Hushpuppies

Hushpuppies are spheres, tubes, or squiggles of corn meal batter that are deep fried so the outside gets dark and crisp while the inside stays steamy. Frequently they are laced with onions; some are a bit sweet. Supposedly named because they originated as little lagniappes tossed to dogs who were begging for food around the fry kettle (or possibly because Confederate Civil War soldiers gave them to their dogs so the dogs would hush and not give away their position), hush puppies started as a companion to fried fish, catfish in particular. But in the 1950s Warner Stamey began serving them at his legendary barbecue restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina; and they have since become a necessary side dish on trays and plates of barbecue throughout much of the mid-South. Following Stamey’s style, pups in the Piedmont region tend to be more tubular than spherical.