Tamale-geddon! Texas Bites Into a Jaw-Dropping World Record!

Texans Love Tamales...to excess.

Texans Celebrate Tamales

This Saturday, March 23rd is National Tamale Day. Why it falls during the first weekend of spring is absolutely beyond me. Everyone here in tamale country knows that the real tamale season is around Christmas. Not only do we have everyone and their grandma (especially their grandma) is making, selling, or eating tamales. We all have tamale "hookups", and even the social media is full of people posting "Who has tamales?". Not only that, we'll sometimes purchase from complete strangers in parking lots.

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The Tamale Scoop

In case you're new to this, a tamale is masa (corn dough) usually with shredded pork inside. The best tamales are actually made with pork cheek meat, which freaks some people out. Of course chicken and beef are sometimes used. Then there are people that we don't like that put veggies or fruit in tamales (I'll bet it's the same people who like pineapple on pizza). All of this is wrapped in a corn husk, then bundled with friends for sale.

Tamale Record Holders

I happen to live in the home of Pedro's Tamales who supply and ship tamales all over the world. Pedro's kicks out about 40,000 tamales each day.  As far as
non-professionals go, Sidney Lanier High School in San Antonio, Texas captured the record by making over 17,106 tamales in just 12 hours. That's a lot of rolling!

How To & Not To Eat Tamales

Hopefully you're able to enjoy tamales as part of your cuisine. One note, if you want to start a fight in Texas, ask someone whether ketchup belongs on tamales (the answer is, it doesn't). The best tamales actually require no sauce what-so-ever and just slide right down. Throwing a fried egg on top of a couple is also acceptable and one of the best things you'll ever have for breakfast.