More uses for corn: Pone, cornmeal mush and more
After I posted my friend Lorie’s recipe for corn pudding in late January, I ended up with several other really good corn recipes.
Jo said it was funny that I’d brought up corn; she writes, “I just found my lost corn pone recipe from cousin Nancy. I like this better than corn bread although the two are similar. I sometimes eat it with milk and a little sugar. It’s good anytime.”
You need:
2 eggs, well beaten
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter or shortening (Jo writes, “Guess which I use!”)
1 c. flour
2 c. white corn meal (Jo writes, “It can be made with yellow corn meal, but the white (at Giant) gives it a more gentle, more pleasant taste.”)
1 c. sour milk
1 Tbsp. baking soda, dissolved in sour milk
She says you mix it together in bowl until it’s well blended – a few lumps are OK. Pour into a 9-by-9-inch greased and floured pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. When it’s done, the corn pone will be slighty brown on top and pulled away from the sides of the pan.
I was telling Jo that it sounded like something I’d really like; I enjoy cornbreads and pones, but I really don’t like corn itself, so when you get the breads and stuff that have the little pieces of whole corn in them… ew! This, though, would be much to my liking and I can’t wait to make it. Then, Jo asked me, “Do you like cornmeal mush? My mother always had pans of it in winter to fry (like scrapple) and eat with syrup.”
She then told me, “I bought a fresh container of yellow corn meal yesterday to make mush this weekend. The recipe on the box is how my mother would make it so I’ll follow it, except I’ll half it. I can still picture her in the kitchen stirring and stirring and stirring, which is required to make mush so the corn meal doesn’t clump all together. With four kids loving it, you can imagine the big pot of mush she had to make.”
So, I’ve never had mush (yes, I know, sacrilege!), but on our last post about scrapple, Dianne had shared THIS:
“If you really dislike scrapple, fried mush is good with maple syrup or King Syrup. That was a breakfast staple when I was young. Lightly toast the cornmeal under a broiler, being careful not to let it catch fire, then make mush.”
She gives the following recipe for mush:
“Cook 3 cups of water with 1 cup of cornmeal to a thick porridge-like consistency, stirring frequently so that cornmeal is no longer lumpy or scorched. Allow to solidify overnight in a bread pan, then slice and fry in the morning.”
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This is Jo’s mush, ready to eat!
Wow. For a self-professed corn-disliker, I think I could definitely get into these recipes. Have any more to tempt me (and your fellow readers!) with?
