Pasteles, a Puerto Rican Tradition, Have a Special Savor Now

I am very happy to see an article about pasteles in the Times. However, I was NOT happy to see that they were described as "tamale-like." Puerto Rican food is NOT Mexican food, so please don't use words that would just further confuse readers and reinforce the stereotype that Hispanic food is all alike. Please do your research!!!

Both my parents grew up in P.R and I have always had the pleasure of enjoying pasteles at least once a year. Usu. around the Xmas holidays & sometimes if we are lucky during Easter as well. They are like LIQUID GOLD in our family! My Jewish husband and (20+ yr old) boys have now been brought into the fold & were shown how to make pasteles last year with my Mom and 2 Aunts leading the charge. It is crazy but sooo much fun watching, listening, learning, and participating in this wonderful cultural event. Everyone has an opinion on the best way to make pasteles in my family. It's at least a 2 DAY process: 1 day to gather all the ingredients and another day to grate. We prefer NOT to use a machine, but instead have plenty of band-aids on hand! In our family, if you don't participate...don't expect to go home with as many. Thank-you NY TIMES for sharing this and keeping us informed of the AFTERMATH of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Ricans.

As a teacher in 1970's-80's Williamsburg, I was often the grateful recipient of pasteles from my Puerto Rican students. I still have the wonderful memories -- taste and of my former students.

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You missed to make the connection of “yunta” (the pair of “pasteles” that are tied and boiled together) with the pair of oxen used in the old times to till the land. Those were called a “yunta”, as are called as well the cuff links some gentlemen still wear (in that case, in plural, “yuntas”). It refers to a pair of whatever, but with “pasteles” the term is very special, as it sends us back to our old agriculture and the noble beasts that made it possible. I should add that I am almost 70, a city person, born, raised and residing in Puerto Rico, but reading your article in NYC brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes. Thank you for a positive and respectful look to our culture.

Seven years ago my great Uncle finally taught me to make his recipe of pasteles and I am so grateful. It is a family tradition that we keep if not annually at least every couple of years. The work of pasteles making is daunting but oh there is nothing better then the smell of your house filled with all the fresh ingredients being grated, chopped and prepped for assembly. Thank you NYTimes for sharing a part of Puerto Rican food history and keeping reads informed of the continued recovery struggles from Hurricane Maria.

pasteles yum! great article. but FYI Times, it's tamal-like not tamale-like. Singular tamal, plural tamales.

This is seriously the best article about PR I've read all year. Amazing, and I'm definitely following up with the NYC vendors listed in the story! THANK YOU NYT!

There's nothing like a homemade pastele, however, the Goya pasteles aren't awful with lots of hot sauce.

Haven't been to Puerto Rico, but it always was a treat to come across a roadside pastele vendor during the years I lived in Hawaii, where Puerto Ricans settled many decades ago to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations.

Please provide complete addresses or a link so we can get some pasteles, asap.

Some of my happiest memories were when my Mom and her sister Isabel made pastels in our kitchen at home. It was one of the few times that Spanish was spoken because my dad was born and raised in the former Czechoslovakia and and my mom was born in Orocoves in Puerto Rico . Between them they spoke seven languages but English was always the rule. Because of my multi cultural family, I grew up eating pastelas, arroz con pollo and sauerbraten and brot knodel (bread dumplings) It was strange but wonderful as my Mom was a great cook. I think that while cooking the pastelas with her sister, my Mom was at her happiest. While it makes me sad to see how we are treating the Puerto Rican people after the storm I am am consoled by the fact that my Mom isn't around to see this. After reading this I think I may take a try at making them. It will be a nice tribute to Mom.

Which barbershop in Greenpoint? I'd love to try a dozen!

Please ... Bring on the Coquito recipe!!!

Cocina criolla -- Creole kitchen. Food is comida. Pasteles is pronounced a slightly hard pah then soft but quick stehlehs Creole comida is also prevalent in Haiti (pronounced ayehtee and ayeetee). What is interesting is that cocina (pronounced coseenah) is very close to a terrible curse word (pron. cochina). Forgot to add to earlier article on pollo a la brasa. In Peru, it is considered junk food -- chicken and french fries. In terms of pronunciation, the Peruvian dialect, being closest to Spanish, pronounces pollo as just that. Yet if the double l appears in the middle of a name, say Murillo, the double l is pronounced as j (Morrrr--ee--j-o). Pronunciation in the Caribbean islands, Central and South America differ depending on European invaders and slave trade. Spain is undergoing political problems with the Catalan because Catalanese is not understood by other Spaniards. I was friends with Dali who was from Catalan and he was often impossible to understand.

Great article. Also, people who put raisins (or olives) in their pasteles are monsters. Especially if they don't give you a heads up. Evil.

A truly ingenious and mouth-watering recipe. A proof of the great things that multinational and interracial heritage can do to contemporary cuisine.

People, stop using the food processor! It makes them too smooth and dense. Like eating a giant, hot, green gummy bear (yeah, I know, pasteles are brown but they've always been green to me, I don't know why). Bleggh! Grating them by hand is the only way to go. I haven't used the grating machine, though, so I don't know about how those come out.

We DO pronounce the s with a z sound. My family is from Ponce and we pronounce it PAHZ-TELL-EHZ. Great to see the NY Times covering more stories and articles in and about Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans. Keep up the good work!

Do not, under any circumstance forego the plaintain/banana leaf wrapping. Crucial to the flavor of the dish

Great article and you got the process and ethos of pasteles right. But there is something missing from the recepe. You have to start with a Puerto Rican "Mami"... a Mom who you watched make pasteles long before you tried it. And it adds to the pastel-making experience, when you are using a food processor to grind the vegetables, if you can remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and it fell to you to "guallar" (grate) the green bananas etc on a hand grater, a "guallo" till you almost scraped your fingers. And you did this for hours and hours. The entire process taking two whole days. The Mami is essential because she was the judge of when the "masa" ( the mix) was ready. It has to be soft but not too soft, and there is a scientific way to guage that. according to my Mom, which involves a large spoon and how long it takes to flop down into the masa. Finally, let me add that putting raisins in pasteles , while not a crime, is nearly so. This year I must admit I will be buying my pasteles already made by some wonderful gal who sells them by the dozen.

Thanks for putting on the front page- a welcome respite from the rest of the terrible news and a reminder of childhood pasteladas in San Sebastian, PR, with cousins, aunts and abuela all around a big table getting ready for Nochebuena

Thanks for doing a story on this PR tradition. It is one that my family and I continue despite being geographically dispersed. We fall firmly in the "yes to plantains and pork, no to raisins" camp. There is regional variation in recipes across PR and Rachel Wharton captures the spirit of what making pasteles is all about. However, one point that should be corrected immediately is describing Suset Laboy Perez as never making "pasteles herself until years after she moved to the United States." Puerto Rico IS the United State and has been since 1898! It is not another country!!! It is exactly this kind of reference that reinforces the perception of Puerto Ricans not being American citizens by birth and opens the door for justification of unequal treatment. Thank you.

I'm not sure who told you how to pronounce "pasteles," but PAH-tey-ya isn't even close. In PR, it's pretty close to phonetic. While cutting off the "s" when pronouncing words ending in that letter is typical in puerto rico (e.g. "gracias" often sounds like "gracia"), this isn't done with pliral nouns like "pasteles." Further, there is no silent "s" in puerto rican spanish, the first "s" in "pasteles" included. Finally, the final syllable sounds something like "lace" with a long "a," not "ya."

A very sweet memory are the pasteles made by a co-worker with whom I no longer share a friendship...my "order" was placed every year the second the current Christmas was over! Wish I could find a Manhattan source! Anyone?!!

There are different types of pasteles: the most common ones are made of a mixed dough made of green bananas, plantains, ysutia, calabaza; the cassava ones that can be bolied or baked; the ones that use rice instead of tubers or bananas; and the old original ones made of green bananas only. The word for the pairing is "yunta", not "junta"; and the filling varies according to tastes or dietary requirements, from minced pork to vegetarian ones. And please, stop comparing them to tamales since Puerto Rican do not need references to other countries to exoress their unique culture. Also, why is a photo of a cardboard box being used to show the homemade grating machines?

My husband makes pasteles all year round but especially makes them for friends and family during the holidays. He learned how to make them after he retired, asking his sisters for recipes- relying on memories of cooking lessons from his PR mom. Lots of work, he says, but done with love!

Pasteles, coquito . . . this article made me miss Christmases spent with my Puerto Rican ex-boyfriend and his large and wonderful family. I may try to make them myself this year, but I know already they won't be as good!

The best pasteles are made by each family. Most of those being sold are what we call "blind"--meaning almost no stuffing--and bland--meaning not aggressively seasoned, as required by the prolonged boiling. A food processor cuts the grating time in half. But that, and the traditional pernil (roasted fresh ham), will occupy a good three days of your Xmas schedule!

My brother-in-law is Puerto Rican and his Mom makes the best pasteles for my family every Christmas. I love them. I will try this receipt and see if I can make them. Thanks a bunch for the article and how to list.

My grandmother made the best ones! Always used banana leaves instead of paper since they add to the flavor. And she left out the raisins and chickpeas! And used only olive oil. She also made sure we pronounced Spanish correctly and did not use Spanglish. It is important to communicate efficiently with others instead of taking pride in isolation. So I pronouncing it, pass-tay-less.

Great article! Puerto Ricans in Hawaii have been assembling in kitchens since 1902 (I think that's the year) to make batches of pasteles!! I will be giving this recipe a try, we use green bananas as plantains and acai are not part of the produce that is grown in Hawaii. Excited!

The pronunciation is more like PAH-teh-leh or PAH-teh-les Yes, we are famous for chopping off the letter S at the end of syllables, or swallowing an intervocalic D, but I've never heard of omitting the letter L or changing the pronunciation of the vowel in the final syllable.

Just had our 4th year pastelada at my sister Saturday after Thanksgiving. We are using our Titi Alicia’s recipe from Caguas, PR. The best pasteles do not have plantain, it makes the masa hard. It is our way of starting our puertorrican Christmas here in CT and MA.