Beef Tamales
Montana Tamales

Olè, y’all! It’s tamale time!

I had the pleasure of testing (read: chowing down on) Montana Tamales. I tested all four varieties of Montana Tamale Company’s wares: Buffalo, Beef, Jalapeno Chicken and Green Corn. I also tested their sauce, and let me tell you: Delish!

Let me start by telling you how I prepared these tamales. On the package, it says to either steam them for twenty minutes or microwave them for a couple of minutes. I tried both ways, and my advice? STEAM. It ensures that your tamales will remain moist. The bonus for me? It gave me a chance to get a bit of a corn-husk-scented facial steam while preparing my dinner. Lovely. Also, like all items reviewed here on Pure Zing, these tamales are better than your traditional frozen tamales. They are all natural, gluten-free and contain no artificial colors or flavors. The sauce, a combination of corn flour, red chili powder, salt, garlic and ground cumin, comes dry and is so easy to prepare. The 2.3 ounce package makes enough sauce to cover six tamales entirely (top, bottom and each side). Of course, I am a sauce-a-holic, so…

The Beef Tamale was the kind I was used to eating. Mmmmm, the Montana beef tamale was heavenly. The filling contains shredded beef, chili rojo, chili molido, corn starch, garlic powder, salt and cumin. I love the fact that the beef inside is shredded and, once again, that the meat comes from Montana ranchers. The chilis contained within provide some spice, but not so many that you avoid serving the tamales to the youngsters or spice-wimps.

The masa that surrounds the filling of each tamale is made of stone ground corn flour with a trace of lime, corn oil, corn starch and salt. Each tamale weighs 4.5 ounces (128 grams) and a package contains three. You can buy these by the case, which means you get twenty packages of three. Party time! And please, invite me. I'm ready for more Green Corn Tamales!