mmmmmmm, grits
Aug. 23rd, 2006 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sevI just had a bowl of the silkiest, creamiest, most pudding-like quick grits I've ever made. I then made a second bowl and was disappointed to find that I'd failed to reproduce the feat.
Since I'm always amazed at how many west-coasters haven't even had grits, much less have any idea what "quick" grits are with regards to anything else, a heavily biased primer:
Uncooked grits look a lot like cornmeal, no matter whether they're instant or quick or slow-cooking. Cooked grits resemble very-soft polenta. Most people eat them with cheese, meat, garlic, hot sauce etc. Some fry or bake or casserole them. (casserole is a verb? It is now!) A rare few, like myself, like them relatively plain. In college, I was even accosted by someone who ate his sweet, and was horrified that I put salt and butter (and occasionally, pepper!) on mine.
Instant grits come in little one-serving packages (like instant oatmeal) and you just add hot water and stir. They're nigh-impossible to find on the west coast, but when I lived back east they were on the shelf right next to the instant oatmeal. My memories of instant grits are nearly twenty years old; after I moved to the west as a kid, my grandmother (in Maryland, at the time, and later, in North Carolina) mailed care packages for a few years to my sister and I with packages of Quaker brand instant grits (and Wise brand salt and vinegar potato chips, and other things I no longer recall). Actual grits aficianados generally sneer at the brutally over-finely-ground bits of dried hominy that make up instant grits, but at least as a child, I adored them. I was heartbroken when we came west to find that they weren't available (and it would be years until I was old enough to be entrusted with any actual cooking, so mostly I just did without).
Quick grits, like quick oats, require a pot on the stove, but in five or ten minutes (generally ten, in my experience) you can have your bowl of grits ready. Most urban grocery stores in the west have at least one, and sometimes two, brands of quick grits on the shelf. (maybe western suburban grocery stores, too...I haven't shopped there, though.) You put them in a pot with water or milk or broth in about a one-to-four ratio (or so the directions say...I always end up adding extra liquid), bring to boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer for awhile until it's soft and much of the liquid has been absorbed. Some of the brands I've bought don't say to cover the pot while simmering, but I've never managed to get that to work properly. Important to stir often, to avoid lumpiness. But also important to keep covered, to keep the precious liquid from billowing away; this would be, I guess, why I always end up adding more liquid about halfway through cooking. ("The timer went off and the water's all soaked up! But the grits are still crunchy! Add milk! More cooking!")
Finally, slow-cook grits spend at least forty-five minutes on the stove (or several hours in a crock pot). How exactly one should cook them varies depending on who you ask, but they tend to be variations on the cooking of quick grits, only with extended cooking time. Sometimes people will soak them in water, first; sometimes not. Sometimes a big deal is made over the pot to be used (heavy, generally). Ideally, you end up with a pot of soft creamy goodness, the creaminess coming from a suspension of starch molecules in the cooking liquid. Each grain of ground corn should be soft (having soaked up enough water) and separate (as opposed to lumped up with other grains). Think risotto, only with ground hominy instead of rice.
What did I do differently-than-usual in today's extra-yummy quick grits? Possibly did more-stirring-earlier, though my total stirring wasn't more than usual. Possibly the addition of 1/4c 2% milk (instead of soy milk, or several tablespoons of heavy cream, as I've done before). Possibly remembering to salt before I boiled the water, which I often forget. The second batch was less-creamy and a little lumpy, so simply using cow's-milk (which I don't usually have in my kitchen) wasn't enough to account for all the difference.
What is it about southern food that encourages people to go on and on about how to do it right? (cue: barbeque discussion. No, actually, I'm kidding. Please do not start the barbeque discussion. Nor the gumbo, chicken-fried steak, red-eye gravy, black-eyed peas, or stewed greens discussions...but especially not the barbeque discussion.) I mean, I have heard similar arguments about pizza (new york/chicago/thin crust/deep-dish/etc.) but off the top of my head that's the only one I can think of that comes up with the frequency and passion as do the various southern-food, uh, "discussions." As I spent more of my childhood on the east and west coasts than in the south, I don't have quite the strength of opinion as an actual southerner. But I do love grits.
Since I'm always amazed at how many west-coasters haven't even had grits, much less have any idea what "quick" grits are with regards to anything else, a heavily biased primer:
Uncooked grits look a lot like cornmeal, no matter whether they're instant or quick or slow-cooking. Cooked grits resemble very-soft polenta. Most people eat them with cheese, meat, garlic, hot sauce etc. Some fry or bake or casserole them. (casserole is a verb? It is now!) A rare few, like myself, like them relatively plain. In college, I was even accosted by someone who ate his sweet, and was horrified that I put salt and butter (and occasionally, pepper!) on mine.
Instant grits come in little one-serving packages (like instant oatmeal) and you just add hot water and stir. They're nigh-impossible to find on the west coast, but when I lived back east they were on the shelf right next to the instant oatmeal. My memories of instant grits are nearly twenty years old; after I moved to the west as a kid, my grandmother (in Maryland, at the time, and later, in North Carolina) mailed care packages for a few years to my sister and I with packages of Quaker brand instant grits (and Wise brand salt and vinegar potato chips, and other things I no longer recall). Actual grits aficianados generally sneer at the brutally over-finely-ground bits of dried hominy that make up instant grits, but at least as a child, I adored them. I was heartbroken when we came west to find that they weren't available (and it would be years until I was old enough to be entrusted with any actual cooking, so mostly I just did without).
Quick grits, like quick oats, require a pot on the stove, but in five or ten minutes (generally ten, in my experience) you can have your bowl of grits ready. Most urban grocery stores in the west have at least one, and sometimes two, brands of quick grits on the shelf. (maybe western suburban grocery stores, too...I haven't shopped there, though.) You put them in a pot with water or milk or broth in about a one-to-four ratio (or so the directions say...I always end up adding extra liquid), bring to boil, lower heat, cover, and simmer for awhile until it's soft and much of the liquid has been absorbed. Some of the brands I've bought don't say to cover the pot while simmering, but I've never managed to get that to work properly. Important to stir often, to avoid lumpiness. But also important to keep covered, to keep the precious liquid from billowing away; this would be, I guess, why I always end up adding more liquid about halfway through cooking. ("The timer went off and the water's all soaked up! But the grits are still crunchy! Add milk! More cooking!")
Finally, slow-cook grits spend at least forty-five minutes on the stove (or several hours in a crock pot). How exactly one should cook them varies depending on who you ask, but they tend to be variations on the cooking of quick grits, only with extended cooking time. Sometimes people will soak them in water, first; sometimes not. Sometimes a big deal is made over the pot to be used (heavy, generally). Ideally, you end up with a pot of soft creamy goodness, the creaminess coming from a suspension of starch molecules in the cooking liquid. Each grain of ground corn should be soft (having soaked up enough water) and separate (as opposed to lumped up with other grains). Think risotto, only with ground hominy instead of rice.
What did I do differently-than-usual in today's extra-yummy quick grits? Possibly did more-stirring-earlier, though my total stirring wasn't more than usual. Possibly the addition of 1/4c 2% milk (instead of soy milk, or several tablespoons of heavy cream, as I've done before). Possibly remembering to salt before I boiled the water, which I often forget. The second batch was less-creamy and a little lumpy, so simply using cow's-milk (which I don't usually have in my kitchen) wasn't enough to account for all the difference.
What is it about southern food that encourages people to go on and on about how to do it right? (cue: barbeque discussion. No, actually, I'm kidding. Please do not start the barbeque discussion. Nor the gumbo, chicken-fried steak, red-eye gravy, black-eyed peas, or stewed greens discussions...but especially not the barbeque discussion.) I mean, I have heard similar arguments about pizza (new york/chicago/thin crust/deep-dish/etc.) but off the top of my head that's the only one I can think of that comes up with the frequency and passion as do the various southern-food, uh, "discussions." As I spent more of my childhood on the east and west coasts than in the south, I don't have quite the strength of opinion as an actual southerner. But I do love grits.