Hush Puppies

I never fry because it’s a mystery to me what to do with the huge amount of oil afterwards. You can’t put it down the drain or in the trash, and I don’t expect it can be reused for long. Advice?

Buttermilk freezes beautifully for cooking purposes so you can always have some in the freezer waiting to be used.

Very close to the way my grandmother taught me 50 years ago, except we don’t use sugar. Martha White cornmeal mix already has the flour in it, and is a southern staple. The “green thing” (chives in this recipe) can also be bell pepper or, my favorite, jalapeño. I deep fry mine. Be careful and drop from low altitude - you don’t want that oil splashing. If they rise properly, they’ll get top heavy and flip themselves. Use peanut oil so you can fry hot and fast.

Please don't try to make your own buttermilk substitute. Use plain yogurt, kefir, or thinned creme freche, Greek yogurt, or sour cream — you need a dairy product with some heft. Curdled milk is a terrible buttermilk substitute, as it's not thick enough and has no flavor.

They sell powdered buttermilk that you make the amount of buttermilk that you need by adding water. It works wonderfully!

I never knew anyone who put butter or aioli on a hush puppy. Also never heard of a sweet one either. I limited the sugar to a pinch.

I haven't tried it, but I don't think that would work; the batter would probably be too wet to hold its shape. When you drop dollops of batter in hot oil, it seals the shape immediately--I don't think that would happen quickly enough in an air fryer.

Substitute for buttermilk: add one tablespoon fresh lemon juice to a cup of regular milk and let it sit for 10 minutes. It should curdle and become sour milk which subs perfectly for buttermilk.

Can these be made in mini-cupcake pans, well greased/buttered?

For Denis Whenever I fry something that has a batter or breadcrumb, flour, egg mix I fry the left overs and some bread in the remaining oil to soak it up and put it out in the yard for the critters. Crows and other creatures love this, especially in the winter.

Hush puppies aren't appetizers and they're not doughnut holes/desserts--no sugar, no brown sugar. When pimento cheese left the South, it started down the road to ruin. Let's not do that with every dish.

Form the hushpuppy as you would a quenelle. For easy release, the spoons should be dipped into the hot oil prior to dipping one into the batter. Or use the Hushpuppy King, the "Gatlin gun of hushpuppy makers", when you're making hundreds or thousands on a daily basis.

Leftover oil can be sieved and stored in the fridge or freezer for reuse.

I've never put old filtered oil in fridge/freezer. We don't refrigerate oil bought from the store, so why refrigerate used oil? I've had "bhaji oil" in the cupboard for months and then re-used it, more than once. 400 degrees will kill pretty much anything!