Recipes from Ollie J -- Hush Puppies

This is another very vintage recipe from the box, but I had to include a hush puppy recipe from Grandma Ollie! I don't remember her making it for us, but she must have made something like this at least once in her lifetime.

There are all kinds of variations on the recipe, some include onions and spices, and you can pick up mixes from all kinds of vendors. However, for this family, the best and most authentic hush puppies from our southern roots came from Wilber's Barbeque in Goldsboro, N.C. Better than fries, better than the biscuits (which is saying something), if you have southern, North Carolina, vinegar based, pulled pork barbecue, you have to have hush puppies.

Hush Puppies

1 cup enriched corn meal
1 tblsp. flour (white all-purpose)
1 tsp. sugar (white)
1 egg (beaten)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. soda (baking)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup water

Mix all dry ingredients together, then add egg, buttermilk, and water. Drop by the spoonful into hot fat. Fry to a golden brown. If a deep pot is used the hush puppy bread will float when done.

You know how sometimes you can tell a recipe just isn't going to work out once you've made up the ingredients? This is one of those times.

If you make it as is, the "batter" is super soupy. There is no way that this could be correct, right? I consulted my "bible," the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, for some ideas to thicken this up, and it's pretty much what BH&G has written down. All I could think to do is keep adding flour and cornmeal until it looked right in the bowl.

I ended up adding about a 1/4 cup of flour and 5 heaping tablespoons of cornmeal to the mix, but it still never got thick enough. I'm used to thick, dense hush puppies, and these puppies are very thin. The mix need something else-- like onion/spices and/or more sugar. To me, growing up on Wilber's delicacies, something is seriously off. A colleague suggested that maybe the mix/dough needed to be refrigerated. This is one of those times I wish my hotline to the Southern cooks was still intact and included Skyping capabilities so they could see my mix and my fryer. Where's Alton Brown when you need him?

They're very corny, crispy, and edible when warm, 'cause what fried dough isn't edible when warm? However, hush puppies are one of those things that do not well going to the office, like a cake, biscuits, or cookies. They don't microwave well, and have a tendency to taste kind of oily when cold. I did use some in hash later in the week, and they caramelize in the frying pan and bulk up a meal. The birds and squirrels, I have to report, LOVE them. Of course, they aren't picky.

Any chefs out there with some tips?