Sacahuil de Olla

Sue Torres, Julian Medina, sleepy me and Emmanuel Bastien heard my call for help and arrived at  my house close to 6 AM to put this sacahuil together. We cooked it in a caja china and ti was spectacular.  I had brought back the traditional wooden vat that is used to cook the sacahuil in Papantla but you can use any large pot.

Papantla-Style Leaf-Wrapped Tamal in a Pot
This is one of fifty recipes that was cut from my recently published book, Zarela’s Veracruz,but I want to share it with you because it is a Veracruzan classic.

Makes 20 – 25 servings

In the northeastern reaches of Veracruz the piëce de rèsistance at weddings and other community celebrations is a sacahuil or zacahuil, the world’s largest tamal. One can feed the whole wedding party. They are regularly three feet long, and I have heard reports that they can be as much as six. Of course it takes many people’s efforts to prepare, cook, and serve this gigantic delicacy. One person alone couldn’t even lift it unaided. The cooks begin by spreading out huge pieces of fresh banana leaf. On this base they arrange a layer of special corn masa, ground (or rather cracked) extra-coarse so that it will absorb flavors more slowly without getting mushy. Over the masa goes a massive filling of meats in a rich, savory chile paste — large bone-in pieces of pork and/or whole poultry, perhaps rabbit as well. More of the masa is added to enclose the filling, and the whole thing is carefully wrapped up in the banana leaves (and these days, sometimes plastic trash bags as well) and tied with wire, stout string, or fibers from the banana trunk. Sometimes the sacahuil is secured to a frame so that the massive assemblage can be maneuvered safely into and out of the oven, usually, a large, wood-fired and brick-lined outdoor oven that can be heated well beforehand and sealed with clay after the tamal is put in. After ten or twelve hours, the seal is broken and the mighty dish is unwrapped to release clouds of the intense steam in which the meats have been infused all that time, while becoming tender enough to fall off the bone.
I would have loved to give a recipe for this masterpiece but you can well appreciate that reality intervened! The traditional sacahuil of the Pánuco area even in the somewhat smaller versions that people nowadays take to the baker’s oven — would have to be falsified almost totally in order to be turned into a company dinner suitable for a U.S. home kitchen. Luckily there is a not-too-far-fetched alternative that I have seen in Papantla and neighboring Tuxpan. People there make a variation where the corn mixture and meats cook in a pot rather than being wrapped up tamal-style for baking. In the version I was given, the coarse masa is again crucialã but instead of forming it into a shell around the filling, you dilute it quite thin, put it over the seasoned meat in a pot lined with banana leaves, and bake in a medium-low oven until the masa is thick and the meat tender.
Though only a fraction of the size of the biggest traditional sacahuiles, this version still takes some muscle and some planning, as well as several daysœ work. Start by searching out a heavy ovenproof pot big enough to hold at least 20 quarts (this in itself may be a hurdle!). It should have a tight-fitting lid unless, like me, you make habit of tightly wrapping your lidless pots with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Remember that when full it weighs a ton, so have someone around with a good back
The other logistical hurdle is making the unusual, interestingly textured masa. Unfortunately, no commercial masa, even from a good tortilla factory, will be coarse enough for the purpose. You must make your own nixtamal (lime-treated corn) and grind it to large bits. This can be done, a little at a time, in a food processor, or in a Latin American plate mill for corn with the plates adjusted for a very coarse grind. Be apprised that both methods are tedious and time-consuming. But the dish is one of those glorious extravaganzas that at least a few cooks will recognize as more than worth the challenge.