What Tamal means
Tamal is a Mexican antojito name of Nahuatl origin meaning "maize dough steamed in a wrapper". It comes from tamalli (maize dough cooked in a wrapping). It is pronounced tah-MAHL, and it is most associated with the whole country.
Molina's 1571 vocabulary glosses tamalli as maize bread wrapped in husks and cooked in a pot. In Mexico the singular is tamal; English 'tamale' is a false singular built from the plural.
Tamal is one of the many Mexican food words formed in Nahuatl. Spanish borrowed it, and in several cases English borrowed it again from Spanish. See how Nahuatl builds words and the full list of Mexican food names.
This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: Antojito means "little craving". These are the masa-based street foods named for their shape more often than their filling: a sope is a small mound, a huarache is a sandal, a gordita is a fat little one, a tlacoyo is an oval patty.
