Prairie Recipes

 

Prairie Recipes

By Collette

 

Corn bread went by many names in the South. Cornmeal was made into corn pone, ash cakes, hoe cakes, johnnie cakes, corn dodgers, corn muffins, or hush puppies to name a few. This recipe combined cornmeal and another staple of the South: ham.
Crackling Bread
2 cups cornmeal                                        1 cup ground cracklings
½ teaspoon soda                                         1 egg
½ teaspoon salt                                          1 ½ cups buttermilk
Combine all ingredients; mix well. Pour into a hot greased pan or iron skillet. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 25 minutes or until brown. Yield: 8 servings.

 

Hush Puppies were truly Southern fare with much history behind the recipe. They were supposedly thrown to the dogs around the campfire while the animals impatiently waited for something to eat. Hush Puppies went well with fried catfish.
Southern Hush Puppies
2 cups cornmeal                                         ½ cup water
2 teaspoon baking powder                         1 ½ cups milk
1 teaspoon salt                                           1 large onion, chopped finely
Sift dry ingredients together; add milk and water. Stir in onion. Add more milk or water as needed to form a soft, but workable dough. Mold pieces of dough with hands into pones, about 5 inches long, 3 inches wide and about ¾ inches thick. Fry in deep hot fat or oil until well browned. Yield: 12 hush puppies.

Of course you didn’t make the hush puppies without baking powder, and this is how to make it.

Baking Powder
6 ounces cream of tarter
2 and 2/3 ounces of bicarbonate of soda
4 ½ ounces of flour
Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix well. Store in tightly covered container. This is similar to what is used today.