The WOSB-TV Making Grits with Vinny for Hummingbird50 is dedicated to BEV hummingbird50 who has been after me to explain grits for a number of months. I really don’t remember how or why we got started talking about Grits. I told Bev that in the very near future I would explain all I knew about Grits. Grits are just what they are, what you have with eggs more often them hash browns or home fries. When you grow up eating a certain food you just assume that everyone does. I will try to explain some of the other distinctive & unique foods found only in the South.
A Grit
Vinny: "What this, over here?", Cook: "You never heard of grits?", Vinny: "Sure, sure I heard of grits, I just actually never seen a grit before.
Grits are a Native American corn-based food common in the South, consisting of coarsely ground corn.
Grits are similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world such as polenta. It also has a resemblance to farina, a thinner porridge. Grits can be served hot or cold and as a base for a multitude of dishes from breakfast to dessert, depending on the additives. Additives can range from salt and butter, cheese, meats, vegetables, and sugar.
Hominy grits is grits made from nixtamalized corn, or hominy.
It is sometimes called sofkee or sofkey from the Creek word.
Traditionally the corn for grits is ground by a stone mill. The results are passed through screens, with the finer part being corn meal, and the coarser being grits.
Store Grits
Many communities in the U.S. used a gristmill up until the mid-20th century, with families bringing their own corn to be ground, and the miller retaining a portion of the corn for his fee. My uncle Middle School Bill ran a grist mill in Brandon Florida for almost 40 years. In South Carolina, state law requires grits and corn meal to be enriched, similar to the requirements for flour.
Three-quarters of grits sold in the United States are sold in "the South" stretching from Texas to Virginia, also known as the "grits belt".
The state of Georgia declared grits its official prepared food in 2002. Similar bills have been introduced in South Carolina, with one declaring, "Whereas, throughout its history, the South has relished its grits, making them a symbol of its diet, its customs, its humor, and its hospitality, and whereas, every community in the State of South Carolina used to be the site of a gristmill and every local economy in the State used to be dependent on its product; and whereas, grits has been a part of the life of every South Carolinian of whatever race, background, gender, and income; and whereas, grits could very well play a vital role in the future of not only this State, but also the world", if as Charleston's The Post and Courier proclaimed in 1952, "An inexpensive, simple, and thoroughly digestible food, grits should be made popular throughout the world.
Boy Have I been Craving Some Good Old (408-2, 17) Just Like Grandma Used to Make
Given enough of it, the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight about. A man full of grits is a man of peace.
Yellow grits include the whole kernel, while white grits use hulled kernels. Grits are prepared by simply boiling the ground kernels into a porridge; normally it is boiled until enough water evaporates to leave it semi-solid.
If you get to the Southern part of the US give grits a try you might just like them.
