Hushpuppies are described as ‘Carolina Gold’

Food writer Robert Moss of Charleston, S.C., is a scholar of Southern hushpuppying. 

He’s gathered a lot of evidence that credits Romeo Govan, an African-American cook, as being the true inventor of the hushpuppy in 1903.

However, Govan called his creation “red horse bread,” named for the river redhorse species of freshwater fish, plentiful in South Carolina during that period. 

Moss said Govan lived on the banks of the South Fork of the Edisto River near Cannon’s Bridge and Bamberg. 

“There he operated his ‘club house,’ where prominent and wealthy guests came almost every day during fishing season to feast” on sweet redhorse fish and ‘never-to-be-forgotten red horse bread.’” 

Moss wrote that red horse bread was made by “simply mixing cornmeal with water, salt and egg – dropping spoonfuls into the hot lard in which fish had been fried.” 

Kathryn Dave of the Greenville (S.C.) Journal said Govan’s reputation rapidly spread across the state, and red horse bread was fondly called “Carolina Gold.”

 

Earl DeLoach of the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, noted that red horse bread has been called “hushpuppies on the Georgia side of the Savannah River, since at least 1927.” 

He has traced the term’s first use back to 1927, when The Telegraph of Macon, Ga., reported that the men’s Bible class at Augusta’s First Methodist Church held a fish fry, and Roscoe Rouse cooked “the fish and the hushpuppies and made the coffee.” 

In the 1940s, hushpuppies found their way into the fish camps that permeated the textile towns in the Carolinas. Here, the hushpuppies were paired with fried catfish.

 

Dr. Stephen Criswell, a professor at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, proclaimed: “Nothing beats a hushpuppy fresh out of the grease.” 

Kathryn Dave added: “If there’s a care in your world, hushpuppies can cure it. All fried food has the magical ability to dim the lights on ordinary troubles for a bit, but hushpuppies have something more: a soft, cornbread interior that reassures as it recalls cast-iron skillets, Southern tradition and home.” 

Robert Moss insists that the pioneer who paired pork barbecue with hushpuppies was the late Warner Stamey, who learned the pit cooking business in Lexington, N.C., from “barbecue men” Jess Swicegood and Sid Weaver.

In the early 1950s, Warner Stamey began serving hushpuppies in his barbecue restaurants in Greensboro. (His grandson, Chip Stamey, took over the business in 1997 as the third-generation owner and continues the tradition of cranking out hushpuppies that are elongated or oblong.)

 

They do fit nicely between the thumb and index finger, for dunking in soft butter. Others prefer to dip them in pure honey. 

James Gaylord Muir, a shoe salesman with Wolverine Shoe and Tanning Company of Rockford, Mich., first experienced eating “fried cornballs” while on a business trip in 1957 that took him to rural Tennessee. 

When his host informed him that the proper term was “hushpuppies,” a lightbulb went off for Muir. He thought “Hush Puppies” would be the perfect name for a new line of comfortable shoes that were guaranteed to quiet “barking dogs,” aching feet. 

Wolverine yipped it up, stating: “When your feet are dog-tired, and you feel like howling from the pain and discomfort, there’s nothing better than slipping those tired puppies into a soft, comfortable pair of shoes.” 

A lovable Basset Hound named Cleo was signed to become the first Hush Puppies mascot.

 Built more for endurance than speed, the Basset moves in a deliberate but effortless manner.