Tamales. Evidence ranking
Mexican Tamales
#1 among published recipes we could fairly measure. We use this ranking to build The GüdDish when the method is cook-validated.
Ranking verdict
Close Contest
Number one leads, but number two is still a real contender. Both are strong starting points.
#1 ranked recipe
tastesbetterfromscratch.com
· top 5% of 113 analysed
4.98 from 1,522 ratings
Open recipe at tastesbetterfromscratch.com →Answer for citation
#1 published Tamales by GüdScore (as of 2026-08-17): Mexican Tamales from tastesbetterfromscratch.com (of 113 rated recipes across 14 sites). Verdict: Close Contest. That ranking is evidence for building The GüdDish.
Among published Tamales recipes we could fairly measure, #1 is Mexican Tamales from tastesbetterfromscratch.com (113 rated recipes across 14 sites). GüdScore orders them by how far each outperforms its own publisher. That ranking is how we decide what to learn from when we build The GüdDish.
Why it ranked first
This recipe
4.98
tastesbetterfromscratch.com avg
4.53
Ahead of its publisher by 0.45 stars. That gap, not the raw rating alone, drives the rank, because a 4.99 on a site where everything is 4.99 means little.
- 1,522 people rated it, enough that the score is not resting on a handful of opinions.
- That combination puts it in the top 5% of every Tamales recipe we analysed.
Runner-up: Beef Tamales (foodnetwork.com), ★ 4.76 from 59 ratings.
What this takes
24, 24 tamales · 45 min total · 25 min prep · 11 ingredients · 13 steps
- 4 cups Masa Harina
- 3 cups broth ((beef, chicken, or vegetable broth))
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 1/3 cups lard
- 8 ounce package dried corn husks
- Red chili pork
- Salsa verde chicken (See notes for recipe)
- bean and cheese (See notes for recipe)
- Authentic Mexican Rice (, for serving, optional)
The GüdDish · draft · cook QA in progress
GüdDish Tamales
This is the tamales we cook at home when we want the best result without juggling ten tabs. We read the strongest recipes we could find, kept the ingredients and techniques that overlap again and again, and cut the rest. What is left is one combined method: the best of the best, easy to handle, easy to run, and built to come out right every time.
serves 4 to 6
65 min total
4 steps
Needs cook QA
Preview draft GüdDish →
We already drafted The GüdDish from the field. It is not cook-validated yet, so Rank stays primary until QA is green. We do not ship a half-tested recipe as the answer.
Full evidence ranking
Showing 10 of a 10-slot list for this dish’s pool of 113 scored recipes. First 5 clear the full CrowdScore floor (at least 10 ratings and 4.5+ stars), ordered by how far each beats its own publisher after we adjust for rating volume. Filled 5 more slots with high-rated recipes that only have thinner vote counts (at least 1 rating, still real stars — marked Thin evidence). Star ratings and counts are the publisher’s public evidence when present. Close places can still reverse with more data.
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1Mexican Tamales4.98 from 1,522 ratings
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2
Beef Tamales4.76 from 59 ratings -
3Easy Tamales4.98 from 39 ratings
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4Traditional Tamales (Pork)4.81 from 130 ratings
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5How To Make Tamales4.90 from 47 ratings
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6Red Beef Tamales (Tamales Rojos)5.00 from 9 ratings · below usual vote floor
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7Tamales Tapatios (Chicken Tamales from Jalisco)4.60 from 9 ratings · below usual vote floor
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8Butternut Squash Tamales with Poblano Sauce5.00 from 6 ratings · below usual vote floor
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9How to Make Tamales5.00 from 5 ratings · below usual vote floor
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10Tamales5.00 from 4 ratings · below usual vote floor
Major publishers (ratings not CrowdScore-verified)
Some major publishers show star totals without review-level data we can audit. Those aggregates never enter CrowdScore. They can still appear here as honest publisher claims or as method references. Below: top claims for this dish.
Behind the evidence
113Recipes rated
14Sites
2,569Ratings
HighOrdering confidence
What enters GüdScore
We only put a recipe in GüdScore when we can check the evidence behind its rating at the review level. Sites that only publish closed aggregate stars, without recoverable reviews, stay outside that score rather than being quietly down-weighted. Where we can rebuild ratings from raw public reviews, we do that before a recipe competes. Full methodology: How GüdScore works.
FAQ
What is the best Tamales recipe?
#1 published Tamales by GüdScore (as of 2026-08-17): Mexican Tamales from tastesbetterfromscratch.com (of 113 rated recipes across 14 sites). Verdict: Close Contest. That ranking is evidence for building The GüdDish.
How does GüdDish pick a winner?
We search the open web for methods, measure rated recipes with GüdScore (evidence engine), study ingredients and techniques that set the strongest ones apart, then build one GüdDish. GüdScore does not hand you a single best recipe alone. Details: https://guddish.com/method.html
What does the verdict mean?
The Rank verdict describes the published-recipe competition, not a grade for The GüdDish. Clear Winner means number one is well ahead. Close Contest, Photo Finish, and Split Decision mean the top recipes are hard to separate. Limited corpus means we analyzed fewer recipes than a mature dish.
Why are some big publishers missing from GüdScore?
GüdScore only includes ratings we can audit at the review level. Sites that only expose closed aggregate scores, without recoverable review data, stay outside that score. Their recipes may still inform technique. See How GüdDish works for the full rules.
How often is this updated?
This page’s data was last scored or re-synced on 2026-08-17.
The public Rank is the top 10. The rest of the scored pool lives in the JSON API, not on this page.