Cornmeal Mush
Ingredients
Directions
Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil and add 1 teaspoon of salt.
Gradually stir in 1 cup of cornmeal, sifting it through your fingers while stirring.
Use a kettle with a rounded bottom and avoid making it too thick if serving with milk or sugar.
If frying, add 1 or 2 handfuls of flour at the end.
Cook thoroughly for 1 to 2 hours on low heat, stirring often.
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 gelatinises in hot water.
The step that matters
Stirring in the cornmeal gradually. Adding cornmeal slowly while stirring keeps the grains from clumping into lumps, because the starch on the outside of each clump hydrates before the inside can, so the mush cooks 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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