Grits on My Mind

Woke up this morning and grits were on my mind. I can not remember one breakfast at Nanoo's and Daddy Mac's that did not have a pot of grits on the stove.  This pot of grits was cooked low and slow for almost an hour.  The grits had to be stirred often to prevent scorching but carefully because the volcano like bubbles hurt if the grit explosion made it over the top of the pan.  Now, my family's love for grits must be genetic because my sister did not call it breakfast unless her over easy eggs were thoroughly mixed into a serving of grits. And even as good as I remember the pot of grits on my grandmother's stove, no one makes grits like Miss Molly;  she has developed the cooking of grits into an art. (This grit gene must come from the fact that all of my grandparents and great grandparents  have called Florida home.)

Grits are delicious.  They are not, however, the white, runny, tasteless goo found in most restaurants nor the instant packages found in most homes.  When they are stone ground, seasoned well (Miss Molly adds garlic of course), and cooked low and slow;  they are the perfect foundation to eggs at breakfast  or shrimp at dinner. Cheese, butter, or cream can be stirred in at the end of cooking time and tomato or sausage gravy can be ladled over as they are served. Grits have a mild flavor and can be served with most everything. But, what are grits?

Grits are ground corn. They are of Native American origin and were the sieved larger pieces of corn and the meal were the smaller. Cornmeal and grits were vital to our developing nation but what happened to  make grits known only to the south.  Cornmeal can not be kept too long before the meal becomes rancid. As the settlers moved south this became more of a problem and when the dried corn was left whole any moisture would cause it to spout.  So the settlers made hominy a corn that would last longer in the southern heat (masa is the ground product used in Mexico).

Corn is definitely a part of my food storage.  I have some organic ground meal and grits as part of my preps but the majority of my corn is organic popcorn.  Organic popcorn can be ground into meal with the same qualities as processed corn meal and it is more likely to be non-GMO. (And, there is nothing as good as a bowl of apples, popcorn, and cheese topped with nutritional yeast for Sunday supper.)

But,as much as I love southern hominy grits I do not plan to soak any of my corn in a lime mixture before I make my corn meal. And, I have actually come to prefer yellow grits over the white grits that cooked every morning on Nanoo's stove. My grits of choice are Bob Mill's Corn Grits AKA Polenta. So all you polenta foodies, open your minds and try a pot of grits for breakfast. You just might enjoy it and if you don't, well,  I guess your iced tea isn't sweet.