Corn Mush
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the mush
Bring 4 quarts of fresh water to a boil in a kettle and add salt to taste.
Once boiling, slowly stir in 1½ quarts of cornmeal, letting it sift through your fingers to prevent lumps.
Stir until the mixture is thick enough to be stirred with one hand.
Bake and cool
Transfer the mixture to a pan or leave it in the kettle and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.
Allow to cool; it can be fried when cold.
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
- Forms the thick body of the mush as its starch swells and sets with heat.
- Fresh water
- Hydrates the cornmeal so its starch gelatinizes into a smooth, spoonable mass.
The step that matters
Adding the cornmeal. Pouring cornmeal into boiling water too fast, or without sifting it through the fingers, clumps the grains before the starch can hydrate evenly. Slow sifting while stirring keeps the mush smooth.
“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.
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