Today's Case:
Banana Mush
Re: Banana Mush
From: Pat
To: Phaedrus
Date: 2/27/2024, 4:40 PM
On 2/27/2024 1:56 PM, Pat Nilson wrote:
I have been searching several websites and was told you might be
a good resource. When I was growing up, my grandmother would
make something she called "Banana Mush" for all the kids for supper.
She was generally feeding 14 kids and 5-6 adults. Banana Mush was
significantly cheaper than fish for that many people. I don't recall what
was in it just that everyone else would complain but I secretly couldn't
wait for lent so I could get it. I believe it had egg in it, possibly scrambled.
It was the consistency of thick chowder or thin pudding and served warm
it was also slightly sweet. It may have been a regional thing as the only
other Irish Catholic Family I knew who also ate it was from the Boston
Massachusetts area. Any family member who I asked had never gotten
the recipe from our grandmother. And the older "kids" had not helped
her make it and couldn't remember what was in it. No one in the family
seems to have any idea what happened to her box of recipes. I don't
doubt she would have written it down and put it in there even though
she never followed a recipe. She claimed the box was for when she got
"old and noddled".
Any help you can give me, I would greatly appreciate. I am trying to give
my granddaughters a little bit of family history through the kitchen.
Thank you
Pat
Hello Pat,
There are recipes in my sources called "banana mush," but they are invariably desserts and do not contain eggs in any form. See the examples on these sites and below:
Veg Web Recipes
SparkPeople Recipes
None of these call for egg, and if you add egg to the search criteria, all you get are recipes for banana bread and banana pancakes. "Banana mush" is the name often used for the mashed bananas used in those dishes.
As you say, this may have been an old family dish of your grandmother or a local dish among Catholic and Bostonian families. Also, "banana mush" may have been your grandmother's personal name for it and it may have another name.
I will post this for reader input.
Phaed
Banana Mush
5 bananas
1 tsp. nutmeg
Water (to desired consistency)
1 tsp. cinnamon
Yogurt (strawberry banana flavor)
Raw honey to taste
Mash bananas until pulpy. Cook over low heat. Add water or milk
to desired consistency. Stir in cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook until
boiling (be careful, will burn easy). Serve hot with honey and a
dollop of banana yogurt for topping.
Great as a dessert or as a main dish for a breakfast high in nutrition.
Banana Mush
2 pkgs. graham crackers, rolled into crumbs
1 stick butter
2 sm. boxes instant vanilla pudding
1 (8 oz.) Cool Whip
2 tsp. vanilla
4-5 ripe bananas
12 x 8 inch or 12 x 9 inch pan or Pyrex dish.
Save some cracker crumbs for the top.
Melt butter and mix with cracker crumbs. Put in pan.
Slice bananas and place on top of crust.
Make pudding according to package.
Mix with Cool whip and vanilla.
Place on top of bananas.
Sprinkle with reserved cracker crumbs.
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Thank you for your help. I will try the cooked one
(minus the yogurt, she wouldn't have used that)
and see how that tastes.
Hopefully it will be close to the right recipe.
Thanks,
Pat
