Mush (cornmeal)

This article is about the food item. For other uses, see mush.

Mush — sometimes called coosh — is a thick cornmeal pudding (or porridge) usually boiled in water or milk. It is often allowed to set, or gel into a semi solid, then cut into flat squares or rectangles, and pan fried. Usage is especially common in the eastern and southeastern United States. It is also customary for those in the Midwestern US to eat it with maple syrup. Corn meal mush is often consumed in Latin America and Africa.

It has been considered synonymous, perhaps erroneously, with other dishes:

"Thee the soft nations round the warm Levant
Palanta call, the French of course Polante;
E'en in thy native regions how I blush
To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee Mush!
On Hudson's banks, while men of Belgic spawn
Insult and eat thee by the name suppawn.
All spurious appellations; void of truth:
I've better known thee from my earliest youth,
Thy name is Hasty-Pudding!
The Hasty-Pudding, Joel Barlow, 1793


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