Tamale

A tamale is a Mesoamerican dish of masa, a dough made from nixtamalized corn, wrapped in a corn husk or banana leaf and steamed, with the wrapping discarded before eating or used as a plate. Tamales likely date back to between 8000 and 5000 BC in Mesoamerica, with pictorial evidence from the Mural of San Bartolo in Guatemala suggesting a form of the dish existed by around 100 AD, and the Aztec, Maya, Olmec and Toltec civilizations all used them as portable food for hunting and military campaigns as well as in sacred rituals tied to corn's central place in their cultures. The masa is combined with lard or vegetable shortening, broth or water, and sometimes chili purees, then filled with meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, herbs or chilies according to taste, in preparation that is traditionally labor intensive and communal, often carried out by groups of women. The English word tamale is an anglicized form of the Spanish tamal, itself derived from the Nahuatl tamalli.