Cornmeal Mush

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon salt

Sorghum or maple syrup, for drizzling

Directions

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium pot over high heat.

Combine the cornmeal with 1 cup of cold water. Stir the cornmeal mixture into the boiling water.

Add teh salt and continue to cook, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and returns to a boil.

Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook 10 minutes more. Serve with sorghum or maple syrup.

Notes

Dolly says: "Today my sisters and I like to give this a fnacier name--'Hillbilly POlenta'--but it's the same simple-as-simple-can-be dish Mama always made. Sometimes, if we had just a few fish, she would fry 'dry land fish,' which was just the mush fried in the same grease as the fish was fried in. That was Mama's genius: she used her imagination to use every bit of food we had in those lean times. This mush is delicious cut into slices and fried, then drizzled with sorghum or maple syrup."

Fried Cornmeal Mush:

To fry the cornmeal, pack the thickened, boiling cornmeal into a greased loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate until firm. Turn the loaf out onto a cutting board and slice into 1/2-inch thick slices. Butter both sides of each slice, dip in flour, and fry over medium-high heat in a skillet.