A very important discovery concerning the "brick mush man"

We've been perplexed by brick mush and later, we probably figured it out. However, the whole concept of a "brick mush salesman" mystified even the best of us, including myself. There's NO WAY a man went door to door selling polenta, right?

Right?

Wrong.

From a 1906 Ithaca, New York paper, classified section:

January 2, 1906 Ithaca Daily News, page 7

New York Times perplexed by brick mush query

A bit of digging this morning led me to a 1985 article from the New York Times, where a cooking expert answered questions for readers.

In the second question posted, a reader asks about brick mush; the writer seems to have figured out the "what is it" part but was stumped by the Vic and Sade aspect.

"My" brick mush video influences Gourmet website

All I can say about this is "haha."  I just laughed when I saw it.

http://www.gourmet-village.net/2013/05/28/brick-mush-from-the-frugal-gourmet-1988/

According to Sade: brick mush is FRIED

I've thought for a long while now that the food known as "brick mush" was nothing more than fried polenta.

While trying to fix (unsuccessfully) perhaps the most-damaged episode there is (42-03-04 Room Warming) I realized that this episode gives us a lot of information about brick mush.

It's very hard to make out because of the horrible sound but at about three minutes into the actual episode, the family discusses brick mush, which they say is "never raw."  Sade says something to the effect of, "The way I fix it, it's always fried" and then she goes on to talk about Uncle Fletcher's room, where he has no way to fry brick mush.

For reference, see this video.

This is/Is this "brick mush" (video)