CORNMEAL RECIPES:

Note: Most cornmeal recipes call for a little salt; about a 1/2 teaspoon per cup of cornmeal . 'I usually just skip it, although it could be added in advance.

Mush:

Boil some water in your tin cup. If you have the quart size cup, a quarter to a third of the cup full is plenty of water. Make sure you bring the water to a good rolling boil, not some piddly fizzle. Take the water off of the fire and slowly stir the cornmeal in with a fork until the consistency seems about right for mush. Take it off the fire and let it set about a minute or two, and it's done. If you didn't have the fire hot enough it will be gritty. Just put it back on the fire and boil it for a little bit more.

Most people find that large quantities of brown sugar are necessary to make mush edible. Grits are also period and can be cooked in a similar manner, although grits almost always require extra cooking while mush does not. Both will use about 3-4 parts water to one part of meal or grits.

 

Fried Mush:

 

To Fry Mush; spread it out in your plate and let it set until you are able to slice it up into squares (about 1/2 hour or more). Fry these pieces in bacon grease until lightly brown.

Hoecakes:

 

Put some cornmeal in your plate. Stirring constantly, add just enough boiling water so that the batter holds together but will not spread . Then placed in a frying pan. Spread the batter about 1/2 inch thick in a greased frying par,. Brown slowly on both sides; the slower the better. The best hoecakes I've made were cooked about 45 minutes. Cook them over a cool fire or they'll cook too fast or burn. Some people prefer to make the batter thinner and make pancake-like cakes about 1/4 inch thick.

 

There are accounts of soldiers cooking these on bayonets. I've tried this, and using this recipe, the batter falls into the fire. To cook it on a bayonet, add a little extra water (very little), and then knead in flour until the mixture makes a very thick dough. It will then stay on.

Corn Pone:

 

This is what we would call corn bread. There are countless recipes for corn pone, but this one is similar to one dating back to the war. If you plan to make this in camp, you may want to mix the dry ingredients together in           advance. Also, corn  pone was  occasionally issued  to soldiers already  cooked, so you can make it at home.

 

Ingredients:

cornmeal  - 1 cup

flour  - 1/2 cup

baking powder  - 1 tsp.

baking soda  - 1/2 tsp.

salt  - 1/2 tsp.

sugar - 1 tbl. spn.

oil  - 1 tbl spn.

egg  - 1 egg,

buttermilk

 

Mix dry ingredients together, then oil, egg, and enough 'buttermilk to make it flow thickly, but not runny. Pour into a greased pan and bake at 425 degrees until brown. If you cook this in camp, you can leave out the oil and egg and substitute water for milk and brown on both sides in a greased frying pan, but it obviously wont be as good.

Hush Puppies:

 

The recipe that follows is a period one, although we have used various field expedient versions over the years. Before attempting these, you will need enough grease to deep fry them. One of our rules of camp etiquette (about the only one) is never throw away your grease, until you have checked to see if anyone else wants it for something. Mix together some cornmeal, salt, a little baking soda or powder, . an egg or two or three (if the camp be affluent) and some chopped onions. The last is optional, but hush puppies with onions are definitely socially superior to those without. The mixture should be dry and firm. Pat into little cakes and drop into the hot grease. Take them out when browned to the "color of winter oak leaves." They cook fast.