96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



When ripe, the grain is often hulled by means of a weak ley, 

 or in a machine made for the purpose, then boiled and eaten as 

 hulled corn or samp. Hominy is corn broken or coarsely ground 

 with the hulls blown off when it is boiled in water. 



Southern hominy is of two kinds, large and small ; the first 

 is beaten in a wooden mortar a foot deep and twelve to fourteen 

 inches wide ; the last is ground in a corn mill. One or two 

 quarts of white flint corn are put in the mortar and a little 

 boiling water poured on occasionally, to keep it moist and cause 

 the skins to slip off the corn and prevent the flinty portion 

 from being beaten into meal. During the beating, remove the 

 whole contents into a tray and toss in a current of air, to fan 

 out meal and bran ; beat till every grain is broken and skinned. 

 If not used soon after it is beaten, it should be carefviUy dried, 

 or it will be likely to sour. Small hominy is the same corn a 

 little moistened, and then ground like corn meal, except raising 

 the stone about three times higher, so as to crush the grain to 

 about the size of wheat (small wheat) ; this is in general use 

 at the south and called " grits." It is cooked thus : sift the 

 flour from the grits, scour it to get off the hulls, put two quarts 

 of water to one of grits ; boil till the water is all absorbed, 

 cover the pot and set it on hot ashes to soak for fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, not forgetting to season with salt. Large 

 hominy is cooked similarly, but before being taken up should 

 be well mashed against the sides of the pot ; a half a pint of 

 white beans added to a quart of hominy is considered an 

 improvement. If seasoned with lard, put it in before taking 

 off the fire ; butter can be put in at any time. Preserve the 

 corn white, and never use mixed corn in making hominy. 



The details of cooking the infinite variety of delicious dishes 

 which may be made of good Indian corn meal, are already too 

 familiar, perhaps, to need repetition, but as an example, a few 

 of these recipes may be stated as follows : — 



Hasty Pudding. — The simplest and most common way of cooking 

 corn meal, is to put two quarts of water into a clean pot or sauce-pan, 

 set it over the fire, adding a teaspoonful of salt, and when it begins to 

 boil, stir in a lump of fresh butter, say about tAvo ounces, then add (a 

 handful at a time) sufficient Indian meal to make it very thick, stirring 

 it all the time with a mush-stick. Keep it boiling well, and continue to 

 throw in meal till it is so thick that the stick or paddle stands upright in 



