Cooks guard their recipes for Southern delicacy

gotriad ^ | September 13, 2006 | Katie Reetz

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GREENSBORO — A polite smile and genteel Southern manners will get you a lot of things.

Opened doors, a kiss on the hand and, if you're lucky, help with heavy boxes.

But some tasks are beyond even the best efforts of a woman born and bred on this side of the Mason-Dixon line.

Turns out top-secret family recipes are one of those things.

A few weeks ago I made it my mission to track down the mystery of the hush puppy, a scrumptious glob of fried cornmeal served in seafood and barbecue restaurants across the Triad and around the country.

The result?

Spectacular failure.

The Southern dish has been served alongside fried fish and barbecue for years. Sometimes the golden cornmeal comes in a crescent shape, other times it's round. The pups can be salty, sweet or stuffed with an assortment of veggies and cheeses. They're always delicious.

The history of hush puppies is as storied as it is uncertain.

Some say they were invented in 1727 by nuns in the territory that would later become Louisiana. Others say an African cook in Atlanta tossed the doughy balls on the floor to quiet a whining puppy. Still others trace the famous side dish to hunters, trappers and Confederate soldiers who wanted to silence their yipping canines.

Whatever their roots, hush puppies have become one of those uniquely Southern foods that drive otherwise civilized people to fisticuffs debating whose mama has the superior recipe.

I made several stops in my cruise around town. Everywhere I went, owners and employees were as sweet as their tea, offering me drinks and samples of the savory pups.

They seemed determined to please their inquiring guest and went out of their way to make my visit enjoyable. Mindful of my upbringing, I thanked them and brushed their offers aside with a smile. The one thing I wanted was what they weren't willing to give — their secret hush puppy recipes.

"It's like my grandmother used to say," says Chip Stamey, owner of Stamey's Barbecue. "I'll tell you everything that's in them, but not how much."

Stamey and I chatted near the barbecue pit at his High Point Road location. Our conversation was light-hearted and peppered with laughter. I thought I had a shot.

The first time I asked for his grandmother's original recipe, he tried to make it seem like his rebuff was more for my benefit.

"Oh, you wouldn't want that," he said. "It makes too many."

When I tried a more direct approach, he politely shot me down. No way I was getting that recipe in my reporter's notepad.

My conversation with other owners and managers was much the same.

Oh, what a fun idea, they chuckled.

How flattering it was to think of them, they cooed.

But share their recipe? Surely, I must be kidding.

There's a lot to be said for Greensboro's hospitality, but the sweet talk stops when family recipes are on the line.

Contact Katie Reetz at 691-5091 or kreetz@news-record.com

RECIPES

We did our best to snag hush puppy recipes from your favorite local restaurants, but, alas, we came back empty-handed. These recipes might not be local, but they're still delicious.

Traditional Hush Puppies

1 1/2 cups white or yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup water

Combine cornmeal, salt and baking soda; stir in onion. Add buttermilk and water, and stir just enough to moisten the dry ingredients. Drop by rounded teaspoonsful into hot fat (375 degrees), and fry until golden brown, turning once. Remove from fat and drain on paper towels.

Cheddar Hush Puppies

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

3/4 cup self-rising white cornmeal

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

Combine cheese, cornmeal, flour, onion and sugar. Add combined milk and egg, mixing until well blended. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of batter into deep hot oil (375 degrees). Fry until golden brown, turning once. Drain and serve warm.

Shrimp Hush Puppies

2 cups cooked and shredded shrimp

2 (6 ounce) packages of jalapeno corn bread mix

1 (1 pound, 1 ounce) can cream corm

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1 finely chopped jalapeno pepper

Oil for frying

Shred cooked shrimp in a food processor or chop finely with a knife. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Heat oil to 365 degrees. Drop mixture by heaping teaspoonfuls into hot oil and deep fry until golden brown. Remove the puppies from the oil and drain them on absorbent paper.

Baked Hush Puppies

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3/4 cup milk

2 beaten eggs

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup melted fat or oil

Stir dry ingredients together. Add remaining ingredients, and stir only until well blended. Place 1 tablespoon of batter into well-greased small muffin tin wells. Place muffin pans on sheet of aluminum the size of the pan to prevent over browning. Bake in a hot oven at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

— Recipes courtesy of Cooks.com.

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Stamey’s Barbecue hush puppies, Stamey’s Barbecue — 2206 High Point Rd. and 2812 Battleground Ave.

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Southern Delicacy: Hush Puppies ping

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FR BBQ Ping - Hush Puppies for your next Q

[Rte66]

Mmmmm. Thanks! Pinging our resident foodie that there are recipes here!

Never heard of putting anything besides lots and lots of onions in hush puppies. Having Cheddar or shrimp in them almost makes them a side dish, instead of a natural part of a fish dinner - one half of the combo, without which the other is not as edible.

Love 'em anyway, so may try them when I'm in my next frying mood.

[HAL9000]

Those ain't hushpuppies. A hushpuppy is supposed to be round.

[azhenfud]

Those look more like corn dogs.

[Alia]

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail Constitution Day OR TaxRelief OR Alia if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[Edgar3]

My father used to make terrific Hush Puppies. He had a cast iron skillet that he would melt Crisco in over an open flame. His secret ingredient in the Pups was Old Milwaukee beer. I can still taste them...

[Fawnn]

In mine, I use a mixture of whole wheat flour (that I grind myself -- so it tastes as mild as unbleached or white flour) and masa harina (instead of cornmeal) -- and light beer & oftentimes shallots instead of onions, but I'm from the west coast of Ohio, so what do I know? ;)

[bad company]

Never heard of putting anything besides lots and lots of onions in hush puppies.

Now you've had hushpuppies. It's just a way to keep from wasting perfectly good corn batter. When the fish is about done, chunk an onion into 8 parts. Put them in the batter and then put them in the pan.

[proudofthesouth]

So true. I've eaten hush puppies all my life (almost 50 years) and I've never seen hush puppies that looked like that.

Also, I've noticed that celebrity chefs have started adding things like jalapeno peppers to them which is plain wrong! Hush puppies are made with corn meal, self rising flour, buttermilk, finely diced onions, a bit of salt and black pepper. Damn! I just made myself hungry!

[Rte66]

Exactly right. Have you ever been to someone's fish fry who made hush puppies that "looked right" but had no onions in them? I have! It's just so wrong! And it has happened to me more than once. I don't get it.

Also, those odd-shaped ones in the BBQ picture are like the ones they serve at Red Lobster. They smell so good and then you bite into one and it has fake onion in it. Not even the kind that plumps up from dehydrated to like normal white onion pieces - these are little flecks of dark green something that is an herb, I think - I think the onion "flavor" is from powder.

As with all fried foods - the grease makes all the difference.

[mtbopfuyn]

I really hate to say what those look like and it's certainly not appetizing. You can have all the hush puppy recipes you want, but you won't ever get my jalapeno poppers recipe, muhahahaha!

[RangerM]

I never could stand onions in hushpuppies. I'm not a fan of onions in the first place.

I have had them with actual corn, instead of onions in them. They were really good that way. I think that may have been on the Gulf Coast somewhere.

BTW, I live in Raleigh. Smithfield's BBQ has the "cat turd" h-ps. I don't know anywhere around here that serves the round kind.

A former post spoke of the grease making all the difference. I concur. I used to work at a fish camp (southern-speak for a seafood restaurant, where most things are only available fried), and you could always tell when they changed the grease in the deep fryer. Nothing was anywhere as good as with the old grease.

[MotleyGirl70]

Southerns guarding recipes for grits .

[Cagey]

ROFLMAO!!


It was on the other night and I caught the very end where she was a hostile witness for the defense. Tire and transmission talk. I'm sitting on the sofa when suddenly I hear a voice from the kitchen......."I thought you saw that before. How come you're watching that again?"

[Roses0508]

Greensboro is now my hometown. My homes in the past were Florida and TN. BBQ and hush puppies are different in all three regions. I tend to agree, however that hushpuppies should be round and should not be loaded down with too many "extra" ingredients. At that point, they are no longer hushpuppies.

I'm still learning to deal with BBQ here - I miss Memphis style.

[HungarianGypsy]

**Food Ping**

Thanks for the heads up on this, Rte66.

Mmmm! Good ol' Southern cooking!

[varina davis]

bookmark

[groanup]

Forget about hushpuppies. How did my Grandmother make those flat, delcious fried hoecakes that we always ate with the day's catch?