Description
It is 6:00 in the morning and the farm report is coming out of the transistor radio on the kitchen table. The coffee is percolating. There is my grandpa, wordless, at the stove with the cast iron pan. He gets out the jar of honey and sets it on the table for me.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Yellow Cornmeal
- 1 cup Cold Water
- 2 cups Hot Water
- ½ pounds Bacon
- Flour, To Lightly Coat The Mush Before Frying
- Maple Syrup Or Honey, To Serve
Preparation
Mix salt with cornmeal and stir in 1 cup of cold water. Set aside. Bring 2 cups of water to boil in tea kettle. In the bottom of a double boiler, heat water to boil over medium heat.
Pour the 2 cups of boiling water into the top of the double boiler. Slowly whisk in the cornmeal mixture. Cover with a lid, turn heat down to medium-low and steam for 25 minutes. Occasionally whisk/stir to move mush around in the pan. It will be thick, almost gelatinous. Your goal is to soften the texture of the cornmeal so that it isn’t crunchy/grainy.
After 25 minutes, turn off heat and leave, covered, over the hot water for another half hour.
Tip: Stop everything you’re doing! Put a couple of spoonfuls of the mush in a custard cup, pour in a splash of cold cream and a drizzle of clover honey. Nirvana!
Now pack the mush into molds. I have little rectangular Pyrex containers that work nicely. I’ve seen some people use coffee cups.If you double the recipe, you can fit the entire batch into a loaf pan. No need to grease the molds, the mush will slip right out. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
The next morning, fry up the bacon over medium heat. While the bacon is cooking, remove the chilled mush from the molds and slice about 1/3 of an inch thick. Dust with flour, shaking off the excess. Place cooked bacon on paper towels. Place mush in the hot bacon fat and fry for about 3-5 minutes per side. Remove to paper towels.
To serve, crumble bacon over the top of the mush and drench with maple syrup or honey.
In my picture, I used lizaskitchen’s Essential Buttermilk Syrup. Very delicious.
