Cornmeal Mush

Well, Max, we had a wonderful trip to Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Monticello in Virginia. These places make history come alive! Naturally I was checking out the kitchens and looking for new old cookbooks, or old new cookbooks, to add to my collection.

When you see the primitive conditions under which women cooked in the early years, you really appreciate all our modern conveniences. Much as you and I love to cook, I don’t think either of us would like spending our entire day preparing meals. Especially on an open hearth.

They told us at Jamestown that most cooking was over an open fire outside, or indoors on a hearth whose chimney was made of sticks and mud. At Jamestown, fish seemed to be the main food, but that during a Starvation Time they resorted to rats, horses and even their cats. That kind of puzzled me with the broad James River right next to the fort. Were there no fish for a time? Or was it that they did not know how to fish?

I am sure that one food that entered the Jamestown diet early on was Cornmeal Mush. It was easy to cook and corn was usually plentiful. The only hard thing would have been grinding the corn into meal. Only I think they pounded the corn in the early years with tree trunks and stumps. Once stoves were invented, women would start the Mush in the evening, set it back on the cooler part of the stove, and it would be ready the next morning.

If the family was lucky, there would be butter to melt over the Mush, or some sort of sweetener like honey or molasses. Leftover Mush could be cooled and patted or cut into slices and then fried for a real treat. Confession, I have never been able to fry Mush and get the golden crust my grandmother did. I love Fried Mush!

Cornmeal Mush:

2 teaspoons salt
4 cups boiling water
1 cup cornmeal

In a double boiler add the salt to boiling water, and then slowly add the cornmeal while stirring constantly. Cover and steam over simmering water from 1 to 3 hours.