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Fried Hominy
The remains of breakfast hominy should be packed solid in a vegetable dish. When cold, cut in half-inch slices, dip in beaten egg, roll in bread crumbs, and fry in deep, hot fat or in butter, or dripping in an omelet-pan. Drain, and serve, sprinkled with sugar or salt. To be served either as a vegetable or as a dessert. Fried hominy is frequently prepared by cutting into inch cubes instead of slices.
A leftovers dish: cooked hominy porridge chilled until sliceable, breaded and fried. The whole thing depends on the mush being properly set before it meets the knife.
- Chill it hardPack the hot hominy into a straight-sided dish so it forms a solid block, and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Slices cut from mush that is merely cool will slump and fall apart in the fat.
- What hominy means hereWhatever form it took, the breakfast hominy has to have been cooked to a mush stiff enough to set and slice; period 'hominy' covered both the ground grits and hulled corn boiled soft. Coarse grits or hominy cooked to a stiff mush both work; the mixture should be thick enough to mound on a spoon.
- Frying fatDeep fat wants 350-375F. Butter alone will brown too fast at that heat, so use it only in the shallow omelet-pan method the recipe offers, over moderate heat, and expect a slower, spottier crust.
- BreadingDry the slices with a towel first, and a light dusting of flour before the egg gives the crumbs something to grip. Chilling the breaded slices 15 minutes helps the coating stay on.
- Vegetable dishHere it is a serving dish used simply as a mould. Any loaf pan or square dish lined with plastic wrap does the same job and turns out cleanly.
- Cubes versus slicesInch cubes give more crust per bite but need gentler handling; turn them with a spider or slotted spoon rather than tongs.
- Yield and servingServing -- Salt-side goes with roast meat and gravy; sugar-side takes cinnamon, syrup or a fruit sauce.