- 1 2/3 cups stone-ground cornmeal, preferably white
- ¼ cup unbleached white flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ to 1½ teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional, but good)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ medium onion, very finely minced
- Mild vegetable oil, for frying
- If you don’t intend to serve the hush puppies virtually straight from the stove, preheat the oven to 200°F.
- Combine the dry ingredients thoroughly in a medium bowl.
- Beat together the eggs and buttermilk in a small bowl. Stir this into the dry ingredients to make a batter thick enough to mound on the end of a teaspoon. Stir in the onion. As is almost always the case with cornbreads, don’t overbeat the batter or you’ll toughen the hush puppies.
- Pour the oil into a large skillet to reach a depth of 1 to 1½ inches, depending on the depth of your skillet. Place the skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough to fry in (365°F on a thermometer, or test with a drop of batter, which should sizzle immediately and start to brown), drop the batter in by small rounded teaspoonfuls, using a second teaspoon to scrape off the batter into the fat. Working in batches, fry 5 or 6 hush puppies at a time, making sure not to overcrowd the skillet. Fry until the balls are golden brown on their underneath sides, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Then turn them with a slotted spoon and continue cooking until the other side is nice and golden, too, 30 to 40 seconds more.
- Either transfer to a serving dish, blot with paper towels, and serve posthaste, or line a baking sheet with paper towels (or, traditionally, torn-open brown paper grocery sacks) and scoop the finished hush puppies from the fat onto the paper-lined sheet. Transfer them to the preheated oven to keep them warm, and begin frying the next batch.
- Variations:
- Sweet Milk Hush Puppies
- A milk batter has slightly less tang and tenderness than one made with buttermilk. Use milk to replace the buttermilk, omit the baking soda, and use 1 level tablespoon of baking powder to leaven the batter.
- Texas Hush Puppies
- Use stone-ground yellow cornmeal instead of white. Add a teaspoon of garlic powder or (infinitely better in my view) 3 or 4 pressed garlic cloves. Omit the black pepper, but add 1 to 2 finely minced fresh or pickled jalapeño peppers (leaving in the seeds, if you wish, for extra kick). If you like, add a little minced parsley or cilantro. And—I am told this is the secret—fry the hush puppies in the same oil used for frying the fish you’re serving them with.
- Quickie Garden Hush Puppies
- Substitute 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons of self-rising cornmeal (White Lily is the preferred brand) for the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use milk or water in place of the buttermilk, adding a few tablespoons of finely minced tomatoes to the liquid, to equal the 1 cup total. Use 2 or 3 finely chopped scallions instead of the regular onion.