BROWNED MUSH.—­Slice cold corn meal mush rather thin, brush each slice with thick, sweet cream, and brown in a moderate oven until well heated through.

SAMP.—­Use one part of samp to four and one half parts of boiling water.  It is the best plan to reserve enough of the water to moisten the samp before adding it to the boiling water, as it is much less likely to cook in lumps.  Boil rapidly, stirring continuously, until the mush has well set, then slowly for from two to three hours.

CEREALINE FLAKES.—­Into one measure of boiling liquid stir an equal measure of cerealine flakes, and cook in a double boiler from one half to three fourths of an hour.

HULLED CORN.—­To Hull the Corn.—­Put enough wood ashes into a large kettle to half fill it; then nearly fill with hot water, and boil ten minutes.  Drain off the water from the ashes, turn it into a kettle, and pour in four quarts of clean, shelled field corn, white varieties preferred.  Boil till the hulls rub off.  Skim the corn out of the lye water, and put it into a tub of fresh cold water.  To remove the hulls, scrub the corn well with a new stiff brush broom kept for the purpose, changing the water often.  Put through half a dozen or more waters, and then take the corn out by handfuls, rubbing each well between the hands to loosen the remaining hulls, and drop again into clear water.  Pick out all hulls.  Cleanse the corn through several more waters if it is to be dried and kept before using.  Well hulled corn is found in the markets.

To Cook.—­If it is to be cooked at once, it should be parboiled in clear water twice, and then put into new water and cooked till tender.  It should be nearly or quite dry when done.  It may be served with milk or cream.

COARSE HOMINY.—­For coarse hominy use four parts of water or milk and water to one of grain.  It is best steamed or cooked in a double boiler, though it may be boiled in a kettle over a slow fire.  The only objection to this method is the need of frequent stirring to prevent sticking, which breaks and mashes the hominy.  From four to five hours’ slow cooking will be necessary, unless the grain has been previously soaked; then about one hour less will be required.

FINE HOMINY OR GRITS.—­This preparation is cooked in the same manner as the foregoing, using three and one half or four parts of water to one of the grain.  Four or five hours will be necessary for cooking the unsoaked grits.

POPPED CORN.—­The small, translucent varieties of maize known as “pop corn,” possessed the property, when gently roasted, of bursting open, or turning inside out, a process which is owing to the following facts:  Corn contains an excess of fatty matter.  By proper means this fat can be separated from the grain, and it is then a thick, pale oil.  When oils are heated sufficiently in a vessel closed from the air, they are turned into gas, which occupies many times the bulk of the oil.  When pop corn is gradually heated, and made so hot that the oil inside of the kernel turns to gas, being unable to escape through the hull of the kernel, the pressure finally becomes strong enough to burst the grain, and the explosion is so violent as to shatter it in a most curious manner.