Corn Meal Mush

Mix two level tablespoon^ fuls salt with one quart meal. Bring four quarts of water (for yellow meal, or half as much for fresh white meal) to a hard boil in a two-gallon kettle. Mix the salted meal with enough cold water to make a batter that will run from the spoon; this is to prevent it from getting lumpy. With a large spoon drop the batter into the boiling water, adding gradually, so that water will not fall below boiling point. Stir constantly for ten minutes. Then cover pot and hang it high enough above fire to insure against scorching. Cook thus for one hour, stirring occasionally, and thinning with boiling water if it gets too thick.

Fried Mush

This, as Father Izaak said of another dish, is "too good for any but very honest men." The only drawback to this gastronomic joy is that it takes a whole panful for one man. As it is rather slow to fry, let each man perform over the fire for himself. The mush should have been poured into a greased pan the previous evening, and set in a cool place over night to harden. Cut into slices one-third of an inch thick, and fry in very hot grease until nicely browned. Eat with syrup, or au naturel.

Polenta

An Italian dish made from our native corn and decidedly superior to plain boiled mush. Cook mush as above for one hour. Partly fill the bake-pan with it, and pour over it either a good brown gravy, or the tomato sauce described under macaroni. Then sprinkle with grated cheese. Set the pan in the oven three minutes, or in the reflector five minutes, to bake a little.

Oatmeal Porridge

Rolled oats may be cooked much more quickly than the old-fashioned oatmeal; the latter is not fit for the human stomach until it has been boiled as long as corn mush. To two quarts boiling water add one teaspoonful of salt, stir in gradually a pint of rolled oats, and boil ten minutes, stirring constantly, unless you have a double boiler. The latter may be extemporized by setting a small kettle inside a larger one that contains some water.