how do you make swoosh?

[bill shack]

I remember shelby foote talking about swoosh.it went some thing like this, you cook your salt pork in a skillet over a fire, once that is done you remove the pork, you add corn meal and maybe some water and cook the left over fat and any else in the pan and corn meal for some time then you form this mixture over your bayonet or ramrod and then cook over the fire until done. Please let me know if this is right , and how long you cook each step.


Bill Shackell
cpl grays and blues of montreal

[Jeremy Bevard]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

First, buy good quality stone ground cornmeal. You get the cheaper general supermarket stuff and it does not good as easy. That modern meal takes a higher temp to soften and cook. I wasted a lot of cornmeal and had lots of frustration trying to eat crunchy, raw, hard meal until I figured this out. There is not really a time that can be put on each step. It all depends on how hot the fire is, what kind of item you are using to cook in, ect. Your best bet is to experiment until you get results you like.

I like to cook up my bacon while boiling some water. I add cornmeal to the hot water until it is a paste like dough. Once the bacon is done I pull it from the pan. I make patties with the cornmeal dough and fry them in the grease. Make sure the grease is hot or the meal will just absorb the grease instead of fry in it. Cook until brown and crispy on the outside.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

Its basically fried polenta. You make cornmeal mush, then fry it.

[RyanBWeddle]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

I remember shelby foote talking about swoosh.it went some thing like this, you cook your salt pork in a skillet over a fire, once that is done you remove the pork, you add corn meal and maybe some water and cook the left over fat and any else in the pan and corn meal for some time then you form this mixture over your bayonet or ramrod and then cook over the fire until done. Please let me know if this is right , and how long you cook each step.


Bill Shackell
cpl grays and blues of montreal

Nike=Swoosh

Try "Sloosh" instead...

But I've had my share of cornmeal and ash, that isn't for me, I'm a more oysters and champagne on the Potomac living historian these days.

[Silas]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

From Bell Wiley's Life of Johnny Reb :

Shortage of utensils and ingredients combined to produce some astonishing dishes. The most frequently mentioned was a concoction known as cush - dubbed "slosh" by one of its less admiring partakers. This dish was born of the greater convenience of cooking small portions of meat together instead of separately ; but let a soldier give the recipe : "We take some bacon & fry the grease out, then we cut some cold beef in small pieces & put it in the grease, then pour in water and stew it like hash. Then we crumble corn bread or biscuit in it [some soldiers made mush or past of flour or meal and added one or both of these at this point instead of crumbs] and stew it again till all the water is [page 105] out then we have ... real Confederate cush." He added that he and his comrades on Missionary Ridge considered the preparation to be quite a luxury.

Pages 104-05. Link : http://books.google.com/books?id=YrG...page&q&f=false

[Jim of The SRR]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

There is a bit of trial and error in making it. When you render the grease in your pan, make sure there is enough grease in the pan. I usually like to have enough to almost cover the batter mixture. I mix the cornmeal with some water and the consistency is important as well. I suggets a mixture a bit thicker than pancake batter. I just drop a large spoonful into the hot grease. Be sure to flip it before it burns.

Jim Butler

[Spinster]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

An excellent source for the 'right' corn meal--Nora Mills

http://www.noramill.com/store/index....ee2e0e7e710390

[Craig L Barry]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

See also: http://www.civilwarnews.com/watchdog/wd_041101.html

This month's column is on period correct corn pone/jonny cake and has a receipt (recipe) for cush.

[RyanBWeddle]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

See also: http://www.civilwarnews.com/watchdog/wd_041101.html

“The food we get on the road is sufficient, and good enough to sustain life; it consists of pork or bacon and bread made from Indian corn.” Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle, Coldwater Guards

Coldwater Guards, eh?

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: how do you make swoosh?

What you never heard of the Coldwater Guards!?