Tamale Pie Special – A 1943 Mexican American Inspired Dish

Spicy cooked cornmeal and cheese top a savory filling of ground beef, tomatoes, onions, olives and spices.

Tamale Pie Special is a pretty special dish. It’s simple and easy to adapt if you don’t have everything on hand. Ground beef, onions, tomatoes, olives, and spices are topped with a cheesy cornmeal mush spiced with chili powder to create a warm, filling Mexican American-inspired dish that your family will love.

When it comes to recreating wartime recipes, sometimes I like to stick to the script, so to speak, to get the full wartime experience.

However, when I’m just trying to make dinner for my family, and I turn to a wartime recipe, I’m totally fine with adapting it.

That’s what I did for this Tamale Pie Special topped with cornmeal mush and cheese. I didn’t have olives because I kept forgetting to add them to my list. So, I subbed in black beans instead. Normally, I think I would just add the black beans, because they lend themselves really well to this recipe anyway! In addition, I prefer ground beef, so I used that instead.

Coupon Cookery

I found the recipe for Tamale Pie Special in this amazing WWII cookbook called Coupon Cookery, published in 1943.

I like to think wartime-era housewives adapted recipes in the cookbooks they had too. Stocks on grocery store shelves weren’t reliable, so they had to make do with what they had on hand or what was already in their kitchens or gardens.

I’m including an image of the recipe below. You can see how they made this cookbook patriotic with those little stars!

What’s interesting about this recipe is that using actual garlic in the recipe was pretty rare for 1940s cooking. They usually avoided garlic like the plague in American cookery, because they didn’t like how stinky it made one’s breath!

It’s pretty funny the lengths they went to have garlic “flavor” without having to put actual garlic in the dish. Like rubbing the cooking pan with a cut clove of garlic, then throwing the clove away! [insert face-palm emoji here] Haha!

This time period is very interesting for ethnic and fusion cooking. You can start to see a lot of Chinese, Mexican and some Italian making its way into mainstream American cookbooks. Of course the most popular ones make the same rounds like this Tamale Pie recipe, and find them in cookbooks from this era with regularity.

French and British cuisine were very commonplace and even at this time considered “classic”. Even with the ethnic recipes found in these cookbooks, you can see many of them have been adapted for the American palate. It doesn’t change how tasty they can be, however!

Why you’ll love this tamale pie special recipe

• First, this is homemade food at its finest. It’s unfussy and filling with just the right amount of spices that will appeal to just about every member of the family. Chances are, most of the ingredients will be found in your kitchen, and if they’re not, they are easy to find ingredients at the store. No need to hunt an obscure ingredient down online only to never use it again.
• Second, this recipe adapts easily to adjustment. You don’t have canned tomatoes? Use fresh, or better yet, use salsa! No one likes olives? Sub in beans or some other veggie you need to clear out of your crisper drawer like zucchini or yellow squash. Want to make it vegetarian? It’s not difficult to do with the many options for protein alternatives like tempeh and tofu or upping the variety of beans in the dish. The concept is the same, and as long as the amounts remain constant, the end result will be just as delicious.
• Third, it’s simple. Wartime cooking as a rule is usually pretty simple, because housewives were busy with caring for their families and working wartime jobs and volunteer work. Recipes like this were designed to simplify their lives and still provide filling meals. There’s no reason why we can’t take advantage of those same reasons to feed our families now!

Tips for Making This Recipe

The trickiest part of this recipe is making the cornmeal mush for the topping. Don’t walk away from it, or it will stick and burn. You’ll need to stir it frequently.

Like any casserole-style dish, leave plenty of time for baking to ensure the top crust is cooked all the way through. What’s smart about this recipe is that the filling is already hot when you put it in the oven, so baking time is cut down a lot!

Tools You Might Need

• 4 qt. stainless steel pot
• Frying pan. I love using cast iron.
• The “baking dish” requested in the recipe is vague. I used a large, glass baking dish. Any medium-large glass baking dish will work well.
• Cutting board
• Knife
• Measuring spoons

How to Make Tamale Pie Special

You’ll need:

• 1 large onion
• 2 Tbsp. fat or oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 2 1/2 c. tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 c. sliced black olives
• 5 c. boiling water
• 1 1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
• 1 c. grated cheese
• 1 c. black beans (optional)

Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Sauté in the oil until soft, then add the ground beef and cook until browned.

Add the tomatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add 1 Tbsp. of the chili powder, 1 tsp. of the salt, and the olives. Let simmer on low. (You can see here that I added the black beans instead of the olives. I also used canned, diced tomatoes and threw in some diced yellow peppers that I had.)

Meanwhile, boil the 5 c. water. Add the chili powder and salt. Slowly add the cornmeal while stirring. Cook for 15 minutes on low heat, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

Spread a third of the mush on the bottom of a medium-large baking dish. Spread the meat mixture evenly over the mush. Dollop the remaining cornmeal mush on the top of the meat mixture and smooth over the top until it’s covered.

Bake 45 minutes at 325ºF. Sprinkle the cheese over the top. Bake for 15 minutes more until cheese is melted. Serves 8.

Find More Delicious Wartime Recipes:

1943 O’Brien Potatoes

1942 Honey Dreams: No Bake Mini Rolls

Easy Wartime Chocolate Chip Muffins from 1943

1943 Easter Nests: Adorable Sweet Buns