Socuco

Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco, Mexico. Documented by Diana Kennedy in My Mexico (1998), p. 345, from direct fieldwork in the region.

Socuco is a substantial, old-fashioned tamale from Emiliano Zapata, Tabasco, built on two kinds of masa — smooth tortilla dough and the coarse corn debris left after straining — giving it an open, slightly grainy crumb that absorbs the achiote-stained lard beautifully. Chicharrón folded into the dough softens during the long steam, leaving fatty, tender pork pockets throughout. Wrapped in banana leaves and steamed upright for ninety minutes, the finished tamale is sliced and then griddled on a comal until the cut faces colour and crisp. The result sits somewhere between a dense cornbread and a proper tamale, smoky from the leaf, fiery from habanero or pico de paloma chile, and unmistakably Tabascan.

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