Hushpuppies are Southern ‘dinner dumplings’

Hushpuppies are delightfully delicious dumplings of cornmeal that are deep-fried and traditionally served with just about every Southern dinner dish under the sun. 

The origin of hushpuppies, however, has become a favorite subject for storytellers, because the “pure historians” have basically struck out. 

Linda Stradley of the What’s Cooking America website said the oldest story about hushpuppies is that the food originated in America in 1727 when 12 Ursuline nuns from France arrived in what is now New Orleans. The nuns converted cornmeal into a delicious food that they named “croquettes de maise.” 

Another possibility, she said, is that when early settlers went out on hunting expeditions, they would pack ample supplies of cornmeal and flour. They would mix the ingredients into a batter to cook in leftover grease on the campfire. 

They would then feed the fried “concoction” to their hunting dogs. Someone said these “doggie treats” were very effective at “hushing the puppies.” 

Liz Biro, a contributor to the online newsletter of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, said her sources say it was Harkers Island fishermen who “were the first to spare a little fish-frying batter for dog treats.”

Growing up as a young girl in Lake Charles, La., Amber Wilson remembers family dinners at local seafood restaurants with their “distinct aroma.” 

Amber cared not about the fish. She was focused on “the promise of unlimited hushpuppies.”

“As we were seated,” she recalled, “I immediately grabbed the boat-shaped, woven basket filled with brown paper and tiny, round golden hushpuppies and placed them in front of me. Fishing out my trusty butter knife from my paper-restrained silverware, I cut the hushpuppy in half with accuracy in one fell swoop.” 

“The piping hot golden nugget of fried cornbread spilt in two, and sweet steam filled the air. The outside was golden and crispy and the inside was bright yellow and fluffy. I was in heaven,” Amber said.

“I grabbed a small packet of butter…and slathered half of the packet on half of the hushpuppy and the rest on the other…and I ate them all.” 

“Once I finished one little basket of puppies, I…stealthily made my way over to the other side of the table, which had a full basket of untouched hushpuppies. My little arms reached for the hushpuppies, which were in sheer peril of being contaminated by seafood splatter (from crab legs, shrimp and other fishy dishes).” 

Amber said: “I had eaten my weight in hushpuppies that night. Quiet and content, I sat at the end of the table with a pile of empty butter packets in front me, and a whisper of a smile running across my face. Hushpuppies.” 

(Amber Wilson is all grown up now and a successful food writer and author of “For the Love of the South: Recipes and Stories from My Southern Kitchen.”) 

Back in 1971, chamber of commerce leaders in Lufkin, Texas, decided to stage the “Southern Hushpuppy Cookoffs”…to make their city world-famous. 

The late Bob Bowman, who was one of the organizers, gathered unbiased, but hungry, Texas newspaper reporters to judge the contestants’ cooking skills.

Bowman noted: “One contestant mixed in a little whiskey, which left the judges a little bewildered, but in a noticeably relaxed mood about what they were doing.” 

The competition has become a premier annual event in East Texas. Promoters say: “The cooks are still creative, the hushpuppies are just as good as ever…and occasionally someone still slips a little joy juice into the batter.”