EMPTY tamales /ALL masa-- have you ever heard of this type?

I i've been in several countries where thick tortillas are served much like bread. In el Salvador Papusas were served

I'm Mexican American. I'm 2nd generation and my dh is 1st generation in this country. We've made a ton of tamales in our lifetime. The only tamales without meat that I know of are sweet or cheese filled tamales. Sweet tamales can have bits of pineapple at times.

I've never ever heard of sweet tamales. What part of Mexico? I am only familiar with food from Chihuahua and Sonora.

As for masa only tamales.... I've only seen it happen when you run out of meat or you forget to put it in. LOL

That would be super disappointing.

Yes. We make those, and they're slightly sweet. But we're Nicaraguan and not Mexican.

We call the fully-loaded ones Nacatamales and the ones that are slightly sweet yoltamales--which are eaten with a side of cheese.

sure---sweet corn tamales. me personally, I don't like any kind other than the sweet, no filling kind.

Yoltamales are good!!! Slightly sweet yet savory enough, I think, especially with the cheese.

(we put cheese on everything)

It has been over 20 years since I had been at a celebration that had sweet tamales so I wasn't sure if I was remembering them correctly. But I think I was. I remember them being called sugar tamales and I found this on a Mexican Recipe site (Mexico In My Kitchen)

Tamales, Oh Sweet Tamales, ¡Tamales de Dulce! When making savory Tamales, some families separate a small amount of the masa to make sweet tamales. There’s the simple version that just has some sugar, but you can also add one of the following fillings: raisins, pineapple chunks, shredded coconut, dried fruits, berries, prunes, and fruit jams. Add to this the very sophisticated versions with fillings like chocolate, berries, guava, cream cheese, dulce de leche, pecans, pine nuts, and even Nutella nowadays.

Tamales are a meal for celebration, a special treat for parties and birthdays, or ritual times like the Day of the Dead.

Yeah, other than a standard sweet tamale, I've never seen this done. I have had the world's worst tamale. The filling looked like a can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew, and they stuck a cheap cheese stick in the middle of it. I ate it lukewarm, and that cheap cheese just kept its original form. I would have preferred an empty pouch of masa.

My paternal grandmother stuffed hers with canned vegetables. That was bad too. OH and my mom once chipped a tooth when one of my aunts filled hers with cheese and pitted olives. WITH THE PITS!!! That was also bad. And a little funny.

that's me! It was always a disappointment to grab a tamale and open it up to find a raisin filled one. 

Checking in from Tucson, Arizona. We make tamales every Christmas and we make red chile tamales (mixture of beef and pork with red chile), as well as sweet tamales (cinnamon and raisins mixed into the masa, my favorite!) The only time we have plain tamales (steamed masa, flavored with a little bit of the meat juice), is when the masa and red chile ratio is not correct and you ran out of meat when making your tamales! Happens fairly frequently in my family because my mom doesn't measure her ingredients, she just eyeballs stuff.

For those of you "dissing" the sweet tamales, they are especially good in the morning with coffee. We put them on the griddle to warm them up, until the husk is getting toasted. It intensifies the sweetness.

I'm second generation Mexican-American on both sides of the family and this is what we have always done. My dad's family came from Jalisco. Fun fact, we never made green corn tamales and I didn't eat one till I was in my 20s!

Horrifying. I don't even know where to begin.