Pat Napier, left, is all smiles as he and his wife, Trudi, finish rolling and folding the last dozen of tamales from a batch they prepared that yields 15 dozen. The Jeanerette couple said the preparation of the ground beef and pork tamales is time consuming, but all worthwhile.

Make it a tamale day. Cook a batch of tamales — eat some fresh and store some for future meals.

Preparing the folded and steamed bundles of corn dough filled with tasty fillings is time consuming and requires extra effort, but the hard work can be all worthwhile.

“It is not something that you can make in a couple of hours. If you plan to make a big batch of hot tamales, you’d better set aside a day. It is a lot of work and it takes a lot of time, but it is well worth it,” said Pat Napier, an avid cook who enjoys sharing recipes with family and friends.

Napier and his wife, Trudi, have become known as the tamale makers of the family. With five grown children, 13 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, the Jeanerette couple can never seem to make enough of their savory tamales.

“It is the rolling and folding that is time consuming. We usually make a batch of 15 to 18 dozen so it does take quite a bit of time,” said Trudi Napier.

While the outer wrapper of the tamale varies from corn husks, paper, banana leaves and even coffee filters, so do the fillings ranging from savory to sweet. Among the many are ground beef, venison, slow-cooked shredded beef, pork or chicken, simple cheese, spinach and mushroom or vegetarian options — it’s all a matter of individual taste.

Wrappers are often stuffed with mixtures of raisins, nuts or dried fruit combined with sweet potato, squash or pumpkin to be served as a dessert or side dish.

“Whenever my wife and I make a batch of tamales it brings back good childhood memories. As a young child, I can still remember my mother in the kitchen making a big batch of tamales. We always called them hot tamales,” said Pat Napier.

“On some days there was an older man who would make his way through town with a push cart selling tamales. I still remember running into the house yelling ‘hot tamales are coming.’ They probably sold for 15 cents a dozen at that time.”

Donald and Helen Simon of Erath set up a vendor’s booth regularly at the Teche Area Farmer’s Market held on Tuesday and Saturday in Bouligny Plaza. One of their specialty items is tamales.

For the dough mixture, Helen Simon said she prefers to use cornmeal instead of the traditional corn masa, a form of fine-textured ground corn. The inventive cook uses coffee filters for wrappers to accommodate for a larger size tamale.

“I just sprinkle the cornmeal onto the wrapper, then add the filling before rolling. I find this is the easiest way,” she said. “This was my mother’s recipe that was passed down to me. I had forgot about it and then found it hidden in a corner one day.

It started out making the tamales as a fundraiser for my grandchild who was raising money for a band event. It is a lot of trouble to make, but my family thinks it is all worthwhile.”

While it is time consuming, Simon said tamales freeze well for future use.

“It is easy to pull a pack out of the freezer, fix a salad and a side vegetable and you have a full meal. It is a great dish to bring along for a pot luck supper.”

For cooks who have little time, another alternative is the tamale pie made with a cornmeal crust and layers of filling.

The pie can be sliced before freezing so individual slices can be defrosted as needed, she said.

Simon said she plans to pass the recipe down to her two children and six grandchildren, in hopes some of them will continue the tamale making tradition in the family.