Texas Tamale Company's tamales are missing lard, a traditional ingredient in Mexican tamales. Lard, or rendered pig fat, helps add flavor and texture to the masa, or dough.

And the Texas Tamale Company, which also sells its corn husk-wrapped packages of masa and fillings in grocery stores across the country, is waiting to mail them a taste of the holidays.

A year earlier, he’d started his pop-up tamale company, Casa Masa, as a side gig and creative outlet while he juggled other restaurant industry jobs; if the eager line of customers was any ...