Outer Banks Restaurants with Hushpuppies
If you’re eating fried seafood, chances are it will be accompanied by tasty golden brown nuggets known as hushpuppies. They are made into balls or fingers from thick cornmeal batter, then dropped into a deep fryer and cooked till crisp, but stay soft and chewy in the middle.
Hushpuppies can be found everywhere from town to town at many of the Outer Banks Restaurants.
The Best Outer Banks Seafood Restaurants with Hushpuppies
While we’re on the topic of good southern comfort food, here are some Outer Banks Restaurants that offer those tasty fried cornmeal dough balls we today still call hushpuppies.
The History & Story of Hushpuppies
Hushpuppies are deliciously famous, but where in the world did they come from?
What is the history behind the hushpuppy? Here are some versions of the story of how hushpuppies found their name.
French Nuns
The oldest hushpuppy story in which the recipe was first originated begins with them saying that it took the French to teach Southerners how to fry cornmeal batter. In the 1720s, French Ursuline nuns arrived in New Orleans and adopted cornmeal from local Native Americans and made hand-shaped patties that they called croquettes de maise or corn croquettes. The recipe then began to spread all across the South.
Hush That Dog Up
The most common myth is that when fishermen would be cooking their catch of the day, their dogs would waiting next to them begging for a bite. The cooks would fry bits of dough and throw it to the pups to hush them up.
The Civil War
Another folktale of the origin of hushpuppies comes from the South during the Civil War when Confederate soldiers would be sitting around a campfire preparing their meals. After suddenly hearing the Yankee soldiers approaching, they would toss their barking dogs some fried cornmeal cakes ordering them to “hush, puppies!”
Red Horse Bread
The southerners were enjoying Red Horse Bread for at least two decades before “hushpuppy” appeared. It wasn’t red in color and had nothing to do with horses at all. It was one of the common species of fish (along with bream, catfish, and trout) that were caught in South Carolina and served at fish fries. Globs of cornmeal were fried in the same grease as the Red Horse fish.