INDIAN DUMPLINGS

1 qt. corn meal
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbs. butter OR 2 tbs. suet, chopped fine
2 eggs, beaten
Milk
Wheat flour to coat dumplings

Sift a quart of fine Indian [corn] meal, mix with it a salt-spoonful of salt, a spoonful of butter, or two of finely chopped suet, two well beaten eggs and enough sweet milk to make it into good bread dough. Work it well with your hands, make it into dumplings the size of a large biscuit, flour them well, drop them into a pot of boiling water, and boil them briskly till done. Be very careful in serving them, lest you break them. Eat them warm with molasses. Indian dumplings are sometimes eaten with corned pork or bacon. In such cases they should be boiled with the meat with which they are served.

From The Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan, 1839

Comment: These items were not made by Indians either North American nor south Asian. The name derives from the fact that what is now universally known as "corn meal" was called "Indian meal" or just "Indian" in the 19th century. We suspect a certain amount of practice was needed before a cook mastered the art of getting these to the table in a whole, rather than broken if not completely crumbled, condition. If they were made a bit smaller than Mrs. Bryan calls for, and boiled in oil rather than water, they would be instantly recognizable as hushpuppies.

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