Fried Mush
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Scald the cornmeal with the boiling water.
Add the melted lard, egg, cold water, and salt.
Flour your hands and form the mixture into round balls.
Fry
Fry the balls in a saucepan of hot lard until cooked through.
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 main structure, as its starch swells and sets when scalded with boiling water.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure as it cooks.
- Lard
- Adds richness and helps the outside brown and crisp when frying.
The step that matters
Fry the balls in hot lard until cooked through. If the lard is not hot enough, the balls absorb grease and turn heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady heat gives a crisp exterior and a fully cooked interior.
“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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