Mush, or Hasty Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Bring the water and salt to a hot temperature, but do not boil.
Take out ½ pint of hot water and mix it with the cornmeal.
Cook and serve
When the water is boiling, pour the cornmeal mixture in and stir until thickened.
Let it boil slowly, uncovered, for 1 hour.
Serve hot with butter and syrup, or cooled with milk or cream.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Its starch thickens as it cooks, giving the mush its body and setting texture.
- Water
- Hydrates the cornmeal so its starch can swell and gelatinize during cooking.
The step that matters
Pouring the cornmeal mixture into boiling water. Cornmeal must be dispersed evenly as it enters the hot liquid, or it clumps into lumps. Stirring while the starch gelatinizes keeps the texture smooth before the slow boil finishes the thickening.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More cornmeal mush recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.