Tamale Pie

When dealing with most American recipes from the 19th and Early 20th Centuries it is safe to assume the food will be overcooked and under-seasoned. This recipe is no exception. I upped the salt to taste (and added pepper as well). I tripled the Chili Powder to a tablespoon.

There was no way I was going to re-cook beef, and was not something most people have lying about. So I used 1 lb. of ground beef and browned it off. The cornmeal top was difficult to work with following the recipe, I would do it differently.

Yes, I’d do it again, but I’d start by replacing the tomatoes with a can or so of Ro-Tel® and go from there.

One warning: don’t use a meat grinder. I thought Mabel’s suggestion a brilliant time saver in this pre-food processor world. I have the type of antique grinder used by Mabel, but it is only used as a bookshelf decoration. I have other choices, and picked the KitchenAid attachment rather than the manual. It was a disaster. I gave up and used the food processor – because I can.