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Mush
The water must be fresh, fiercely boiling; and all the meal, as it is deftly sprinkled in, must encounter the same high temperature, that the starch cells may burst. Have a large, porcelainlined iron pot and a wooden paddle for stirring. Stir with one hand while sprinkling in the meal with the other.
The proportions will vary with the degree of "flouriness" of the meal, and its coarseness, but an average rule would be four quarts of water, one of meal and two tablespoons of salt. When the meal is all in the pot should be closely covered and stood where it will only give an occasional bubble, for three or four hours, or even half a day. Do not disturb the surface, thus permitting the extractives (flavors) to escape.
A plain cornmeal porridge, written for a coal range where a covered pot could sit for half a day at the back. The method is sound; only the scale, the salt and the heat source need translating.
- The hinge: boiling water, sprinkled mealThe meal must hit water at a full rolling boil and go in slowly enough that the pot never stops boiling, or the grains clump before their starch swells. A whisk in place of the wooden paddle makes this easier for one cook working alone.
- QuantitiesFour quarts of water to one quart of meal is a volume ratio of 4:1, not a weight ratio. A quart of cornmeal is roughly 4 to 4 1/2 cups, about 1 1/4 lb. That yields something close to four quarts of finished mush, enough for a large household or for several days of fried mush.
- Scale it downFor four people, 4 cups water to 1 cup cornmeal, cooked the same way. The proportions hold at any size.
- SaltTwo tablespoons in this batch is about 1 1/2 teaspoons per quart of water, which is on the aggressive side of modern taste. Start with half and correct at the end.
- MealStone-ground meal, coarser and less uniform than degerminated supermarket cornmeal, is what the rule assumes, which is why the book warns that proportions vary with coarseness and "flouriness." Coarse meal drinks more water; fine meal thickens fast and needs a lighter hand.
- Three to four hoursNot an exaggeration for coarse meal. On a modern burner the lowest setting may still scorch the bottom over that span; use a double boiler, or cover the pot and set it in a 250-275F oven, checking once an hour.
- Leave it aloneThe book explains this as keeping the "extractives (flavors)" from escaping; in practice it also keeps the lid on and the steam in. Stirring is only needed if you are cooking over direct heat, where the bottom will catch.
- ServingHot, with milk and molasses, syrup or brown sugar. Leftovers poured into a loaf pan and chilled overnight set firm enough to slice and fry in bacon fat.
Cornmeal boiled in salted water is among the oldest continuously eaten dishes in North America, adopted by English colonists from Indigenous cooks and known variously as mush, hasty pudding, samp or suppawn depending on region and the coarseness of the grind. The English "hasty pudding" was a quick flour-based dish, and the name sits oddly on a cornmeal version simmered for half a day. Instructions this detailed about bursting starch cells reflect the era's enthusiasm for domestic science, which liked to explain the chemistry behind rules that cooks had followed by feel for generations; boxed flaked and puffed cereals were arriving in American kitchens around the same period.