How did hush puppies get that name?!
Answers: The name “hushpuppies” is often attributed to hunters or fisherman who would quickly fry corn meal and feed it to their dogs to “hush the puppies” during cook outs or fish frys. Two other legends surrounding the hush puppy date back to Civil War days. Southern soldiers would sit beside a campfire, preparing their meals. When Union soldiers came near, they would toss their barking dogs some of the fried cakes with the command "Hush, puppies". A common explanation for the name in Charleston, SC is that slaves returning into the homes of their masters carrying food recently prepared in the outdoor kitchens would throw the batter balls to the barking dogs, telling the "puppies" to "hush." Also, during the time of the underground railroads, escaping slaves would feed these to the dogs tracking them while coaxing them with hopeful commands such as "hush puppies".
Am an old cajun from Louisiana. The story goes like this:
Some ole cajuns were fryin up some good ole catfish..which as you know are breaded with cornmeal and flour and some good seasonin...Well they wus havin a good ole time cookin up dat catfish...but dem puppies were out on de porch just a howling cause dey wus hungry...So when dey finished up fryin de catfish dey had some mix leff over...ya know.de cornmeal and flour and egg and stuff.. SOOO dey ball it all up and put in fryin pan and threw to de puppies..and when dey did dat they say...HUSH YOU PUPPIES!
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