I thought I would write a little about grits since a lot of new members reply to a post about grits, saying I never heard of them. I love grits and enjoy reading history about the food we eat. Grits are a great side for BBQ. Use them with your smoked bacon, ham and sausage for a great breakfast.
Grits came from the Native American Indian. They ground up corn and cooked with it. As this country was settled and grew; grits mills sprang up around communities. They ground wheat for flour and corn. The corn was ground and then passed through a wire mesh, the fine stuff was cornmeal and the coarse stuff was grits.
The coastal states from Virginia to Texas are often referred to as the Grit Belt. Grits are also popular in Tennessee and Kentucky.
Grits are usually just cooked with water to a thick porridge and served with plenty of good butter on top and served along with bacon and eggs for a great breakfast. Another favorite is grits with ham and red eye gravy.
Basic red eye gravy is to fry a big slice of smoked country ham with plenty of fat. Then remove the ham to a hot plate leave 2 tablespoons of grease in the skillet; pour in some hot black coffee and stir to get all the brown bits of ham mixed in and serve over the ham. I like a little over the grits too. Serve with some eggs for a great breakfast.
Another dish I love is shrimp over grits. They started out as a fisherman’s favorite breakfast, shrimp fried in bacon grease and served over grits. It was called shrimp breakfast. They did not become widely popular until a newspaper wrote a story about them in 1985. Now they are popular all over the south; served in many restaurants. This is pretty versatile, just fix shrimp your favorite way and serve over grits.
Being from the north, Ohio I didn’t grow up eating grits. My Mother fixed fried mush a lot for breakfast. She was born in 1921 the early part of the great depression. She said that some days all her family had to eat was cornmeal.
She fixed mush by cooking cornmeal with water, a little lard or bacon grease added, to a thick porridge. Then she poured it into a loaf pan and in the fridge to set up. Sometimes she would add some bacon bits or chopped ham to the mush. She would then slice it about ¼ inch thick and fry it in bacon grease or butter until crispy. That made a fine breakfast with some eggs and bacon. I like just salt and pepper on mine but some like maple syrup over it.
The first I ever had grits was in the USAF stationed in Turkey, 1964, with a small detachment. Our cook was from Texas and he usually had grits for breakfast. Once a week he would have ham and red eye gravy too. I learned to love my grits.
Most restaurants around here that have grits on the menu don’t know how to fix them; they are too runny. I like my grits thick enough they will hold a spoon upright when stuck in. Our local Bob Evens now has grits that are pretty good. Another local restaurant has fried mush on the menu that is good.
The best grits are old fashioned stone ground white or yellow but they take 20 minutes or more to cook. Next are fast grits that will cook in 5 minutes and aren’t bad. The least favorite is instant grits, but I will eat them in a pinch!
I liked this article copied from Wiki:
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 grits mill 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. 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."
So eat your grits guys and you will be at Peace!
