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Mush or Porridge

A simple porridge made by cooking cornmeal, oatmeal, cracked wheat, or hominy with water and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Mush or Porridge

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.

Prepare

  1. In a porcelain vessel, combine the grain and salt.

  2. Add enough water to moisten, but do not overdo it.

Bake

  1. Cover the pot and place it in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  2. Cook for several hours or overnight.

Serve

  1. To serve, eat as is or let it cool, then cut into thin slices.

  2. Pan-fry the slices until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 body of the porridge, and as it cools it sets firm enough to slice and pan-fry.

The step that matters

Add enough water to moisten, but do not overdo it.. Starch in the grain swells with water and sets as it cools. Too much water leaves a soft, wet mass that will not hold its shape for slicing or browning in the pan.

“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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