Hush Puppies Origin Slavery
Hush puppies name came from the slavery times in the deep south.
Hush puppies origin slavery. The name is often attributed to hunters fishermen or other cooks who would fry some basic cornmeal mixture possibly that they had been bread coating or battering their own food with and feed it to their dogs to hush the puppies during cook outs or fish fries. According to my grandmother there exists a totally different origin of hush puppies in american history during slavery. Slaves planning to escape in the wee hours of the night would prepare a concoction of cornmeal milk eggs and okra which was fried and then thrown to the slaveowners dogs as a means to quieten them. A division of wolverine world wide hush puppies is headquartered in rockford michigan wolverine markets and completely licenses the hush puppies name for footwear.
Slaves use to throw corn meal out to distract the hounds from tracking them. Black slaves use to refrain from feeding the masters hounds for a few days as they plan their escape from plantations. Hence was born the term â hush puppies. In 1940 earl deloach the fishing columnist for the augusta chronicle noted that red horse cornbread is often called hush puppies on the georgia side of the savannah river they had been calling it that since at least 1927 when the macon telegraph reported that the men s bible class of first methodist church was holding a fish fry where chairman roscoe rouse would cook the fish and the hushpuppies and make the coffee.
The first recorded use of the word hush puppy dates to 1899. However she was describing foods that were already an entrenched part of the south and she was also telling stories about them that were passed down. If slaves created the hushpuppy it was most likely based on a common fried cornmeal from parts of south africa called mealie pap several. In cross creek cookery 1942 rawlings described the origins of many southern cooking staples including hush puppies.
In fact her maid idella parker can probably take credit for most of the recipes although the book gives. According to my grandmother there exists a totally different origin of hush puppies in american history during slavery. â i was told that it was used by slaves that escaped to the underground railroads to silence the hunting dogs that were released to find them. One of the most highly regarded items in the menagerie of southern fried foods is the hushpuppy.
Hush puppies is an american internationally marketed brand of contemporary casual footwear for men women and children. During slave days the kitchens were not attached to the houses. The hounds stopped barking and tracking thanks to the corn meal which later adapted the name hush puppies. The shoes have been described as the classic american brushed suede shoes with the lightweight crepe sole.
The importance of her cookbook may have lent new popularity to these foods but she did not invent them of course. The characters change but the story is the same.