Tallahassee Hush Puppies

Ingredients

• 2 cups corn meal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sweet milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 large onion, chopped fine

Method

1. 1

   Sift the dry ingredients together and add the milk and water.

2. 2

   Stir in the chopped onion.

3. 3

   Add more meal or milk as necessary to form a soft but workable dough.

4. 4

   Mold pieces of the dough into pones (oblong cakes) and fry in deep hot fat or oil until well browned.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The Southern cook book of fine old recipes (1935) by Lillie S. Lustig, page 32. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Tallahassee Hush Puppies Embodied in the title of this recipe is a most interesting story. Years ago (in some sections it is still the custom) the negroes of Tallahassee, Florida, that quaint southern capital, would congregate on warm fall evenings for cane grindings. Some of them would feed the sugar cane to a one- mule treadmill while others poured the juice into a large kettle where it was boiled to sugar. After their work was completed, they would gather around an open fire, over which was suspended an iron pot in which fish and corn pones were cooked in fat. The negroes were said to have a certain way of making these corn pones which were un- usually delicious and appetizing. While the food was sizzling in the pot, the darkies would engage in rather weird conversations, spell- binding each other with "tall" stories of panther and bear hunts. On the outer edge of the circle of light reflected by the fire would sit their hounds, their ears pricked for strange sounds and their noses raised to catch a whiff of the savory odor of the frying fish and pones. If the talking ceased for a moment, a low whine of hunger from the dogs would attract the atten- tion of the men, and subconsciously a hand would reach for some of the corn pone which had been placed on a slab of bark to cool. The donor would break off a piece of the pone and toss it to a hungry dog, with the abstract murmur, "Hush, puppy!" The effect of this gesture on the hounds was always instantaneous and the negroes attrib- uted the result to the remarkable flavor of what eventually became known as "The Tallahassee Hush Puppy." 2 cups corn meal 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1% cups sweet milk Vz cup water 1 large onion, chopped fine

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.