SOUTHERN CORNMEAL HUSHPUPPIES
Southern cornmeal hushpuppies are easy and delicious.
Southern cornmeal hushpuppies are round cornmeal dumplings that usually accompany a big dish of fried fish. There are many different ideas as to how hushpuppies got their name. If you check the internet, you will come up with some of the following:
1. Confederate soldiers used their corn biscuit rations to feed to their dogs to quiet them in order to avoid detection from Union soldiers, hence the phrase hushing the puppies.
2. It is believed that while cooking fried foods with batter outside such as fish, balls of batter were fried and given to the dogs to keep them from begging or barking, thus the name “hush puppies”.
3. (This one is my favorite. I am a Kentuckian and it makes sense to me.) They were fried up to toss to the dogs to keep them quiet while the “revenooers” were snooping around looking for stills. Whatever explanation, fried catfish just isn’t the same without hushpuppies.
Ingredients Needed for Southern Cornmeal Hushpuppies:
Yellow cornmeal
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
White granulated sugar, optional
Onion, finely chopped or grated
Garlic powder
Egg
Fresh or dried chives
Cayenne pepper
Buttermilk
Oil for frying
Are you reading our digital magazine, Front Porch Life? It’s full of great new recipes, country living, fantastic people, southern charm, cooking tips and so much more. We send it directly to your email so you can start reading, cooking, and relaxing immediately! This is our premium content not found on our website. Join 1000’s of others today and start enjoying our magazine!
Southern Cornmeal Hushpuppies
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar optional
- 1/2 of a medium onion finely chopped or grated
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh chives chopped or 1/2 teaspoon dried
- pinch cayenne pepper
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- oil for frying
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with spoon. The batter should be just wet enough that you can shape it into balls about the size of a walnut with your hands and it sticks together.
- Have oil hot in a skillet and drop hushpuppies into oil. Cook about 3 to 4 minutes browning on all sides. Remove and drain on paper towels.
Notes
Click here to follow us on Instagram.© The Southern Lady Cooks photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.
the first time I ever had Hush Puppies, many, many years ago on vacation in Virginia, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. they are delicious. being from Wisconsin, yummies like that weren’t even a thought back then.
Thank you…so many wonderful helps!!!!
That’s the wonderful thing about hush puppies…you can add so many different ingredients in them and they always turn out great!
Just like I do except for cayenne pepper……the beer makes them light and fuffly
This is the way I make mine, but I add a little green bell pepper and I add a little oil to the batter.
These look good!
I put a jalapeno, diced sweet onions, and grated cheddar cheese in my hush puppies .
Once out of desperation I used salsa in the batter (I usually add some ketchup) and found this to be the best addition ever!
Sounds good Lia. I like to dip them in salsa anyway.
If you fry your hushpuppies in deep oil they will turn themselves over when they are brown enough and brown the other side. No foolin!
I have even added a bet of hot sauce to them just as to add a little falvor.
I prefer to use white cornmeal for these and I use a grater for the onion so u don’t get onion pieces in the puppy!
Love me some good homemade hushpuppies! Ever added kernel corn to them? Great dipped in homemade jalapeno nacho sauce. Wish I had some right now with a big ol’ platter of fried catfish!!
Another one I have heard is that when slaves were escaping north during the civil war they would feed these to the dogs to aid their escape.
Without ever having had the real thing before, I have tried to make these, except I always used baking powder to make them puff up just because I imagined them puffing up as they are being fried. Is that ever done, not done, or is there some other property that makes them puff up?
You can use baking powder if you like. I just make them into balls and they seem to stay the same size I make them. If you use the beer instead of milk they are lighter and fluffier.
I’ll have to try them this way..