As someone from a Hispanic family and whose favorite food is tamales a great alternative that we've found is using coffee filters instead of corn husks if you can't get them
My family is Panamanian and we use banana leaves! Obviously not very viable in most places, but when your surrounded by banana trees, its so easy just to pluck it directly off the tree.
You need to soak the corn husk first to make it more malleable, then you fill them in. You should use coarse salt for baking to prevent the food from getting too salty.
It also helps to use a masa spreader. You can definitely do it with a spoon, but I've seen my dad work with the masa spreader, and he's able to dish out many tamales in a minute
I'm always impressed with how willing and engaged of a student Mike is. Not that the others aren't, but Mike always seems to ask questions and really engages with whatever they are learning about.
I definitely enjoy Mike's dynamic a whole lot more than the other two. Not to throw shade, I'm sure the other normals are great people irl. Their on camera personas just infuriate me.
@@linebrunelle1004you are a bit of a weirdo aren’t you? Leaving so many negative comments about a person you’d never meet and never know. You clearly have issues. Go speak to a professional you absolute weirdo.
Didn’t expect to see 돌솥(stone pot) here! It is indeed a quite commonly used kitchenware in Korea. We use it for making bibimbap but because stone bowl has excellent heat retention we also use it a lot to serve loads of different kinds of traditional soup/stew (i.e. doenjang jjigae, kimchi jjigae etc.) Most restaurants in Korea serve boiling hot stew in these stone bowls and the food will stay hot/warm throughout your entire meal. Great content as always guys - can’t wait to see more! 👍🏻
@@alanholck7995 Only speaking my personal experience, but cast-iron is unusual. However, iron plate griddle is a common method to grill meats and is (very rarely) switched out with salt blocks. The principle for use is probably the same: High thermal mass. SPECULATION WARNING (and many, many citations needed), but my theory is that iron plate cooking is an adopted style based on Japanese teppanyaki cooking methods and largely appeared post WWII. According to Wikipedia (so take with grain of salt), while ROK's iron production is relatively high, iron ore production is not so, which leads me to speculate that the ROK soil composition is relatively iron-poor (similar to Japan). Stone, on the other hand, would be a relatively easier resource to gather and make things out of.
Tamales are usually served still in the husk and they're common in the US, so I immediately recognized them. I always turn my leftover turkey from Thanksgiving into tamales. Makes the leftovers both go faster and more freeze friendly rather than having a massive chunk of turkey hanging out in the freezer.
I’m Polish. We socialize around making pierogi (not all the time, but I rarely make pierogi just by myself). When I learned about Tamales 🫔 and how they are often made by groups of people not just one cook, it struck me that Tamales are the Pierogis of Mexico and Central American cultural practice. And corn husks are so common in markets around Seattle.
As a Texan I have been dying to see y’all’s reactions to Tamales. They are a Christmas staple at my family’s house and people get so protective over who has the best recipes. There are 4 seasons here crawfish season, summer, hurricane season and tamale season.
South African here! Love that you guys discussed biltong. My husband is a hunter and I often make venison biltong at home. The ingredients in your spice mix are spot on! But the ratios are a bit higher than what we use. I'm not sure about what everyone else in SA uses, but our recipe has way less of each spice/ingredient per kg of meat, except the salt. We also dip ours in a vinegar and water bath after it cures overnight to remove some of the spice and salt before we hang it to dry. We dry ours in a little "cellar" with a fan and sometimes a lightbulb. We also make cabanossi sausage from warthog, and sometimes droewors (the sausage you refer to) from venison. Awesome to see biltong represented on a channel we love 👍
I'm in the Midwestern US, I've been working up to making biltong with all the deer hunting we have here. They're out of control so the more interesting ways we can get people to eat them the better.
When we were having a bbq in the bush we used to get mud from just below the water line at the local river. We would thickly coat unpeeled apples and potatoes in the mud and chuck them in the fires coals. Once the mud started to crack after drying out we would get them out of the coals break off the mud and have baked potatoes and apples. My Dad said it's natures tin foil. Those and his billy tea were always a treat.
That’s how you do old school laulau in Hawaii~ You wrap the meat in banana leaf then in case them in mud and bury them with burning wood in an underground oven. Sooooo yummy - no other flavor like it!
@@BIGBANGvip5673 similar method in New Zealand / Aotearoa, where the Māori people dig an earth pit, wrap fish and meat in flax leaves, and then bury it with hot stones for a few hours :D
Costa Rican here. Tamales back home are made with plantain leaves instead of corn husk. I believe that type of tamal is more like the ones from Mexico.
Really depends on the type of tamal. Nicaraguan here (Or Nicarguan according to Ben lol). Nacatamales we wrap in banana leaves, but yoltamales we wrap in corn husk. But that's mainly because nacatamales are massive and wouldn't fit in a corn husk.
So glad biltong is finally represented! There's a South African pub in SW London which does incredible South African food - you should check it out! I'll be honest though - that biltong looked really bad. It shouldn't be that dry. However, love the representation!
In some cases we get really dry peaces but they break apart and are often used for biltong powder but that peace had alot of cinu (senewee) which made it like chewing gum...
My best friend is South African and over the last few years she’s introduced me to so much SA culture and food. Pap and milk, braai, and Biltong. But I live in SW london and would love to know where that pub is so I can take her!
This was actually well researched and respectful of all cultures presented with absolutely no hint of ignorance or racism usually found on food shows. Refreshing take on the discovery of foreign food. Well done guys. Thumbs up 👍
So cool to see some South African stuff on the channel, love checking my country get some recognition! Biltong is so nice, and droewors ( the sausage ) is defiantly one of my favourite snacks!
Biltong is an all round South African favourite. Everyone has there own way of making it but your spice mix covers all the basics. I remember my mom preparing whole batches for each year in a baby bath and the smell of coriander wafting through the house. It's not supposed to stink!! The wet biltong is my favourite to snack on. Dry biltong can also be ground up and is delicious on buttered bread with white pepper... Yum! 😋😋😋
@@MaZEEZaM not a ridiculously dry heat, but it is definitely more challenging if you live in a humid location. What we do, is just make a wooden box with holes at the bottom (covered with fly mesh) and a hole at the top with a computer fan drawing air out. Add an incandescent light bulb in the box which should be enough to drop the humidity to below 50. Tips, make sure you have some fat on the meat. Also, if drying beef, do not wait for it to be ridiculously dry. A little moisture is good. But if you doing game meat, you should go dryer. Note: this is not jerky, so do not over do the sugar. It should not be sweet.
@@MaZEEZaM I feel like using a dehydrator would make it a lot faster and easier? Dehydrators are so cheap these days, can easily find one for like $50.
I used to make salami and other cured meats for a living. Biltong is unique because it doesn't get cooked at all. Jerky is cured, cooked and then dried, but biltong is just cured and dried. It's tricky to make because beef contains microbes that are harder to kill. I can't, in good conscience, tell anyone to try making cured products at home unless they have the right equipment (pH meter, water activity meter, etc) to measure their product and ensure safety. EDIT: also, very traditionally, biltong was made of wild venison, which carries its own issues.
I agree it carries it own risk but as my grand father is a butcher and we live in south africa he uses the same spices white vinegar instead of balsamic and a lot more time marinating... but then puts is on a large washing line that spins making a biltong fan pointing at the ceiling and I can tell you for a fact he does not have a ph meter but he has the best biltong in our town. And in the butcher shop in the back the workers walked past the biltong fan every day as it dries and before covid there has not been one case of the batch gone bad due to extra moisture or not being in a "completely" sterilized environment.
@@tyronglover640 generally, when you're talking about traditional products made in their traditional way by people who have been making it for generations and in the place where it's been made for generations, you'll find that the environment is perfect to produce that product. Your climate, the temperature and the humidity, along with the microbes present in the air, are exactly what's needed to make biltong. The rest of us are trying to mimic that as best we can in artificial chambers and sterilizing everything to keep the bad stuff out and the good stuff in. It's pretty fascinating, actually. Some other good examples of this are sourdough from San Francisco and certain regions of costal Italy where the sea salt has a naturally higher level of curing agents.
@@erinhowett3630 sorry Now I understand your point better yes in this part of our country it is dry for most of the year making humidity very low indoors and out... how ever I must say we bought a "biltong box" 6 thin peaces of plastic with a light bulb and a computer fan that definitely does the job even in our most humid environments... again I can only speak for what I have been thought I now realize that the climate in other countries will heavily impact the results... but like they said in the video chewing gum is not what we aim for here and that comes down to your meat and how it was butcherd...
I grew up in Colorado USA and now live in Arizona USA. I love to make tamales but I always soak the corn husks in hot water to soften them before trying to fill and roll. They need to be dried off but roll very easily.
I am current University Student, I am on my 2nd Year, Sorted has helped me a lot whilst budgeting for food, cooking different meals so I don't get tired or bored of cooking and most important of all; avoid wastage as much as possible. Thank you Sorted!!! Can you please do meals that a University student can do e.g. easy, quick, not many ingredients needed and one pot perhaps.
That's exactly how Sorted started: giving cooking advice yo university students! If you go back and watch their earliest videos, you'll get lots of good ideas.
@@alleeum I was about to comment the same thing 😄 Yes I’d highly recommend watching their videos from years ago, as it was exactly what they often covered 😉
South African here! Biltong is our pride and joy. We’re a very big hunting country, so we usually after hunting season have biltong and droëwors (the sausage) hanging outside in our garages, not our ovens😂 childishly excited to see you guys try it!
You're lucky it's warm enough. It's usually cold and raining weeks at a time here in the UK. Not good for drying anything that has to have a specific moisture content. Heck I have to plan when to do my laundry with a chance of drying it outside.
As a proud South African who lives on Biltong, its awesome seeing a technique we take for granted being showcased here. I make my own biltong, and although you guys have the basic spice blend correct (which is like a starter point) we have so many alternates from different levels of spice by adding chillies and different spice blends to sweeter spicing etc example one of my favourites to make uses lemon pepper
Most South Africans have at one time or another made biltong from scratch, we have. I much prefer the wetter variety, between the wet and dry versions you did, and with less fat. The sausage is known as "dry wors" - wors being the Afrikaans for sausage. Love it.
I am South African and I only know one person who has made their own biltong and droewors and they do it every year from Kudu during hunting season...I didnt even know how...
We made some once with a buck from an acquaintances farm - strung lines across the garage and hung it there :) The spiced curing mixes are also highly personalised and usually a "family recipe" - but can be bought at some butchers and other retailers.
Also, as a Korean, we love eating everything piping hot. Hot beverages, stews, soups, rice. Piping hot. Hot Korean food doesn’t taste great cooled. It’s the most delicious off the flame or continuously on the flame.
From a South African, we eat biltong at absolutely any opportunity. We even have shops dedicated to it! It is a staple of South African life. It also is not as difficult (or unsanitary) to make as Ben makes it out to be! Essentially you need a wooden box with good ventilation and a heat source like a light bulb, and you can make it yourself at home.
When we moved to Sweden my son made a biltong box in woodshop class in school. Doesn't have to be big, but with a pc fan at the top and an open bottom it works a treat. Back on the farm in SA of course everybody's grandpa had it hanging under the bed.
Agreed. Fellow (former) South African here. Tried Beef Jerky once - wouldn't even feed junk that to my worst enemy's dog - not a product fit for consumption by any living species (in my opinion)
This is amazing! I love the way u highlight cultures and foods around the world. That said... as a latina, the way Ben said Nicaragua made me laugh in the middle of my lunch break hahaha Nice effort ebbers
as someone who always has tamales in the freezer and gochujang in the fridge, i loved this episode! it was quite interesting to see them be so unfamiliar with corn husks and tamales (since i am in the U.S.)
You guys actually sprung for the extra long Korean spoons! I'm Korean and my Dad passes over every spoon in the drawer and uses those for everything! And those dolsat stone bowls are also used to make Korean stews (chigae) that come boiling to the table.
El Salvadorian, Honduran and Guatemalan sometimes use banana leaves as well as a substitute in place of the corn husks. My mother would use margarine instead of lard to help tone down the fat content. It makes the corn mixture a bit lighter and softer. As long as you have a good mixture in the tamale, you won't notice the difference. You guys are making me miss home! Great video as always!
Anytime I watch the guys try Latin food, I'm always so shocked. Its definitely a culture thing, as I'm in the USA, but getting authentic Latin food has to be difficult in the UK.
This channel is definitely an education at how different an array of multicultural influences we have in the US compared to the UK. So often they will throw off a “you know, like in x cuisine” and they all recognize the reference, but it’s totally foreign to me, from some Commonwealth country that has sent near zero immigrants to my area, therefore no restaurants, etc here for me to have any reference point. But something as everyday to me in the US as tamales, and their components of corn husks, masa harina are as unusual to them as those other references and flavors they often use as touch points are to me.
@@alhollywood6486 as someone from the uk i was shocked tbh that they've never heard of tamales or the bibimbap bowl, and i'm just a casual home cook! but i watch loads of cooking channels. strange.
My mother started growing a turmeric plant some time ago, and she found a recipe for an Indian desert called "patholi" that is cooked in turmeric leaves. I'm sure we didn't do very well with it, but what we made was good, and cooking in turmeric leaves gave the food a really nice flavor. Also: when I was in China I had grilled lotus root that was really good -- I don't suppose grilling is a novel cooking method, but lotus root is definitely not common in western cuisine. There's a yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepalum) that grows in southeast Alaska that I've been told has a tasty root and seeds that can be popped like popcorn. I've never tried it myself because harvesting from aquatic plants sounds really complicated and I don't live near enough any of them to get ready access, but I absolutely want to try it!
As soon as I saw the corn husk, I knew it was gonna be tamales.... it made me giggle they were so perplexed by them but I had to remind myself, I live in Texas and half my family is Mexican descent. Not many abuelitas in the UK selling tamales every winter.
I'm in California and once or twice a week at work a woman comes by with a tamale cart and pokes her head in- "¿quieren tamales ustedes?" Almost always, but usually I've just eaten 😭
As a much younger person, I lived in an apartment complex in NM with a lot of Mexican people. One neighbor would make hundreds of tamales in a single go and I spent a lot of time helping with that. She was the nicest lady and also showed me how to make carnitas, chile verde and posole.
Shout-out to the Sorted team from South Africa 🙌 That cured sausage is what we call droewors which literally translates to "dry sausage" and if that wet piece freaks you out Baz there's a type of biltong called geelvet biltong which has still has most of the fat cap from a piece of meat and is hung and cured until the fat goes yellow and basically runs down your chin when you bite into it 😂 Never been a fan myself but a lot of the older Afrikaans Ooms (Uncles) and the proper Boere (Farmers) enjoy it!
What I love about this channel, these guys and their team is how on one hand, they are willing to push limits on traditional ways foods are cooked all over the world (i.e. paella burrito) but also their willingness to revisit, relearn and re-educate on traditional ways at the same time.
So great to see some South African stuff. You get some amazing biltong drying kits that lets you dry it without using a spare room or your oven. So Mike no need to stink up that room again. You can use a wide variety of spices for biltong. Chilly bites is a favourite for many people here. Some of the butchers here in South Africa have been making biltong from wagyu meat as well. Extremely rich flavour but very addictive. Jamie will absolutely love it.
0:55 The dolsot is actually heavier than that as it is literally made of stone, what you're showing is much lighter in weight and it's called a ttukbaegi. It is a basic earthenware pot or Korean claypot
I very much appreciate you doing closed captioning for your videos. You always upload just before my lunch break at work and I don’t want the volume on out of respect for other people around me. I’ve watched your videos enough that I know each of your voices well enough for my brain to read the captions in your voices, ha!
I’m so proud of this episode!!! I’ve been a fan on this channel for four years and finally there’s biltong. I’m South African living in South Africa 🇿🇦! Love you guys !
Lol in South Africa we eat biltong and dröewors weekly! At least 200grams per week 🤣😂. Baz couldn’t handle another slice 🤣😂… And leave the fat on ! Yellow fat is sweeter it’s the best
If you want real biltong you need to choose a cut with a fat cap on it! Making biltong at home is super easy and really has very little danger to it - just use good quality fresh beef. As a South African living in Europe I've been making biltong at home for ages and never run into issues (it is a staple in our snack diet, like crisps in the UK). Another great version is to cut thinner strips and coat them in chilli powder to make a spicy "chilli bite" alternative.
Now you've made me lus for chili sticks! Going out to the butcher later today for some silverside but it will be 5 days of waiting! I am still using my old Mellerware biltong box here in Spain!
I love seeing SORTED exploring different cuisines in different ways and not just through one single ingredient or dish! After being a fan for 10 years, it's so cool to the content evolve from mainly British/European food to now being truly a global food channel.
I love the "don't try this at home" speech with the biltong, while every South African can almost make it instinctively as soon as they are allowed in the kitchen. I'm also always amazed that people from other countries consider lamb "gamey" or describe biltong as having a funk. In SA that is exactly what you go for. If you can't taste the Karoo bush the lamb has eaten, you bought some crappy quality lamb 😉
The day I saw biltong was the day I stopped making jerky. It's fantastic. And the coriander and other spices help kill any bacteria on the surface of the meat
I've just made my own biltong. Had my partner bring over a Mellerwere dryer. Have some wet biltong after 3 days, leaving another piece for 4 days and the last piece for five. Really interested in seeing the difference in the pieces.
This channel always helps me to realize the different cooking styles around the world and how some are much more accessible than others and to be kind when someone hasn't tried something before. Like the tamales, I live in Texas and immediately was like "oh come on guys!" But then held myself back by remembering that in the UK it probably is a really difficult to find traditional Mexican/Latin American foods there. Glad the guys liked them!
I'm a South African. I made my first batch of biltong when I was 14. Everyone here eats biltong almost daily. Every grocer has sections just to dry meat and you never need to visit a butcher although they do it best. The variety is also unbelievable to foreigners visiting...almost every decent sized town has shops dedicated just to biltong and you can find 50+ different variants from shark to bacon to chicken and find what you love. I like a straight wet-ish droewors and chutney wheels. I encourage you to visit and do an episode on just biltong and I promise you, the culture will astonish you. Just pick a random town and ask a local where the biltong shop is or just walk into a Pick & Pay and you'll find something worth the trip.
@@mattmaccallum8210 It's quite common at markets and festivals...one of the only ones you might need to go a little out of your way to find, but yeah quite Mossel Bay lol
It's really interesting to see how the tamales were tied in the Cuban manner, also in Central America banana leaf is what is used to wrap the tamales. Corn husk is middle and northern Mexico and some of the islands.
Try making appams in a traditional Indian appam pan! Its my favourite thing to make. The pan is special because its shape enables you to make appams that are slightly gooey in the middle but crispy on the edges. You have to ferment the batter overnight but it is so so easy. You just mix coconut milk with rice flour, yeast and sugar.
The first one got me excited. I love bibimbap. The second one was a no brainer for me as a resident of Texas. Corn husks are available all over here. Tamales are an art form here.
I live in Washington state and you can purchase masa already prepared in the meat dept. Also when you get the hucks home,they are as come as a loaf of bread, soak them in water to make them more pliable . The entire family gathers around and we have an assembly line to make the tamales and we make over 100. We do this at Christmas and feed a hugh group of family and friends. We have a great time and it's an easy process once you make the filling and lay everything out.
@@braddodson4566 I genuinely was horrified when they took a bite. My brain needed a second to process before my partner reminded me they weren’t available everywhere. They are just such a fact of life here.
@@braddodson4566 I loved their puzzled look. It's such a common thing for us. And yeah, I've never made them either, but immediately was like oh it's tamale time.
@@muffinmarie01 Yeah I remember seeing it in stores when I lived in WA. And yeah tamale time is always a family gathering thing. Homemade tamales are the best.
Laughed so hard when Mike bit the corn husk! It just goes to show that where you live and travel can really determine which cultures you’re exposed to and or learn about. More than half the time I have no idea what European dishes they’re referring to but usually always recognize items from the American and Asian countries.
When I was a teenager, the first time I was put in charge of the Sunday roast, I did salt baked lamb (because I was a pretentious weirdo I guess) but it’s totally worth the effort. It is absolutely delicious.
@@tm5443 That’s really interesting, I’ve never heard of anyone salt-baking duck. Was it a whole duck? Personally, due to the fat content of a duck, I would just roast it (I don’t even spatchcock it like I would a chicken). Don’t get me wrong, a leg of lamb is fatty too, but I feel it’s distributed differently.
@@08mlascelles it was a whole duck. It's traditional to bake a whole duck where I live and serve it with sauerkraut and dumplings, so I wanted to try a different technique, but it didn't work out.
@@tm5443 Sauerkraut and dumplings sound like an incredible accompaniment to duck, I imagine the acidity of sauerkraut would offset the fattiness of duck so well! How do you normally bake duck where you live? Sorry for the over enthusiastic response, but I love finding new cooking techniques.
@@08mlascelles Usually, you would just season the duck with salt and cumin and bake it, pouring the fat that comes out over the skin, until it goes crispy. I think, that people just appreciate the taste of meat itself, so it's a simple seasoning. The sauerkraut offsets the fattiness, but also soaks up all the juice, that came out during baking. Also, Czech dumplings are made off old "toast" (It's not toast, but I haven't seen a bake good more similar outside CZ) and mixed with dough made of flour, water/milk and eggs and than cooked and sliced (you can search for Karlovarský knedlíky or Houskový knedlík).
I enjoy using my Dolsot for my bibimbap. Similarly (yet different) if people want some more Korean cookingware they can try a Ddukbaegi (also spelled Ttukbaegi) for soups, stews, and more.
As a South African, I am happy to see Biltong here on Sorted! So, you get a special cabinet (really just a big plastic box with a bulb for heat and fans for ventilation) called a 'Biltong Maker' - it's great for making Biltong and the sausage (called 'Droewors' aka 'Dry Sausage'. You also get the sausage as 'Boere Wors' aka 'Farmers' Sausage' that we cook over hot coals barbecue style - called a 'Braai'. You can buy the Droewors 'wet' at many butchers and then cure it yourself (just hang it up in a Biltong Maker for a couple days and you're done). My family goes hunting now and again, and then the whole house ends up hung with Biltong and Droewors all over. It's really nice to have a whole bunch of delicious Biltong available. Biltong is sold nearly everywhere here as a major snack, and I've not really ever heard of someone getting sick from eating it since all you have to do is make sure that you marinate and cure it properly first. The strong spices, vinegar and salt helps a great deal to prevent issues and if you can keep insects and the like away then you should be good. Take note our climate down here is a lot warmer than in Britain though and the heat plays a big role in the proper curing of the meat!!!
As a South African I am proud to see Droë Wors and Biltong being showcased here on Sorted. Makes me proud. But yes this has been done for hundreds of years. And you don't get anything beter or comforting as this
As a South African who constantly makes his own biltong and droewors (dry sausage), it is so amazing to see the guys from sorted showcasing a massive part of our culture
I loved this, really like it when you share from different countries. One thing we used to do in Norway a long time ago was smoke food by lighting a fire inside hulled trees
This is your sign to soooooak your tamale husks, I beg you! Max Miller's Tasting History episode on Tamalés is a great reference with some background on the food itself! Many Indigenous like the Diné (Navajo) put juniper ash in their Blue corn mush to nixtamalize it before eating. Top it with wojapi and it's the booooomb!
After watching this video, I purchased the bowls and made Bibimbap for my family. To say they loved it is an understatement. Thank you so much. I have learned from all of you. Keep up the amazing work guys.
Biltong is a South African pastime, literally, some types can take hours to chew. We also have some cool flavors these days, my favorite is honey and chili, wet biltong mixed with honey, and chili flakes, AWESOME!
My family (From the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) has a old family recipe where we salt bake a huge slab of beef. It involves the full salt crust - wrapping in foil, and eventually cooking it under a mound of dirt with coals.
As a Latinamerican, watching the corn husk part was so cute and funny. We use masa literally everyday and wrapping things in corn husks seems so normal. Using cornhusks is also important for the flavor of tamales and/or bollitos
In Chile during summer when corn is at it best we make something called Humitas. Is like a tamale but it uses fresh grated corn, that is mixed with fried onions (with spices). The mix is put inside corn leaves and cooked in water and salt. It's the best summer food. You eat it hot with tomatoes, you can also add sugar just before eating but that is a controversial point lol
7:29 - Tamales are a BIG thing in Texas, as expected. I can find the husks and Masa at any grocery store, and they're not expensive. In the late 90's, I worked for a major airline as a reservations agent, and one of my co-workers would bring their mom in every Friday, having taken orders on Tuesday, and they would spend very late Thursday into Friday morning, making them. My friends and I would go together and just order 12 to 24 depending on how many of us would be in office, and I have to say, best lunch of the week every week. If you guys get back to Texas and are in DFW, let me know, I know some amazing Tex-Mex and Mexican dining on the west side of the metroplex.
I absolutely love you guys, and I keep forgetting you are in a different country. So when you brought out the corn husks to make Tamales, it absolutely blew my mind that you’d never had them before. Tamales are a Christmas Eve dinner tradition in my family, having grown up in mainly Latino community in Southern California and having married into a Mexican family. I’m so excited that you have finally been introduced to this amazing food. ❤️
Really cool to see you guys making biltong! My dad and I make our own in a homemade biltong box, the fatty bits are the best! We don't use sugar in our biltong rub so that was really interesting to see, next time you guys should make pap and boeri.
I just wanted to say thank you. Your videos make my day 100 times better, especially now that I just found out my mom has cancer. You guys are amazing. Keep it up ☺️❤️
Biltong comes in different variations of dryness from super crackly dry like crisps, to the more moist one like you tried, including different spice blends from mild to chili and also sticks of dried sausage 'boerwors',different thicknesses etc. It's a snack to accompany beers, barbecues, it can be stewed- basically rehydrated in a fashion- & from different types of animals e.g beef to game. You have to try more variations and most probably you will get hooked on one of them be it salty,thick,thin, chili,salty,peppery you name it.
As someone who is korean, currently living in Japan, it does always make me smile when someone goes absolutely nuts as I put a dolsot straight onto the burner and watch it start to go off like a small haejangguk-scented volcano.
You can actually buy gas-powered ones and lots of places use these in New Zealand if they're doing hangi food on the regular. I feel this is something achievable the boys could do. Check out the Multi Kai Cooker, for example. They're not cheap - but you do get a free pack of Mallowpuffs with it so you can't complain! 😂
Hi from Costa Rica. Apart from corn husks, some other "hojas" used for tamales are plantain leaves, sugar cane leaves, and swiss chard. Absolutely loved the video -- learned so much!
Love seeing Korean food culture getting featured beyond the KBBQ fad! Y'all should really try the steamed egg dish (gyeran-jjim) that also gets served in dolsot's too - that's actually a common side dish with KBBQ, so I guess you can't really get away from that anyway haha
Interesting seeing your biltong mix which is different to what we use. My son makes biltong from topside in a small airdrier. It does not smell and is delicious. I like a medium dried biltong. It is easy to make.b
Oh watching them attempt to make tamales makes me giggle. When I go over my Mexican friends houses, I’m always relegated to opening the husks. I’m not allowed to stuff/roll then 😂
Biltong & Droëwors 💓 Proundly South African here 👋🏻 Biltong and droëwors lover! 🤩 It is not supposed to taste funky at all, then it is not really ready, it is supposed to be a pleasant soft yet savoury nibble. The wet biltong you guys have there is very pink, it has to hang a bit more or chill in the fridge. That very dry biltong is not really eaten like bubble-gum it is either just eaten as a stick of meat on the go or pulverised and eaten on fresh baked bread with sprinkled(generous amount) on butter or sprinkled over avocado toast or marmite toast. It is a healthy protein snack, ideal for lunchboxes and amazing it you follow paleo or keto lifestyles. After a hunt, we work the meat either ourselves, take it to a butcher to process or both. I have helped make biltong many times in my life, I have fond memories of helping with making the curing mixture (each family has their own recipe), later we help hooking and hanging the meat up in our garage. We let our meat lay and cure in basins for a few days. In the Highveld the dry winters are ideal to hang the meat. Lots of people have wires high in their garage roof, it looks like clothing lines but it is not, it's where we hang the pieces of meat. The pieces are never allowed to touch one another, the pieces we hang only drips maybe for one day. So, after a day maybe two you can just park you car safely underneath it. Tip: If your biltong does catch a little moisture and a tiny bit of mould is notices, lightly dab it with a clean cloth dipped brown vinegar. We have white and brown vinegar on our shelves, we do not use balsamic vinegar for biltong, brown vinegar is like white vinegar just not as sharp. In RSA balsamic vinegar is consider a "fancy" or special condiment for Italian food and salads. Biltong made with balsamic vinegar would be considered an oddity or marketing thing.
For the bibimbop in the hot dolsot(?), when you are done eating, you pour some water into it then the residual heat is still hot enough to cook the rice even further, make it into Noo roong ji (누룽지), which means brownish crispy rice. What the water does is actually it soaks the rice grains making them effortlessly come off of the bottom of the dolsot, you save the time and energy for washing the dolsot without worrying about the rice grains that are stuck to the bottom so hard.
When i was working in kitchens, a lot of the chefs I knew used wine fridges to hang their curing meats because they often have a way of controlling the humidity
Yeh, love the methods. I do the last one of making the biltong. I however do this in a plastic box with a hole on one side and and extraction fan on the other. It works fantastically.
Ugh I want tamales so bad now. I've never tried making my own but I think I'll take this as a sign to give it a go. All the ingredients are readily available in my area so I have no excuse 😆
They are a little challenging at first but once you get the hang of it, it's easy. Great to make with family or friends and then everyone takes a dozen home. I've made chicken, pork and spicy cheese
It's not too bad and they tend to be fairly forgiving in terms of end flavor. Don't be surprised if the first dozen or so break apart, or you use too much or too little masa. I will give one hint, as a chef in the southwest US who has made a lot of tamales in my lifetime; if you soak the corn husks for a little bit, then let them air dry as you construct, you may find that overall construction is easier, and there will be less tearing of the husk as you wrap. Dry husks can be brittle occasionally, depending on age and quality. Don't rush. Around here, tamale making is a whole day or afternoon thing, with beers and family/friends over a 10-12 hour period. You make as many as you can and freeze a bunch. They freeze really well and can be reheated from frozen just by steaming again.
Do it. Use stock and not water in your masa. It really helps with the flavor. I use some of the leftover liquid from cooking the meat. Soak your husks in cold water for 30 or so minutes to make your job much easier. I cook mine in my instant pot and they turn out great.
I don't know how the algorithm suggested this show but I love this show if I need to turn something on just to hangout I'll put this show on and as a pro chef I find the challenges and every thing amazing with great production vaulue. If I lived in england I would come begging for a job here. Abdlutly stunning boys.
Thanks!
Thank you so much JoAnna.... incredibly kind of you!
I’m from Canada. May I ask what this means?
@@sophia9176 No.
@@SortedFood😅😊
As someone from a Hispanic family and whose favorite food is tamales a great alternative that we've found is using coffee filters instead of corn husks if you can't get them
Interesting..... thanks for sharing!
I never heard of that. But in America Corn husks should available at every good grocery store.
My family is Panamanian and we use banana leaves! Obviously not very viable in most places, but when your surrounded by banana trees, its so easy just to pluck it directly off the tree.
Hearings then mention aluminum foil as an alternative hurt me inside…
@@RabbitsInBlack I've found that if your store has an "Ethnic" food aisle, corn husks are there 9/10 times.
You need to soak the corn husk first to make it more malleable, then you fill them in. You should use coarse salt for baking to prevent the food from getting too salty.
this needs to be waaaaay way higher on the comment list
I added a comment about this as well.
I was looking for this! Always soak the husks.
👌🏽❤️
It also helps to use a masa spreader. You can definitely do it with a spoon, but I've seen my dad work with the masa spreader, and he's able to dish out many tamales in a minute
I'm always impressed with how willing and engaged of a student Mike is. Not that the others aren't, but Mike always seems to ask questions and really engages with whatever they are learning about.
Didn't he used to be a teacher? I imagine he was quite good at it. Thats one of the reasons i think so.
oh give it a rest
@@linebrunelle1004 ???
I definitely enjoy Mike's dynamic a whole lot more than the other two. Not to throw shade, I'm sure the other normals are great people irl. Their on camera personas just infuriate me.
@@linebrunelle1004you are a bit of a weirdo aren’t you? Leaving so many negative comments about a person you’d never meet and never know. You clearly have issues. Go speak to a professional you absolute weirdo.
Didn’t expect to see 돌솥(stone pot) here! It is indeed a quite commonly used kitchenware in Korea. We use it for making bibimbap but because stone bowl has excellent heat retention we also use it a lot to serve loads of different kinds of traditional soup/stew (i.e. doenjang jjigae, kimchi jjigae etc.) Most restaurants in Korea serve boiling hot stew in these stone bowls and the food will stay hot/warm throughout your entire meal. Great content as always guys - can’t wait to see more! 👍🏻
I always wanted one but it's hard to get hold of a 돌솥 here in Germany 🥺
Samgyetang is the best use in my opinion - on a cold day or just before the summer! Would love to see Sorted try to recreate that…!
I have had bibimbap in Korea using cast-iron bowl (as well as in ceramic bowl). Is this common or did I accidentally stumble on something unique?
@@alanholck7995 Only speaking my personal experience, but cast-iron is unusual. However, iron plate griddle is a common method to grill meats and is (very rarely) switched out with salt blocks. The principle for use is probably the same: High thermal mass.
SPECULATION WARNING (and many, many citations needed), but my theory is that iron plate cooking is an adopted style based on Japanese teppanyaki cooking methods and largely appeared post WWII. According to Wikipedia (so take with grain of salt), while ROK's iron production is relatively high, iron ore production is not so, which leads me to speculate that the ROK soil composition is relatively iron-poor (similar to Japan). Stone, on the other hand, would be a relatively easier resource to gather and make things out of.
I’ve got these at home (Australia) now I know the correct way to use them.
Seeing Barry melt the brush made me wonder: how much cooking equipment gets broken in a week at the Sorted studio?
Not as much as you would think 😂
@@SortedFood Haha. Well, with all those sharp knifes it’s probably best to keep the clumsy people away from the office right?!?
@@SortedFood how much does each person destroys smthg?
@@SortedFood Less than you'd think, more than you'd hope. Gotcha.
@@SortedFood Someone needs to 'break' those aluminium saucepans that got ruined in the dishwasher ;-)
Tamales are usually served still in the husk and they're common in the US, so I immediately recognized them. I always turn my leftover turkey from Thanksgiving into tamales. Makes the leftovers both go faster and more freeze friendly rather than having a massive chunk of turkey hanging out in the freezer.
I too love using leftover turkey but I've mostly used it in enchiladas. Sounds yummy!
I don't make tamales but do love to make turkey tacos. In fact have leftover cooked turkey thigh and got all the stuff to make street tacos tomorrow.
We would freeze leftover thanksgiving turkey for Christmas tamales!
I’m Polish. We socialize around making pierogi (not all the time, but I rarely make pierogi just by myself). When I learned about Tamales 🫔 and how they are often made by groups of people not just one cook, it struck me that Tamales are the Pierogis of Mexico and Central American cultural practice. And corn husks are so common in markets around Seattle.
But aren’t you supposed to soak the corn husks before you make the tamales?
As a Texan I have been dying to see y’all’s reactions to Tamales. They are a Christmas staple at my family’s house and people get so protective over who has the best recipes. There are 4 seasons here crawfish season, summer, hurricane season and tamale season.
As a Texan, I strongly feel that summer and hurricane season are the same.
Anyone who has a recipe that is anything over 10% masa needs to burn their recipe for tamales and use a new one.
As a Mexican I know you haven't had real tamales...
@@mrd7532 My tía would probably disagree 🤷🏼♀️
@@mrd7532 like half of texas is mexican
South African here! Love that you guys discussed biltong. My husband is a hunter and I often make venison biltong at home. The ingredients in your spice mix are spot on! But the ratios are a bit higher than what we use. I'm not sure about what everyone else in SA uses, but our recipe has way less of each spice/ingredient per kg of meat, except the salt. We also dip ours in a vinegar and water bath after it cures overnight to remove some of the spice and salt before we hang it to dry. We dry ours in a little "cellar" with a fan and sometimes a lightbulb. We also make cabanossi sausage from warthog, and sometimes droewors (the sausage you refer to) from venison. Awesome to see biltong represented on a channel we love 👍
I'm in the Midwestern US, I've been working up to making biltong with all the deer hunting we have here. They're out of control so the more interesting ways we can get people to eat them the better.
We've only made venison jerky in the food dehydrator but it sounds like a great way to use it!
When we were having a bbq in the bush we used to get mud from just below the water line at the local river. We would thickly coat unpeeled apples and potatoes in the mud and chuck them in the fires coals. Once the mud started to crack after drying out we would get them out of the coals break off the mud and have baked potatoes and apples. My Dad said it's natures tin foil. Those and his billy tea were always a treat.
When we braai (bbq) at the beach we sometimes cut a stalk of kelp and put our boerewors ( beef sausage) in it on the coals. Very good.
@@janinewatson3268 Oh sounds yummy
That’s how you do old school laulau in Hawaii~ You wrap the meat in banana leaf then in case them in mud and bury them with burning wood in an underground oven. Sooooo yummy - no other flavor like it!
@@BIGBANGvip5673 similar method in New Zealand / Aotearoa, where the Māori people dig an earth pit, wrap fish and meat in flax leaves, and then bury it with hot stones for a few hours :D
I am a South African I just want to say thank you for sharing two of my most loved home foods with the world .
As an South African. We seriously love our biltong. Great job guys and thanks for representing S.A.
😅balsamic isn't right though
Ja. facts boet. But, Balsamic?? nooit. That's a fight in SA.
def my favorite snack i get from the SA butcher here in the netherlands
Costa Rican here. Tamales back home are made with plantain leaves instead of corn husk. I believe that type of tamal is more like the ones from Mexico.
Yes. This. I used to live in Costa Rica and had never seen a tamale cooked in a corn husk, and I ate a lot of tamales
Half panameña…I think they taste better too but I was raised eating them cooked in banana leaves (can’t get plátano leaves where I live in the states)
Really depends on the type of tamal. Nicaraguan here (Or Nicarguan according to Ben lol). Nacatamales we wrap in banana leaves, but yoltamales we wrap in corn husk. But that's mainly because nacatamales are massive and wouldn't fit in a corn husk.
Guatemalan here, we also use plátano leaves, but you can find corn husk tamales more common in the areas near the border with Mexico.
in mexico we have both... and lots of others... in corn husk, in banana leaf, in maguey leaf, in green corn husk, etc.
So glad biltong is finally represented! There's a South African pub in SW London which does incredible South African food - you should check it out! I'll be honest though - that biltong looked really bad. It shouldn't be that dry. However, love the representation!
Agreed! I've never seen biltong that dry ever in SA and I would never describe the texture to be like chewing gum.
In some cases we get really dry peaces but they break apart and are often used for biltong powder but that peace had alot of cinu (senewee) which made it like chewing gum...
agreed, the moment they mentioned eat it like chewing gum I cringed a but...more like popcorn than chewing gum...
My best friend is South African and over the last few years she’s introduced me to so much SA culture and food. Pap and milk, braai, and Biltong. But I live in SW london and would love to know where that pub is so I can take her!
@@NerdcubedrulesMooooo you'll love this pub! It's called The Park Tavern. It's on Merton Road. If you go on certain days they have superb specials.
This was actually well researched and respectful of all cultures presented with absolutely no hint of ignorance or racism usually found on food shows. Refreshing take on the discovery of foreign food. Well done guys. Thumbs up 👍
So, how'd you like 'Mexican Week' on Bake Off?
So cool to see some South African stuff on the channel, love checking my country get some recognition! Biltong is so nice, and droewors ( the sausage ) is defiantly one of my favourite snacks!
Biltong is an all round South African favourite. Everyone has there own way of making it but your spice mix covers all the basics. I remember my mom preparing whole batches for each year in a baby bath and the smell of coriander wafting through the house. It's not supposed to stink!! The wet biltong is my favourite to snack on. Dry biltong can also be ground up and is delicious on buttered bread with white pepper... Yum! 😋😋😋
How did you safely dry the meat in such a hot environment? Is it a really dry heat?
@@MaZEEZaM not a ridiculously dry heat, but it is definitely more challenging if you live in a humid location. What we do, is just make a wooden box with holes at the bottom (covered with fly mesh) and a hole at the top with a computer fan drawing air out. Add an incandescent light bulb in the box which should be enough to drop the humidity to below 50.
Tips, make sure you have some fat on the meat. Also, if drying beef, do not wait for it to be ridiculously dry. A little moisture is good. But if you doing game meat, you should go dryer.
Note: this is not jerky, so do not over do the sugar. It should not be sweet.
@@MaZEEZaM I feel like using a dehydrator would make it a lot faster and easier? Dehydrators are so cheap these days, can easily find one for like $50.
I used to make salami and other cured meats for a living. Biltong is unique because it doesn't get cooked at all. Jerky is cured, cooked and then dried, but biltong is just cured and dried. It's tricky to make because beef contains microbes that are harder to kill. I can't, in good conscience, tell anyone to try making cured products at home unless they have the right equipment (pH meter, water activity meter, etc) to measure their product and ensure safety.
EDIT: also, very traditionally, biltong was made of wild venison, which carries its own issues.
That's so interesting, thanks so much for sharing Erin!
thats cool! the traditional sami way of curing reindeer meat is then kinda similar to biltong.
I agree it carries it own risk but as my grand father is a butcher and we live in south africa he uses the same spices white vinegar instead of balsamic and a lot more time marinating... but then puts is on a large washing line that spins making a biltong fan pointing at the ceiling and I can tell you for a fact he does not have a ph meter but he has the best biltong in our town. And in the butcher shop in the back the workers walked past the biltong fan every day as it dries and before covid there has not been one case of the batch gone bad due to extra moisture or not being in a "completely" sterilized environment.
@@tyronglover640 generally, when you're talking about traditional products made in their traditional way by people who have been making it for generations and in the place where it's been made for generations, you'll find that the environment is perfect to produce that product. Your climate, the temperature and the humidity, along with the microbes present in the air, are exactly what's needed to make biltong. The rest of us are trying to mimic that as best we can in artificial chambers and sterilizing everything to keep the bad stuff out and the good stuff in. It's pretty fascinating, actually. Some other good examples of this are sourdough from San Francisco and certain regions of costal Italy where the sea salt has a naturally higher level of curing agents.
@@erinhowett3630 sorry Now I understand your point better yes in this part of our country it is dry for most of the year making humidity very low indoors and out... how ever I must say we bought a "biltong box" 6 thin peaces of plastic with a light bulb and a computer fan that definitely does the job even in our most humid environments... again I can only speak for what I have been thought I now realize that the climate in other countries will heavily impact the results... but like they said in the video chewing gum is not what we aim for here and that comes down to your meat and how it was butcherd...
I grew up in Colorado USA and now live in Arizona USA. I love to make tamales but I always soak the corn husks in hot water to soften them before trying to fill and roll. They need to be dried off but roll very easily.
I was surprised they hadn’t soaked them. Dry husks are an absolute pain.
I scrolled down to see if someone commented this!!
I am current University Student, I am on my 2nd Year, Sorted has helped me a lot whilst budgeting for food, cooking different meals so I don't get tired or bored of cooking and most important of all; avoid wastage as much as possible. Thank you Sorted!!! Can you please do meals that a University student can do e.g. easy, quick, not many ingredients needed and one pot perhaps.
That's exactly how Sorted started: giving cooking advice yo university students! If you go back and watch their earliest videos, you'll get lots of good ideas.
@@alleeum I was about to comment the same thing 😄 Yes I’d highly recommend watching their videos from years ago, as it was exactly what they often covered 😉
South African here! Biltong is our pride and joy. We’re a very big hunting country, so we usually after hunting season have biltong and droëwors (the sausage) hanging outside in our garages, not our ovens😂 childishly excited to see you guys try it!
I was laughing so hard when i saw the oven for biltong and that dry one is a clap in the face no one here eat it that dry
You're lucky it's warm enough. It's usually cold and raining weeks at a time here in the UK. Not good for drying anything that has to have a specific moisture content. Heck I have to plan when to do my laundry with a chance of drying it outside.
I love looking at different cultures foods so this series is made for me!!! Been loving all these videos lately too
So do we :).... we're glad you're enjoying the videos lately too!
Same here. Love this and I can't wait to see more like it.
As a proud South African who lives on Biltong, its awesome seeing a technique we take for granted being showcased here. I make my own biltong, and although you guys have the basic spice blend correct (which is like a starter point) we have so many alternates from different levels of spice by adding chillies and different spice blends to sweeter spicing etc example one of my favourites to make uses lemon pepper
Most South Africans have at one time or another made biltong from scratch, we have. I much prefer the wetter variety, between the wet and dry versions you did, and with less fat. The sausage is known as "dry wors" - wors being the Afrikaans for sausage. Love it.
That's so interesting, thanks Alan!
I am South African and I only know one person who has made their own biltong and droewors and they do it every year from Kudu during hunting season...I didnt even know how...
We made some once with a buck from an acquaintances farm - strung lines across the garage and hung it there :)
The spiced curing mixes are also highly personalised and usually a "family recipe" - but can be bought at some butchers and other retailers.
@@Marc_prime Jip. Never used balsamic in biltong.
@@MyAltag yeah I'm sure the recipe we have used in the past called for brown vinegar or white vinegar.
Also, as a Korean, we love eating everything piping hot. Hot beverages, stews, soups, rice. Piping hot. Hot Korean food doesn’t taste great cooled. It’s the most delicious off the flame or continuously on the flame.
From a South African, we eat biltong at absolutely any opportunity. We even have shops dedicated to it! It is a staple of South African life. It also is not as difficult (or unsanitary) to make as Ben makes it out to be! Essentially you need a wooden box with good ventilation and a heat source like a light bulb, and you can make it yourself at home.
Thanks so much for sharing Bridget, that's so interesting to know.
Yeah love my biltong box makes the biltong addiction so much cheaper
So an easy bake oven.
Nothing on this planet is better than having OBS and Biltong on a winters evening
When we moved to Sweden my son made a biltong box in woodshop class in school. Doesn't have to be big, but with a pc fan at the top and an open bottom it works a treat.
Back on the farm in SA of course everybody's grandpa had it hanging under the bed.
Glad the boys got to try some biltong and droëwors, the best type of cured meat and something jerky will never match 😂🇿🇦
Jip Jerky not a good idea for South Africans.
Agreed. Fellow (former) South African here. Tried Beef Jerky once - wouldn't even feed junk that to my worst enemy's dog - not a product fit for consumption by any living species (in my opinion)
As a hispanic from the U.S., it's so cool seeing these British lads try our cuisine. I love seeing my people's food being enjoyed across the pond!
As a South African I'd love to see some more of our recipes!
This is amazing! I love the way u highlight cultures and foods around the world. That said... as a latina, the way Ben said Nicaragua made me laugh in the middle of my lunch break hahaha Nice effort ebbers
as a Texan gringa, made me snort, (and replay it), too
as someone who always has tamales in the freezer and gochujang in the fridge, i loved this episode! it was quite interesting to see them be so unfamiliar with corn husks and tamales (since i am in the U.S.)
You guys actually sprung for the extra long Korean spoons! I'm Korean and my Dad passes over every spoon in the drawer and uses those for everything!
And those dolsat stone bowls are also used to make Korean stews (chigae) that come boiling to the table.
As a Brit with a Mexican girlfriend, I laughed SO hard when she said "You can't get more white than being impressed by corn husks." XD
😂
As an Argentinian I can totally relate to what she said. And she is so right!🤣😂🤣🤭
your girlfriend sounds rather racist
😂😂😂
As another Brit with a Mexican girlfriend, I concur that she is 100 percent right
El Salvadorian, Honduran and Guatemalan sometimes use banana leaves as well as a substitute in place of the corn husks. My mother would use margarine instead of lard to help tone down the fat content. It makes the corn mixture a bit lighter and softer. As long as you have a good mixture in the tamale, you won't notice the difference. You guys are making me miss home! Great video as always!
The banana leaves are not a "substitute" they're their own kind of tamales
Please do more of these global cooking techniques! This was great.
Ben talking about rubbing Barry in lard has true ‘comment of the week’ vibes. 😂
Well, Barry and Ben are, after all, the very best of friends...
@@markmallecoccio4521 one could even say they have a very Intimate relationship 😉
Except for the fact that he tops it with the blooper at the end in which he says "unusual for me to forget the 'D' ". Because...you know.
Happy to see that South Africa made it in an episode 😅🇿🇦
Anytime I watch the guys try Latin food, I'm always so shocked. Its definitely a culture thing, as I'm in the USA, but getting authentic Latin food has to be difficult in the UK.
This channel is definitely an education at how different an array of multicultural influences we have in the US compared to the UK. So often they will throw off a “you know, like in x cuisine” and they all recognize the reference, but it’s totally foreign to me, from some Commonwealth country that has sent near zero immigrants to my area, therefore no restaurants, etc here for me to have any reference point. But something as everyday to me in the US as tamales, and their components of corn husks, masa harina are as unusual to them as those other references and flavors they often use as touch points are to me.
So amazing how they haven't heard of tamales!
Probably as hard as getting good Indian food in the US. Not impossible, but not easy.
@@alhollywood6486 as someone from the uk i was shocked tbh that they've never heard of tamales or the bibimbap bowl, and i'm just a casual home cook! but i watch loads of cooking channels. strange.
how 'merican to think that Latin means Mexican..... wow
My mother started growing a turmeric plant some time ago, and she found a recipe for an Indian desert called "patholi" that is cooked in turmeric leaves.
I'm sure we didn't do very well with it, but what we made was good, and cooking in turmeric leaves gave the food a really nice flavor.
Also: when I was in China I had grilled lotus root that was really good -- I don't suppose grilling is a novel cooking method, but lotus root is definitely not common in western cuisine.
There's a yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepalum) that grows in southeast Alaska that I've been told has a tasty root and seeds that can be popped like popcorn. I've never tried it myself because harvesting from aquatic plants sounds really complicated and I don't live near enough any of them to get ready access, but I absolutely want to try it!
Its a Goan dish. It is very delicious 😋
The filling for Patholi is called chunn and made of coconut, jaggery and boiled channa daal
As soon as I saw the corn husk, I knew it was gonna be tamales.... it made me giggle they were so perplexed by them but I had to remind myself, I live in Texas and half my family is Mexican descent. Not many abuelitas in the UK selling tamales every winter.
I'm in California and once or twice a week at work a woman comes by with a tamale cart and pokes her head in- "¿quieren tamales ustedes?"
Almost always, but usually I've just eaten 😭
It's nearly impossible to get corn husks in the UK. There isn't much real Mexican food in general.
Lol same here. I was like "wait, they've never had tamales?!"
Texans don't know a thing about real Mexican food lol
As a much younger person, I lived in an apartment complex in NM with a lot of Mexican people. One neighbor would make hundreds of tamales in a single go and I spent a lot of time helping with that. She was the nicest lady and also showed me how to make carnitas, chile verde and posole.
Shout-out to the Sorted team from South Africa 🙌 That cured sausage is what we call droewors which literally translates to "dry sausage" and if that wet piece freaks you out Baz there's a type of biltong called geelvet biltong which has still has most of the fat cap from a piece of meat and is hung and cured until the fat goes yellow and basically runs down your chin when you bite into it 😂 Never been a fan myself but a lot of the older Afrikaans Ooms (Uncles) and the proper Boere (Farmers) enjoy it!
What I love about this channel, these guys and their team is how on one hand, they are willing to push limits on traditional ways foods are cooked all over the world (i.e. paella burrito) but also their willingness to revisit, relearn and re-educate on traditional ways at the same time.
So great to see some South African stuff. You get some amazing biltong drying kits that lets you dry it without using a spare room or your oven. So Mike no need to stink up that room again. You can use a wide variety of spices for biltong. Chilly bites is a favourite for many people here. Some of the butchers here in South Africa have been making biltong from wagyu meat as well. Extremely rich flavour but very addictive. Jamie will absolutely love it.
Love this! For future reference, the husks are usually soaked for a while in order to make them more maleable for wrapping
0:55 The dolsot is actually heavier than that as it is literally made of stone, what you're showing is much lighter in weight and it's called a ttukbaegi. It is a basic earthenware pot or Korean claypot
I love how open and genuinely appreciative (whilst still being honest) they are with food from other cultures. Such a breath of fresh air!
I very much appreciate you doing closed captioning for your videos. You always upload just before my lunch break at work and I don’t want the volume on out of respect for other people around me. I’ve watched your videos enough that I know each of your voices well enough for my brain to read the captions in your voices, ha!
This is one of my favorite videos now! What a really cool concept for a video!
Thanks, we're glad you enjoyed it :)
I’m so proud of this episode!!!
I’ve been a fan on this channel for four years and finally there’s biltong.
I’m South African living in South Africa 🇿🇦!
Love you guys !
Lol in South Africa we eat biltong and dröewors weekly! At least 200grams per week 🤣😂. Baz couldn’t handle another slice 🤣😂…
And leave the fat on ! Yellow fat is sweeter it’s the best
If you want real biltong you need to choose a cut with a fat cap on it! Making biltong at home is super easy and really has very little danger to it - just use good quality fresh beef. As a South African living in Europe I've been making biltong at home for ages and never run into issues (it is a staple in our snack diet, like crisps in the UK).
Another great version is to cut thinner strips and coat them in chilli powder to make a spicy "chilli bite" alternative.
Now you've made me lus for chili sticks! Going out to the butcher later today for some silverside but it will be 5 days of waiting! I am still using my old Mellerware biltong box here in Spain!
I love seeing SORTED exploring different cuisines in different ways and not just through one single ingredient or dish! After being a fan for 10 years, it's so cool to the content evolve from mainly British/European food to now being truly a global food channel.
I love the "don't try this at home" speech with the biltong, while every South African can almost make it instinctively as soon as they are allowed in the kitchen. I'm also always amazed that people from other countries consider lamb "gamey" or describe biltong as having a funk. In SA that is exactly what you go for. If you can't taste the Karoo bush the lamb has eaten, you bought some crappy quality lamb 😉
Saltbush lamb in Australia....
I’ve got some biltong drying rn 😄 and you’re so right about the lamb!
The day I saw biltong was the day I stopped making jerky. It's fantastic. And the coriander and other spices help kill any bacteria on the surface of the meat
I've just made my own biltong. Had my partner bring over a Mellerwere dryer. Have some wet biltong after 3 days, leaving another piece for 4 days and the last piece for five. Really interested in seeing the difference in the pieces.
This channel always helps me to realize the different cooking styles around the world and how some are much more accessible than others and to be kind when someone hasn't tried something before. Like the tamales, I live in Texas and immediately was like "oh come on guys!" But then held myself back by remembering that in the UK it probably is a really difficult to find traditional Mexican/Latin American foods there. Glad the guys liked them!
I'm a South African. I made my first batch of biltong when I was 14. Everyone here eats biltong almost daily. Every grocer has sections just to dry meat and you never need to visit a butcher although they do it best. The variety is also unbelievable to foreigners visiting...almost every decent sized town has shops dedicated just to biltong and you can find 50+ different variants from shark to bacon to chicken and find what you love. I like a straight wet-ish droewors and chutney wheels. I encourage you to visit and do an episode on just biltong and I promise you, the culture will astonish you. Just pick a random town and ask a local where the biltong shop is or just walk into a Pick & Pay and you'll find something worth the trip.
Shark biltong? Nee man. That sounds very Mossel Bay
@@mattmaccallum8210 It's quite common at markets and festivals...one of the only ones you might need to go a little out of your way to find, but yeah quite Mossel Bay lol
Look, guys... You gotta respect them so much for the whole production and editing. Honestly, you are all amazing Sorted Food Family.
It's really interesting to see how the tamales were tied in the Cuban manner, also in Central America banana leaf is what is used to wrap the tamales. Corn husk is middle and northern Mexico and some of the islands.
Try making appams in a traditional Indian appam pan! Its my favourite thing to make. The pan is special because its shape enables you to make appams that are slightly gooey in the middle but crispy on the edges. You have to ferment the batter overnight but it is so so easy. You just mix coconut milk with rice flour, yeast and sugar.
The first one got me excited. I love bibimbap. The second one was a no brainer for me as a resident of Texas. Corn husks are available all over here. Tamales are an art form here.
I'm also from Texas and their confused look when seeing the corn husks was hilarious. I've never made tamales, but I instantly knew what it was.
I live in Washington state and you can purchase masa already prepared in the meat dept. Also when you get the hucks home,they are as come as a loaf of bread, soak them in water to make them more pliable . The entire family gathers around and we have an assembly line to make the tamales and we make over 100. We do this at Christmas and feed a hugh group of family and friends. We have a great time and it's an easy process once you make the filling and lay everything out.
@@braddodson4566 I genuinely was horrified when they took a bite. My brain needed a second to process before my partner reminded me they weren’t available everywhere. They are just such a fact of life here.
@@braddodson4566 I loved their puzzled look. It's such a common thing for us. And yeah, I've never made them either, but immediately was like oh it's tamale time.
@@muffinmarie01 Yeah I remember seeing it in stores when I lived in WA. And yeah tamale time is always a family gathering thing. Homemade tamales are the best.
Laughed so hard when Mike bit the corn husk! It just goes to show that where you live and travel can really determine which cultures you’re exposed to and or learn about. More than half the time I have no idea what European dishes they’re referring to but usually always recognize items from the American and Asian countries.
I'm from a corn heavy area with a large Mexican population. I instantly knew the corn husks for tamales. I laughed a little at Mike trying to eat it.
When I saw their confused faces, I said to myself I hope they don't don't try to eat it. And then they immediately tried to.
When I was a teenager, the first time I was put in charge of the Sunday roast, I did salt baked lamb (because I was a pretentious weirdo I guess) but it’s totally worth the effort. It is absolutely delicious.
I once tried it in a duck and it was inedible. I guess the fat in duck absorbed too much of the salt. I cooked it off in a stock, so no waste created.
@@tm5443 That’s really interesting, I’ve never heard of anyone salt-baking duck. Was it a whole duck? Personally, due to the fat content of a duck, I would just roast it (I don’t even spatchcock it like I would a chicken). Don’t get me wrong, a leg of lamb is fatty too, but I feel it’s distributed differently.
@@08mlascelles it was a whole duck. It's traditional to bake a whole duck where I live and serve it with sauerkraut and dumplings, so I wanted to try a different technique, but it didn't work out.
@@tm5443 Sauerkraut and dumplings sound like an incredible accompaniment to duck, I imagine the acidity of sauerkraut would offset the fattiness of duck so well! How do you normally bake duck where you live? Sorry for the over enthusiastic response, but I love finding new cooking techniques.
@@08mlascelles Usually, you would just season the duck with salt and cumin and bake it, pouring the fat that comes out over the skin, until it goes crispy. I think, that people just appreciate the taste of meat itself, so it's a simple seasoning. The sauerkraut offsets the fattiness, but also soaks up all the juice, that came out during baking. Also, Czech dumplings are made off old "toast" (It's not toast, but I haven't seen a bake good more similar outside CZ) and mixed with dough made of flour, water/milk and eggs and than cooked and sliced (you can search for Karlovarský knedlíky or Houskový knedlík).
I enjoy using my Dolsot for my bibimbap. Similarly (yet different) if people want some more Korean cookingware they can try a Ddukbaegi (also spelled Ttukbaegi) for soups, stews, and more.
As a South African, I am happy to see Biltong here on Sorted!
So, you get a special cabinet (really just a big plastic box with a bulb for heat and fans for ventilation) called a 'Biltong Maker' - it's great for making Biltong and the sausage (called 'Droewors' aka 'Dry Sausage'. You also get the sausage as 'Boere Wors' aka 'Farmers' Sausage' that we cook over hot coals barbecue style - called a 'Braai'. You can buy the Droewors 'wet' at many butchers and then cure it yourself (just hang it up in a Biltong Maker for a couple days and you're done).
My family goes hunting now and again, and then the whole house ends up hung with Biltong and Droewors all over. It's really nice to have a whole bunch of delicious Biltong available.
Biltong is sold nearly everywhere here as a major snack, and I've not really ever heard of someone getting sick from eating it since all you have to do is make sure that you marinate and cure it properly first. The strong spices, vinegar and salt helps a great deal to prevent issues and if you can keep insects and the like away then you should be good. Take note our climate down here is a lot warmer than in Britain though and the heat plays a big role in the proper curing of the meat!!!
As a South African I am proud to see Droë Wors and Biltong being showcased here on Sorted. Makes me proud.
But yes this has been done for hundreds of years. And you don't get anything beter or comforting as this
As a South African who constantly makes his own biltong and droewors (dry sausage), it is so amazing to see the guys from sorted showcasing a massive part of our culture
As a South African... i almost had a stroke when i saw you put the biltong into the oven
You are so right! The oven is reserved for beskuit (rusks in English)
My dad and husband would have a coronary. Biltong buddy is so easy to use.
Kudos to whoever came right in with the tea towel and whipped that too hot bowl off the heat. Quick reactions. Well done!
That closing blooper has to be one of the best ones to date
I loved this, really like it when you share from different countries. One thing we used to do in Norway a long time ago was smoke food by lighting a fire inside hulled trees
This is your sign to soooooak your tamale husks, I beg you! Max Miller's Tasting History episode on Tamalés is a great reference with some background on the food itself! Many Indigenous like the Diné (Navajo) put juniper ash in their Blue corn mush to nixtamalize it before eating. Top it with wojapi and it's the booooomb!
After watching this video, I purchased the bowls and made Bibimbap for my family. To say they loved it is an understatement. Thank you so much. I have learned from all of you. Keep up the amazing work guys.
Biltong is a South African pastime, literally, some types can take hours to chew. We also have some cool flavors these days, my favorite is honey and chili, wet biltong mixed with honey, and chili flakes, AWESOME!
Biltong reminds me of Alton Browns jerky using box fans and window screens, faster dry time and makes the house smell like a jerky factory.
@@brianwardj23 A vegan's nightmare. 🤣
My family (From the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) has a old family recipe where we salt bake a huge slab of beef. It involves the full salt crust - wrapping in foil, and eventually cooking it under a mound of dirt with coals.
This makes me feel so fortunate I’m from places in the US where tamales are sold door to door by wonderful Mexican families
As a Latinamerican, watching the corn husk part was so cute and funny. We use masa literally everyday and wrapping things in corn husks seems so normal. Using cornhusks is also important for the flavor of tamales and/or bollitos
In Chile during summer when corn is at it best we make something called Humitas. Is like a tamale but it uses fresh grated corn, that is mixed with fried onions (with spices). The mix is put inside corn leaves and cooked in water and salt. It's the best summer food. You eat it hot with tomatoes, you can also add sugar just before eating but that is a controversial point lol
I was looking for this. Thanks! Saludos de Argentina
Love that captions make it clear that Mike slices the biltong cleverly.
7:29 - Tamales are a BIG thing in Texas, as expected. I can find the husks and Masa at any grocery store, and they're not expensive. In the late 90's, I worked for a major airline as a reservations agent, and one of my co-workers would bring their mom in every Friday, having taken orders on Tuesday, and they would spend very late Thursday into Friday morning, making them. My friends and I would go together and just order 12 to 24 depending on how many of us would be in office, and I have to say, best lunch of the week every week. If you guys get back to Texas and are in DFW, let me know, I know some amazing Tex-Mex and Mexican dining on the west side of the metroplex.
I absolutely love you guys, and I keep forgetting you are in a different country. So when you brought out the corn husks to make Tamales, it absolutely blew my mind that you’d never had them before.
Tamales are a Christmas Eve dinner tradition in my family, having grown up in mainly Latino community in Southern California and having married into a Mexican family.
I’m so excited that you have finally been introduced to this amazing food. ❤️
Really cool to see you guys making biltong! My dad and I make our own in a homemade biltong box, the fatty bits are the best! We don't use sugar in our biltong rub so that was really interesting to see, next time you guys should make pap and boeri.
Be good to see them using a potjie too.
@@Getpojke and some koeksisters or milktart for dessert
@@matt.muller6439 Your making me hungry! 🤤😋
In Māori culture (New Zealand) it is traditional to cook food in a Hāngī. It is were food is wrapped and cook underground for hours on hot rocks.
Masa for tamales is generally a different grind than masa for tortillas.
First time I tried to make tortillas I bought tamale masa and was so confused when I got a torta 🤣🤣🤣
I just wanted to say thank you. Your videos make my day 100 times better, especially now that I just found out my mom has cancer. You guys are amazing. Keep it up ☺️❤️
Biltong comes in different variations of dryness from super crackly dry like crisps, to the more moist one like you tried, including different spice blends from mild to chili and also sticks of dried sausage 'boerwors',different thicknesses etc. It's a snack to accompany beers, barbecues, it can be stewed- basically rehydrated in a fashion- & from different types of animals e.g beef to game. You have to try more variations and most probably you will get hooked on one of them be it salty,thick,thin, chili,salty,peppery you name it.
As someone who is korean, currently living in Japan, it does always make me smile when someone goes absolutely nuts as I put a dolsot straight onto the burner and watch it start to go off like a small haejangguk-scented volcano.
I'd love to see the Sorted Food team do a New Zealand style Hangi (earth oven) one day. It's an unmistakable smokey/earthy flavour.
You can actually buy gas-powered ones and lots of places use these in New Zealand if they're doing hangi food on the regular. I feel this is something achievable the boys could do. Check out the Multi Kai Cooker, for example. They're not cheap - but you do get a free pack of Mallowpuffs with it so you can't complain! 😂
I'd love to watch them give it a go. I've seen a couple done at various camps growing up. Really interesting and the meat is always so tender.
Hi from Costa Rica. Apart from corn husks, some other "hojas" used for tamales are plantain leaves, sugar cane leaves, and swiss chard. Absolutely loved the video -- learned so much!
Love seeing Korean food culture getting featured beyond the KBBQ fad! Y'all should really try the steamed egg dish (gyeran-jjim) that also gets served in dolsot's too - that's actually a common side dish with KBBQ, so I guess you can't really get away from that anyway haha
Biltong! Yes please :) As a South African, I appreciate you guys giving it some due, it is delicious.
Interesting seeing your biltong mix which is different to what we use. My son makes biltong from topside in a small airdrier. It does not smell and is delicious. I like a medium dried biltong. It is easy to make.b
What spices do you use? 🙂
@@Kizzabell we use salt, pepper, coriander.
Oh... that bloop at the end. ~chef's kiss~
Oh watching them attempt to make tamales makes me giggle. When I go over my Mexican friends houses, I’m always relegated to opening the husks. I’m not allowed to stuff/roll then 😂
Biltong & Droëwors 💓 Proundly South African here 👋🏻 Biltong and droëwors lover! 🤩
It is not supposed to taste funky at all, then it is not really ready, it is supposed to be a pleasant soft yet savoury nibble. The wet biltong you guys have there is very pink, it has to hang a bit more or chill in the fridge. That very dry biltong is not really eaten like bubble-gum it is either just eaten as a stick of meat on the go or pulverised and eaten on fresh baked bread with sprinkled(generous amount) on butter or sprinkled over avocado toast or marmite toast. It is a healthy protein snack, ideal for lunchboxes and amazing it you follow paleo or keto lifestyles.
After a hunt, we work the meat either ourselves, take it to a butcher to process or both. I have helped make biltong many times in my life, I have fond memories of helping with making the curing mixture (each family has their own recipe), later we help hooking and hanging the meat up in our garage. We let our meat lay and cure in basins for a few days. In the Highveld the dry winters are ideal to hang the meat. Lots of people have wires high in their garage roof, it looks like clothing lines but it is not, it's where we hang the pieces of meat. The pieces are never allowed to touch one another, the pieces we hang only drips maybe for one day. So, after a day maybe two you can just park you car safely underneath it.
Tip: If your biltong does catch a little moisture and a tiny bit of mould is notices, lightly dab it with a clean cloth dipped brown vinegar. We have white and brown vinegar on our shelves, we do not use balsamic vinegar for biltong, brown vinegar is like white vinegar just not as sharp. In RSA balsamic vinegar is consider a "fancy" or special condiment for Italian food and salads. Biltong made with balsamic vinegar would be considered an oddity or marketing thing.
I can't wait to try some of these!
Which one do you want to try first?
I really appreciate this video! it's really nice to see cooking techniques that people may not be as aware of. Can't wait for more!
For the bibimbop in the hot dolsot(?), when you are done eating, you pour some water into it then the residual heat is still hot enough to cook the rice even further, make it into Noo roong ji (누룽지), which means brownish crispy rice. What the water does is actually it soaks the rice grains making them effortlessly come off of the bottom of the dolsot, you save the time and energy for washing the dolsot without worrying about the rice grains that are stuck to the bottom so hard.
When i was working in kitchens, a lot of the chefs I knew used wine fridges to hang their curing meats because they often have a way of controlling the humidity
Great idea!
Yeh, love the methods. I do the last one of making the biltong. I however do this in a plastic box with a hole on one side and and extraction fan on the other. It works fantastically.
Ugh I want tamales so bad now. I've never tried making my own but I think I'll take this as a sign to give it a go. All the ingredients are readily available in my area so I have no excuse 😆
They are a little challenging at first but once you get the hang of it, it's easy. Great to make with family or friends and then everyone takes a dozen home. I've made chicken, pork and spicy cheese
100% give it a go!
It's not too bad and they tend to be fairly forgiving in terms of end flavor. Don't be surprised if the first dozen or so break apart, or you use too much or too little masa. I will give one hint, as a chef in the southwest US who has made a lot of tamales in my lifetime; if you soak the corn husks for a little bit, then let them air dry as you construct, you may find that overall construction is easier, and there will be less tearing of the husk as you wrap.
Dry husks can be brittle occasionally, depending on age and quality. Don't rush. Around here, tamale making is a whole day or afternoon thing, with beers and family/friends over a 10-12 hour period. You make as many as you can and freeze a bunch. They freeze really well and can be reheated from frozen just by steaming again.
You should soak the corn husks in water for 30 minutes to soften. Much easier to roll and fold.
Do it. Use stock and not water in your masa. It really helps with the flavor. I use some of the leftover liquid from cooking the meat. Soak your husks in cold water for 30 or so minutes to make your job much easier. I cook mine in my instant pot and they turn out great.
I don't know how the algorithm suggested this show but I love this show if I need to turn something on just to hangout I'll put this show on and as a pro chef I find the challenges and every thing amazing with great production vaulue. If I lived in england I would come begging for a job here. Abdlutly stunning boys.