How to Make Instant Pot Tamales without Lard (30 Minute Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

What can I use instead of lard in tamales? ›

Vegetable shortening is a meat-free and dairy-free substitute for lard, allowing you to serve tamales to meat eaters and vegans alike. That said, there are other substitutes for lard that will work well in tamale recipes as well, like refined coconut oil, butter, and avocado oil.

Steam Tamales in an Instant Pot:

Lock the lid in place and turn the valve to Sealing. Press the Manual/Pressure Cook button and set the cook time for 38 minutes at high pressure. Let the steam release naturally for about 10 minutes, then turn the valve to Venting to release any residual steam.

Making the Masa

Great masa para tamales starts with fat—and lots of it. Tamal dough should be rich and supple. This is not only for flavor, but for ease of shaping and proper texture. The fat in the masa is typically lard, but experimenting with different fats is a fun way to add flavor to the masa.

Arrange tamales in a steamer basket. Place over simmering water and steam for 1 hour. Remove tamales from husks. Drizzle with remaining chile sauce and top with sour cream, or mix sour cream into chile sauce first for a creamy sauce.

Lard makes tastier and fluffier tamales than other fats do. You can replace the lard with solid fats, like duck fat or shortening, to obtain a similar texture; butter and liquid oils work but will make a denser masa.

Steaming/Stove top

Remove tamales from bag and place them on steamer pot facing up. Add 2-3 inches of water to pot, make sure water does not touch tamales. For better results, cover pot with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and lid. Cook on medium low heat.

One of the most common mistakes we've experienced with making tamales is having corn husks that are not soft enough to maneuver, fold, and seal. In order to have a husk that doesn't split and can be easily sealed together, you'll need to make sure to fully submerge your corn husks before you start filling and wrapping.

Ingredients and ratio:

The big three ingredients are masa, lard and beef. The masa and lard will make the base of the tamale dough, in a ratio of 5 pounds masa to 1 pound lard.

Baking powder prevents the tamales chewiness rise caused by a decrease in fat content. At a high fat content, baking powder does not cause major changes in tamales texture. In the absence of fat, the leavening agent causes a desirable tamales texture.

Arrange the tamales vertically in the basket.

Place each of the tamales into the steamer basket so they're standing with the folded ends on the bottom. The open ends should be facing up. Position the tamales so they're packed and won't fall over.

How do you steam tamales quickly? ›

If serving right away, remove the tamales from the pot and place on a serving platter. Cover with a clean dishtowel and let sit for 30 minutes to finish cooking. If you are not serving the tamales right away, you can turn the heat off of the pot once they are done cooking.

Prepared masa usually already has been mixed with lard or vegetable shortening, broth salt & baking powder. Just like recipe in this post. Unprepared masa is usually just the ground corn in a solid form. Then you can add the ingredients to prepare it for the tamales.

You can use bacon fat instead, but it'll give the tamales an intensely smoky flavor that you may or may not like.

Is lard the same as Crisco? In a word, no, but they can be used for similar purposes. Lard is made from rendered pork fat, while Crisco is vegetable shortening made from palm oil and soybean oil. Crisco can be used in pie crust recipes and for frying.

Salt. Salt is added to lard so the pastry baker or cook can produce a substitute for butter. On the other hand, lard is a substitute for butter also but it is made from 100% animal fat.