Grits - who loves 'em?

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Mike9

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The "how high grits" thread got me thinking. We love grits - don't eat them that often maybe once a month for a Sunday breakfast, or a baked cheesy grits as a holiday side.

If I'm using fresh grits I cook them in milk & water with salt & pepper. If I'm using "quick cook" grits I just use water, salt and pepper. Either way once they are ready I mix in chopped ham &/or sausage, grated cheese and two eggs. When that comes together I whisk air into the mix and they get nice and fluffy. A perfect breakfast for a damp, chilly day.
 
i thought this was about grits, as in sharpening stones...
 
Grits! How to eat them? So many ways. Some of my favorites:

Plain, with butter, salt and pepper.

Jalapeño cheese grits, made with pepper jack cheese.

Nassau grits, with bacon, bell pepper, onion and tomatoes.

Grits a ya ya, smoked gouda cheese grits topped with shrimp with bacon, shallots, and mushrooms.

Rick
 
I understand there are quality differences in how they were ground? Any other differences? What does 'fresh' mean for grits? I like them and made them a few times, but I suspect there is a lot of refinement I am not aware of.

Stefan
 
I was also going to mention Frank Stitt's grits, the defining dish of the Highlands. Everyone I know that has worked for Frank Stitt has nothing but good things to say about the experience. What I use at the restaurant are from John Martin Taylor http://www.hoppinjohns.com and are very very good. We also buy in a few of the Anson Mills grits to special out, but I like John's the best. Gross fact: AM makes quick grits, they are no better than any other quick grits, which is to say no damn good at all.
 
Thanks for that link Mr. Drinky - that's a good looking recipe. When I do dinner grits I make them the right way. I was just thinking and I make "breakfast grits" when I have to go to work on a Sunday. That bowl keeps me going through a show and tastes better than a bowl of oats.

Some of the best straight up grits I've had were in Savannah at a diner that specialized in breakfast. Their bisquits and gravy were just out of this world too.

Oh and don't forget the eggs with the runny yolks - oh yeah.
 
Not me. Like eating paper mache. I've got access to lot's of good grits, so I am told.

-AJ
 
Grits and Grillades and lest I forget, their Italianate cousin, a veal ragout and loose polenta dish that I had at the Cipriani owned restaurant, Bellini that used to be on the ground floor of the DaVinci Hotel in NYC. Good stuff.
 
Love 'em. Plain white grits, simmered in salted water, lots of butter, S&P, with sausage and eggs scrambled in the sausage pan to get all the brown bits into the eggs. The eggs go in the buttery grits.

Also like to saute some garlic in olive oil, add some good summer tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add saffron, thyme, and grits. When done, serve topped with grated cheese. If there are leftovers, pack them into a pan and put them in the refrigerator overnite. Cook some bacon for breakfast the next morning, slice up the cold grits into slabs, and fry them in the bacon grease.
 
If you don't like grits, you haven't had them prepared properly. Enough cream,salt, butter and (but not necessarily) cheese can turn even crappy grits to delicious.
A lot of people are partial to Anson Mills down here, but I've been using Carolina Plantation for a while now. They also sell cowpeas and a Carolina Gold rice which is unbelievable. A true heirloom rice that is readily available....ummmm.....
 
All right, what the heck are grits? A side, a main? is there a "typical" way to cook them? Yeah I know google, but? Help out a dude north of the 49th...
 
cornmeal or in italian polenta usually cooked similar to mush or cream of wheat. often time made savory by the addition of herbs or cheese. can be served as a side or made hardier and served as a main dish.
 
All right, what the heck are grits? A side, a main? is there a "typical" way to cook them? Yeah I know google, but? Help out a dude north of the 49th...
Grits are stone-ground corn meal. They are a side dish usually associated with breakfast in the Southern U.S.
You could refer to it as American polenta.
 
I've always had hominy grits. (I know you use hominy in your posole, Son!) For grits, the hominy is dried and coarsely ground. I've always had them added to boiling water with some salt & then simmered until water is absorbed/grits are tender. I'll also add them to something that needs thickening/ texture. They're a savory side dish. Probably anything that would be good seasoning for corn, polenta, or potatoes would work with grits. (We know someone who went to a restaurant in the South and had grits, then came back to the Seattle area complaining how nasty they were. Turns out he'd put sugar on them. It would be like putting sugar on a side dish of mashed potatoes.)

A couple classic combinations use grits as a side dish for breakfast--with eggs, sausage, fried green tomatoes...or with fried fish.

Treating the corn to make hominy is supposed to make some of the nutrients more digestible, too.
 
The only place you'll find grits around here is on the wrong side of town.
 
cornmeal or in italian polenta usually cooked similar to mush or cream of wheat. often time made savory by the addition of herbs or cheese. can be served as a side or made hardier and served as a main dish.

Guido Grits:hungry::hungry: I love them
 
Anson Mills are my favorite,followed by Nora Mills in Georgia. The staple breakfast growing up, was sausage and gravy over grits, or liver mush (or liver pudding) and grits. (Liver mush and liver pudding are pretty well confined to a small region of NC and SC. The difference between them is liver mush uses corn meal as a thickener, and liver pudding uses rice).
Any grits from the grocery store is not worth eating, and cooking is kind of like the basics of doing bbq--low and slow. Soak overnight, and simmer slowly for at least an hour.

Reed
 
Too...many....bears! Or is that too many beers? Looked at the avatars last night, saw a couple bears in a row, and thought "Why is Son answering his own question?"
 
Guys I tell you I have cooked white grits, I have cooked plain ol' yellow grits, I have messed with blue grits but the best I have found is here in Dear Ol' Kentucky. I found a family that mills yellow popcorn grits and let me tell y'all here they are the best I have ever had. A little browned onion with shrimp and some cheddar cheese mixed in, Oh my gosh Nellie on a hand car headin' down the holler!!!! They are good.

PS some day I will tell you about corn flour that they do.
 
A breakfast treat when we were kids was scrambled eggs, grits, and sausage from a smokehouse in Hahira, Ga. A real sprawling metropolis even now. I haven't been able to find anything like that sausage in years. It was a smoked sausage, softer than a pepperoni, but much firmer than fresh sausage. It was a coarse grind, and must have had some sugar in the mix because it would get kind of sticky on the outside when you fried it up. Excellent with grits--you'd have those creamy, buttery grits with smoky hunks of sausage with a crunchy, sticky casing. It was also wonderful on a piece of bread with strawberry jam smeared on it. Wish I could find something like it again. Puts me right back in the kitchen with my grandmother.
 
See, Nora Mills and Logans Turnpike Mill and Smelters Grist Mill are all local to me. Still don't like grits.

-AJ
 
OK I need to know more about these "yellow popcorn grits"
 
A breakfast treat when we were kids was scrambled eggs, grits, and sausage from a smokehouse in Hahira, Ga. A real sprawling metropolis even now. I haven't been able to find anything like that sausage in years. It was a smoked sausage, softer than a pepperoni, but much firmer than fresh sausage. It was a coarse grind, and must have had some sugar in the mix because it would get kind of sticky on the outside when you fried it up. Excellent with grits--you'd have those creamy, buttery grits with smoky hunks of sausage with a crunchy, sticky casing. It was also wonderful on a piece of bread with strawberry jam smeared on it. Wish I could find something like it again. Puts me right back in the kitchen with my grandmother.

Yummmm!
 
OK I need to know more about these "yellow popcorn grits"

Ok let me put this in Geologist terms, I is one, white grits tends to be fine grain, yellow grits like a medium grains, but the popcorn grits are like coarse grains.
 
So are we talking grinding popcorn kernel grade corn then because some are real tasty. This sounds very intriguing since we all are looking for the best possible taste and texture in the foods we cook.
 
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