It’ difficult to say what the original corn dodgers were like because there are hundreds of recipes. Essentially you mixed up cornmeal with water or whatever else you had on hand that might improve the taste—eggs, milk, wild onions, or bacon grease, for instance—then you fried it or baked it in a small oval cake.

The variations all had names depending on how they were shaped or prepared. These included corn dabs, hoecakes, and hush puppies, but sources disagree about which one was which.

My experiments with historical recipes for fried and baked cornmeal and water cakes (often called corn pone or johnnycakes) convinced me that these disappeared for good reason.

Hush puppies are the surviving example of the corn-cake genre, and they are extremely popular in East Texas. Consider making hush puppies when you are already heating oil for fried catfish or fried chicken.