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| SCOTT'S
HOT TAMALES
[My children] grew up with making hot tamales. They would go to school. When they'd come from school, I'd have the ingredients, and they'd pitch in and help me finish them. – Elizabeth Scott In 1941, Mississippi natives Aaron and Elizabeth Scott called San Antonio, Texas, home. Aaron served in the U. S. Army. During their time in Texas, Elizabeth developed a taste for hot tamales. Rather than keep buying them, Aaron decided they should try making them at home, so he bought a tamale recipe from a local Mexican man. The first time they tried making tamales in their own kitchen, Elizabeth and her husband worked for sixteen hours through the night. They didn’t even have a dozen hot tamales when they were finished. When they moved back home to Mississippi in 1950, they had perfected their recipe and their craft enough to start a side business selling them on Nelson Street in downtown Greenville. Aaron Scott passed away in 1987. Elizabeth retired from the tamale business in 2001 at age seventy-eight. But six of their nine children--and even some grandchildren--are carrying on the family business. Today, Scott’s Hot Tamale stand can be found on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Greenville. The location has changed, but their corn shuck-wrapped beef brisket hot tamales remain the same. *Elizabeth Scott was awarded the 2007 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award by the Southern Foodways Alliance. Part of this recognition includes a cash award, as well as the production of a short film documenting her six decades in the tamale business.
--- What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here. Subject: Elizabeth Scott, owner,
Scott’s Hot Tamales-Greenville, MS --- Amy Evans: This is Amy Evans on Thursday, June thirtieth, 2005 and I'm in Metcalf, Mississippi, with Elizabeth Scott at her home. And it's a tamale-making day here [the Scott family makes tamales in a special kitchen adjacent to Mrs. Scott’s residence]. And they have the Scott's Tamale Stand in Greenville. Mrs. Scott would you mind saying your name, and also if you don't mind sharing your birth date for the record, so we can have it? Elizabeth Scott: Elizabeth W. Scott; my birthday is July 11, 1923. ---
Yeah, I was born in Benoit, Mississippi…And I moved here in 1950 in Metcalf. And I've been here ever since. We started the business--my husband [Aaron Scott] got the recipe in Texas and we started. But the recipe we had we just had to continue adding ingredients until we got it where it is now today. Yeah, changing it and making it your own. Change and make it today's. So we've been in business ever since we moved here--and started the business in Greenville, and we've been there ever since. And we make them here in Metcalf. Did your husband get the recipe after y'all had already been married? Yeah, we married in [nineteen] forty-one. He got the recipe in [nineteen] forty-five. And was he in the--what military service was he in? In the Army…Well, he was stationed in San Antonio when he got the recipe, but he was moving around in different areas. He went overseas and everything. So what made him even want a tamale recipe, do you remember? Because I loved them and bought--he had to buy so many. And I was pregnant, so he said it would be best to make them than continue to buy them. So that's where we started off making hot tamales then. And so had you grown up eating hot tamales in Benoit? No, I started eating hot tamales after I got married in [nineteen] forty-one. And then when he got out of the service in [nineteen] forty-five, and we started with the recipe and started making them. So the first hot tamale you had was in Texas then? Yeah. So had--did you--were you aware of hot tamales in the Delta at all before? Yeah, I knew about the hot tamales because there was a couple of people in Greenville that used to sell them and we used to go to the movie in Greenville and get the hot tamales. I would eat hot tamales during the movie, and we'd get hot tamales to take home. Do you remember where in Greenville those stands were back in that time? Well, at that time it was on North Street in Greenville. Would you happen to remember the names of the places at all? No, because it was a man named Charlie, but all--all the people what I knew them has done passed on. Okay. And were they all African Americans who served them back then? Yeah, they was African Americans. Do you remember how much they cost back then? Well, back then they wasn't but twenty-cents a dozen. [Laughs] So they--you know they improved a lot since then. But that's the way it was back then; it was back in the [nineteen] forties. So were the tamales that you had in Texas--how were they different, if at all? Well in Texas they was--they was okay, but you didn't see no meat in them. You just seen the meal and a red streak down the center of them. So but they--the flavor was good. But they wasn't like the--the ones we make now. Were they pork tamales out there [in Texas]? Well I don't know what kind--they didn't have no meat them; it was just a red streak down this--. [Laughs] But it didn't look like none--taste like no meat, so I don't know. I guess they just seasoned some kind of sauce in it. So what did your husband have to do to get his hands on a recipe? Well he bought it from a man, but I didn't know what his name was 'cause I had done came back home during the time he got the recipe. And so he brought it, and we sit down and tried it out, and then we continued to add ingredients and fixing it up. So it didn't taste like the Mexican hot tamales. Is the man that he bought the recipe from, was he Mexican? Yeah, he was a Mexican. Okay. Do you have any idea how much he paid for the recipe, or would you be willing to share? No, I don't because I wasn't--you know I didn't ask all those questions. I was just happy to get the recipe to start to making the hot tamales.
The first time we tried to make them it was taking us from twelve o'clock that day until four o'clock the next morning, and we didn't make a dozen. [Laughs] So it's taken us a long time, but we worked with it and worked with it until we got the--like we wanted it…And so now the children has continued it on. I done retired from it. Well when you--when you perfected the recipe and learned how to make them and got all that straight, and you were making them to satisfy your craving that you were talking about, then was it soon after that you decided that it could be a business? Yeah. Yeah, when he was--he started to sell them in Benoit [Mississippi] and Scott [Mississippi]. And Lamont [Mississippi]--around in the area in Bolivar County. Your husband, would he have like a--a truck that he would take around to all these places and just set on--? Well, he had a station wagon and a cart, like that over there [points to an old wooden push-cat in the corner of the room]. That's one of the first carts; we're still using it…And so after then, he had carts with--with wheels on it. And then we decided to buy a place--a stand; so that's where we at now--with a stand. But we moved from Nelson Street to Martin Luther King Drive. Okay. How long ago did you move? Well it--I don't recall how long it's been since--but it--I think we've been--how long we've been over--? [Asks her daughters, who are in the room with us, making tamales.] Six years they're saying, yeah…Well, six years at that place, but before then we was on Nelson Street. Was the actual stand the same and you just moved it, or did you build a new one? Just moved it to another location. And what--what has it been like selling hot tamales in this town specifically because there are an awful lot of hot tamales in Greenville? Yeah, I know. But I guess everybody got a different taste. The ones that like ours buy ours and the ones that like the others buy the others, so it's no different, you know. When you and your husband had the stand, were y'all there every night or just on weekends or how did that work? Well at that time, it was seven days a week we was up there. But since it's been there they decided to change the hours, and they still--be seven days a week. And when you and your husband came back here and had the stand, was that all y'all were doing or was that just supplementing other income? No, he was a carpenter. He worked for Greenville Lumber Company. And myself and the children carried the business on and all, until he got of [retirement] age, and then he decided to stop and help. So he helped a while until he passed. And what year did he pass? In nineteen—oooh, eighty-seven. And how many children do you have--Loretta [who is sitting next to the interviewer, rolling tamales] and who else? Well, I have nine children…And all of them in--working in the business but three. So they just grew up knowing everything about hot tamales? Grew up with--with making hot tamales. They would go to school. When they'd come from school, I'd have the ingredients, and they'd pitch in and help me finish them. Have you always had a lot of people helping you or has this--because the family's grown--? My family and my daughter-in-law and the children—well, they all--the family, the children. Well, I got a couple granddaughters that help…Uh-hmm, well my oldest son helps. Yeah? Can you talk a little bit about maybe--has the--the process of making them changed over the years for you personally? Like before you were doing everything or certain things and now everybody is kind of--? Well, since they all got grown and grown up they--they
works, and I stay in the When did you retire from it? About four years ago. Do you miss it at all? No, I don't miss it. [Laughs] No, I don't miss it. --- Do you still like eating tamales? Well I start back to eating them every once in a while, but I got—after everything I found out I'm a diabetic, and I can't have all those spices and things. But I eat some every once in a while. But while I was eating them, I got my full of them. [Laughs] Yeah, I believe it. [Laughs] Have you tasted around any other places in Greenville or any other places in the Delta that have hot tamales? No, I haven't…because I mostly be, you know, at home all the time. I wouldn't be out around the other places. Well, a lot of--the history that--that is kind of the general consensus of how hot tamales got to the Delta, I'm finding out is not really always the case. Because a lot of people talk about some migrant labor came in--in the [nineteen] twenties and 'thirties for a big cotton harvest, and a lot of Mexican laborers came in and brought tamale recipes with them then. And then the African American community in the Delta has maintained that tamale making tradition, but here--. They all taste different. They're all different, and I'm finding out that people have gotten recipes from California and Arkansas and all over, so it's a lot more varied than I ever imagined. And I understand that there's--that you make these with beef brisket. Right, beef brisket….And we use corn shucks. Yes. And it’s a very labor-intensive process with the corn shucks with somebody trimming them and cleaning them over there and--? Right. And some washing them and that's the way we always did. --- And how much do you charge for a dozen tamales today? Six dollars. That still seems awful cheap. For all this labor. Yeah, it is. Yeah, they [are] cheap for all the work you put in. But see, people don’t know how much work you put in…And they think they [her children] don't work or do nothing. Everybody says, "Oh you work?" So it's a lot of work in it.
They—yeah. They be working. But so far it's nice. Since we got the recipe and started in business we've got some trophies and different things for, you know--for the hot tamales and things--competition. So it's real nice. We got the People's Choice Award. In Greenville. [At the World Championship Hot Tamale Contest, which happens every summer.] --- And do you hear about these folks who make turkey tamales and chicken tamales and all that? Yeah, we have made—since we’ve been making hot tamales, people request for chicken hot tamales. And when we first started to make them back in the fif--in the [nineteen] forties, it’s some people required to make some deer hot tamales…So we've made--they have fixed them--whatever kind they wanted, that's what we would use to make them--make them for them--for them, but we didn't make them, you know, to sell to nobody else. Did you ever taste any of those as you made them? Yeah, they taste almost the same. It's just different meat in them. Yeah, it's all about the spice really, right? The spice--the spice, yeah. And when you--when you cook the tamales do you simmer them or steam them or--because I--everybody does them different. I wonder--? No, you just cook them so many hours, you know. You cook them so many hours and that's it…And put the juice on them, and they ready…But the hardest job is making them. [Laughs]
Well we got the machine in [nineteen] seventy and had one since then, but before then we used a spatula to spread the meal and a fork for the meat. That's the way we had to put the meal--spread the meal. And then someone would put the meat on them, and then they rolled them. So that's the way we started off making them. So after then we got the machine. Did you ever think you'd be making this many hot tamales? No, I didn't. When we first started, I didn't think, you know, it would continue on. So it's up to them to keep it going. --- And does everybody in here know the recipe pretty intimately, or is it something that you and your daughters kind of hang on to? No, well they--they've got it pretty good…Uh-hmm. When one be out the other one take over; it's always someone to take over when they be doing the meats. And they young, so. It all come out the same. So do you hope that these women here will keep making tamales for generations to come? Well it's left up with them, you know about that. Maybe they grandchildren will take it over. Right now the children got it but maybe after they stop maybe the grandchildren will keep it going on…Because see, most of the young children now don't want to do hard work like older ones did. Yeah. And it is really labor intensive. Well do you have any ideas about hot tamales in the Delta? Just how long they've been around or where they came from or any of that? No. I--I don't know because back in the--in the [nineteen] forties, that's when I found out about the hot tamales and decided to come into Greenville. They ate them in Greenville, but they didn't have any where I was located at. And so I don't know how long they had been making them. Have you ever heard of people frying hot tamales? Yeah, they fry some every once in a while…Uh-hmm, they be trying out different things. They make hot tamale casserole, dishes and--. Has anybody ever offered to buy your recipe or to open another Scott's Tamale Stand or anything? Well it's quite a few people who bought recipes, but they did nothing with it. After they found out it was hard work, they dropped it. Oh, really. So you've sold the recipe before to people? Yeah. And they find out what it takes [to make them]! [Laughs] [Laughs] They find out what it takes to make them, and they don't--they did nothing with it. Yeah, well this is an impressive operation you have here, definitely. And it's--it's amazing that there's that much history in this one room of hot tamale making. It's really something special. But maybe one day the business will get--be larger
than it is now. Yeah. You'd like to see that happen? Like a big manufacturing operation and you can wholesale to stores and stuff? No, just a larger place--a larger place than this. To make them in? Uh-hmm. Okay. What--is there something that you need that you don't have here that you--that would make it easier? No, just more room. All right. Well it's been lovely visiting with you. Thank you so much. Uh-hmm, nice talking with you. --- To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.
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Listen
to this 
Are
you from the Delta originally?
So
when you--you got the recipe and--and do you remember the first
time that you tried to cook them?
front
[in the part of the house where she lives]. They stay back here
carrying the work on; they sells them and everything.
And
I understand that Wednesdays and Thursdays and sometimes Mondays,
they--that there's tamale making going on?
Oh,
yeah. No, I--I definitely know that. I'm really admiring your process
here. How long have you had a machine--this extruder machine?
