Memories of mush...

GunarSailors

GunarSailors

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Does anyone else have childhood memories of eating corn meal mush, also known as Polenta nowadays? My grandma would cook it for us as small children and later on my dad would cook us some every now and then. We would put maple syrup on it, and it was outstanding. I always thought of it as "cowboy food".
I would like to find some, but finding the simple stuff at the grocery stores here in Denmark is a challenge most times, let alone trying to find Polenta. They don't even have Dawn dish soap over here! My wife has had to get our friends and family to bring a bottle or two every time they have came over, it's actually pretty funny.
I sure do miss mush.
 
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Many, many times! Still love it. My maternal side was "dust bowl" Oakies ( 1/2 Cherokee/Chickasaw; half Irish==rode with Quantrell in the Border Wars). Boiled mush as porridge with milk and sugar, fried with butter and syrup, crust for tamale pies, or for tamales.

I sometimes buy the pre-made polenta in the deli department and fry it (wife HATES it).
 
Dad makes it sometimes, although I don't eat it. It has no nutritional value and is just a sponge for butter and syrup. I always struggle with my weight, mush is just a bunch of empty calories that I don't need.
 
My only memories of mush:

d02_17981149-L.jpg
 
Mush, grits, polenta, atole. We might think of mush as a southern thing, but lots of cultures have it. I still make it for the wife and kids out of homegrown blue or red corn that I grind myself. Boil it up and pour it into a loaf pan and let it cool and firm up. Then slice and fry it till it's crispy in pig fat and serve it with a warm tomato sauce and crumbled Queso Cotija.
 
Thinkin' about it takes me back to the '40s and '50s. My grandmother used to slice it and fry it up in bacon grease (we always had a little pitcher of bacon grease ready on the shelf built into the back of the stove), then serve it up with syrup. Just the thing to warm your insides before trudging off to school through the snow (knee-deep and uphill both ways, of course).
 
What we ate was a sort of thin soup if I remember correctly. I eat grits now and it's not the same.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
My Mother would make it for all of us . was one of my Dad's favorite for breakfast ..

Fried crisp lathered in real butter and real maple syrup ..
 
rustythread said:
Thinkin' about it takes me back to the '40s and '50s. My grandmother used to slice it and fry it up in bacon grease (we always had a little pitcher of bacon grease ready on the shelf built into the back of the stove), then serve it up with syrup. Just the thing to warm your insides before trudging off to school through the snow (knee-deep and uphill both ways, of course).
Click to expand...

Same decade, same cooking method, even with the syrup. Brings back memories of Mom in Cleveland, growing up. Thanks.
Dave
 
Yea, corn meal mush when I was a youngin.............

Since I'm more sophisticated now....I'm a grits kinda man. ;):D


.
 
GunarSailors said:
Does anyone else have childhood memories of eating corn meal mush, also known as Polenta nowadays? My grandma would cook it for us as small children and later on my dad would cook us some every now and then. We would put maple syrup on it, and it was outstanding. I always thought of it as "cowboy food".
I would like to find some, but finding the simple stuff at the grocery stores here in Denmark is a challenge most times, let alone trying to find Polenta. They don't even have Dawn dish soap over here! My wife has had to get our friends and family to bring a bottle or two every time they have came over, it's actually pretty funny.
I sure do miss mush.
Click to expand...


You can't find regular yellow corn meal?? That's all it is.

majsmel, majsmels, majsmelet

What's the Difference Between Cornmeal and Polenta? | Kitchn
 
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MUSH ( My Mom's Recipe )

Ingredients

3 cups of boiling water
1 cup of cornmeal
1 tbsp. of floor
1 tsp salt
1 cup cold water

Mix ingredients except for the boiling water till mixed thoroughly ..
add to boiling water and cook over low heat till thickened .. 10 minutes or longer .. pour into loaf pan to cool and thicken ..

Slice and fry in butter .. serve with warmed maple syrup ..
 
Polenta, grits, cornmeal mush, I don't care what you call it, I like it. Grew up eating it, early on in a bowl with some genuine cow cream or churned butter and sugar all mixed up together. Grits are usually white corn and polenta is usually yellow corn, in my experience. My grandparents used to serve it as fried mush. Grandma would cook the grits and let them begin to cool. Then she would fill up a small cardboard can that rolled oats came in (for oatmeal) and put it in the icebox to cool and gel. Then she'd push the bottom of the can up and slice off the mush into a cast iron skillet with bacon grease and fry it up. Put a slice of butter on that and the results would put a big smile on my face.
As I grew older, my mom begin to cook a big batch of grits, then spread it into a big rectangular casserole dish and mix cheese and roasted green chile along with some garlic powder and salt in to the grits. Then she'd bake it in the oven till it began to thicken and set up and get a bit of a crusty cover on the grits. She'd then remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle grated cheese over the top. When that cheese was melted, it was served. All I can tell you is that it always tasted like more!

I didn't grow up in the true south, but most of my ancestors did. Grits were an affordable staple and they sure filled up a growing boy and stuck to his ribs. Also in time began to stick to some other places on my body and then seemed to hang around after which I wore the stuff pretty much for the rest of my life! NOT diet food for sure!! But tasty, you bet, and I still love grits and polenta to this day!
 
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It's a "staple" Italian food (Olive Garden ain't remotely Italian). Since there was plenty other stuff to eat at gatherings I ate a serving with red sauce over it and moved on to the good stuff. Now Gnocchi is the real treat. Joe
 
Whatever the Navy served for mush one morning a week was on the other end of the spectrum from good. The same goes for the watery syrup that it was covered with. I really liked the baked beans that they served for breakfast. Sure would have liked to have had them instead of the mush.
 
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