steamer |
| Cool | Racks in the walk-in; 69°F at 2 hours, 40°F at 5 hours 15 |
| Freeze and bag | 150 dozen, lot PB-1211, best by Apr 2027 |
Both cooling steps made their times, with the filling spread in shallow pans and the tamales on racks, not stacked in pots; both went on the cooling record. Pork tamales from this kitchen sell directly to customers; selling them to a grocer would bring USDA's meat inspection, in usda meat inspection requirements.
Get the run sheet
Download the tamale production run sheet. Two sheets: a blank run sheet to print for each batch, with the nine steps, the check at each and its target, and spaces for the actual reading, the time and initials; and the same run filled in from the example. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The run sheet covers one day. Pork cooked on Wednesday, tamales folded on Thursday, 150 dozen to holiday orders: when a pork lot is recalled, the trace has to run through the filling batch and the tamale batch to every order.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack records the filling and the tamales as their own batches, linked by lot.
Filling as a batch. Wednesday's pork filling is a batch of its own, taking the pork and chiles off stock with their lots.
Tamales from the filling. Thursday's tamales are a batch that uses the filling and the masa, with its own lot and best-by.
Where it went. Each holiday order records the lot it got, so one recall report runs from a pork lot to every customer.
| The job | Clipboard | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday's filling | A note on the pan | A batch with its lots |
| Thursday's tamales | Counted at the end | A batch from the filling |
| Who got a lot | Order notebook | One recall report |
Recipes, batches, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.