What Are Hushpuppies?
Popular in the Southern United States, hushpuppies, or hush puppies, are deep fried round cornmeal breads. They resemble fritters, and are created by using a thick batter, which usually consists of cornmeal, flour, eggs, salt, baking soda, milk, and water. The batter is dropped into hot oil and floats to the surface when the hushpuppy is ready. Although stories vary, it is widely believed that in the early 1700’s a group of French Ursuline nuns brought hushpuppies to New Orleans. They called them ‘croquettes de maise’. Crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, it is not surprising that these tasty snacks soon caught on throughout the southern states. Hushpuppies are often used in Cajun cooking, as a side dish to seafood and barbecue dishes. Their usefulness in getting dogs to stop barking supposedly gave hushpuppies their name. People would throw them to their dogs with the command ‘Hush!’ They are also sometimes called corn dodgers.
