The culinary history of hush puppies actually goes back to ancient times. The Romans and Greeks made fritters thousands of years before, consisting of a mixture of flour, eggs, milk, honey, and spices, and then deep fried. Sometimes, the ancient cooks used a similar batter to coat their fish and a variety of meats before frying. It makes sense that the extra coating was then fried as well, as a necessity and frugality.
Today, we make hush puppies with corn meal, and they have many culinary cousins as well. Corn dodgers, spoon bread, hoe cakes, and corn bread are all relatives to the modern hush puppy. The cooking method is what defines the difference between these foods. There are many American recipe's dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries for fritter-style foods along with battered, fried fish, dredged in corn meal or flour and spices. These foods have many names, but none are called “hush puppies.”
How Hush Puppies Got Their Name
Food historians do not agree on the exact origin of the name, so it is unlikely the true story will ever be known. There are, however, several interesting and colorful legends regarding the way hush puppies got their name.
It was about 1915 when the term first appeared in print. It has never been confirmed, but is commonly believed to have come from the scarcity that had developed after the Civil War, and cooks, wishing to silence hungry dogs, would toss them scraps of fried corn batter and say, “Hush Puppies!” The same story is also attributed to Confederate soldiers who, upon sensing approaching Yankee soldiers, tossed cornmeal cakes to silence their yapping dogs.
Similarly, the silencing of whining dogs with the admonition of “Hush puppy,” legend is attributed to an African cook in Atlanta, and to southern hunting and trapping parties, who fed them to their hungry hunting dogs at dinnertime.
Perhaps the most interesting legend, and certainly the most disturbing, concerns Salamanders, which were often referred to as "water dogs" or "water puppies." These were coated with cornmeal, formed into stick shapes, and deep fried. The were called hush puppies because a proper wife would never want her neighbors to know that her family ate such a lowly food.
Hush Puppies
Ingredients
- 1 cup cornmeal
- ½ tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ minced onion
- 1 egg
- 1 cup buttermilk (for buttermilk substitution, use 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar.)
- 4 to 5 tablespoons water
- Frying oil
Directions
- Mix dry ingredients together.
- In a separate bowl, mix egg, milk, and onion.
- Pour all at once into dry mix and stir lightly to combine
- Add just enough water, one tablespoon at a time, to make a good dropping.
- Fry in hot oil, about 350 degrees, until brown on all sides, about 2 minutes.
Makes 1 dozen.
Christopher T. Reilly - Hello. I have been a professional writer for 25 years with experience that encompasses articles, essays, websites, Internet content, stage ...
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