Hush Puppies With Crab and Bacon

By John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger

Hush Puppies With Crab and Bacon
Sabra Krock for The New York Times
Total Time
About 45 minutes
Rating
4(50)
Comments
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Make sure you pick over the crab meat well to remove any shells for these delicious hush puppies, which come together in a snap. The bacon must be cooked before they are assembled, but that’s the only other bit of prep work. Keep them warm before serving, and make sure to offer plenty of good butter to gild them.

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Ingredients

Yield:About 3 dozen pups
  • 2cups cornmeal
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 1and ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • 2eggs
  • 1cup buttermilk, more if needed
  • 2tablespoons warm bacon fat (or melted and slightly cooled butter)
  • 1cup crab meat (about ½ pound)
  • 8pieces well-cooked bacon, chopped fine
  • Salt and pepper
  • Oil, for deep-frying
  • Butter, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (36 servings)

82 calories; 4 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 1 gram sugars; 3 grams protein; 162 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 200 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with a double layer of paper towel. In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, baking powder and baking soda.

  2. Step 2

    In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk and bacon fat. Add to the cornmeal mixture and mix to combine. Stir in crab and bacon and season to taste. Allow to stand for 10 to 15 minutes while oil heats.

  3. Step 3

    In a Dutch oven or other large pot, add enough oil to come to a depth of 3 inches. Heat over medium-high heat until oil is 350 to 360 degrees.

  4. Step 4

    Form batter into golf ball-sized balls (if batter is too dry to cohere well, stir in a bit more buttermilk). Drop balls into hot oil 5 or 6 at a time and cook until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. As each batch is finished, place on baking sheet and put into the oven to keep warm. Serve accompanied by plenty of room-temperature butter.

Ratings

4 out of 5
50 user ratings
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Comments

Kay Kay

Great concept but a little on the dry side and sorely lacking in flavor. For my second batch I added a little more buttemilk, another cup of crab, a minced garlic clove, about a half cup each of chopped scallions and parsley and 3 tsp. Creole seasoning; then served with a jalapeño tarter sauce thinned with an abundance of lemon juice. I also used that basic recipe, minus the bacon, and replaced the crabmeat with coarsely chopped crawfish tail meat. Delicious!

SL CARTER

Added scallions, garlic and onion powder, plus cayenne.

SL Carter

Added scallions, garlic and onion powder, plus some cayenne. Mixed in extra spice, fried a small ball and tasted to see if more spice was needed.

Ron

First time. used butter instead of bacon fat, Used turkey bacon. Came out great, not exactly the picture but close. Tastes great, less filling, unless you try to eat them all.

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