Grits – Wikipedia

Dish (food) of boiled cornmeal

Grits with cheese, bacon, green onion and a basted egg

Grits are a porridge made from boiled cornmeal. Hominy grits are a type of grits made from hominy – corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization, with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed. Grits are often served with other flavorings^[1] as a breakfast dish. Grits can be either savory or sweet, with savory seasonings being more common. The dish originated in the Southern United States but is now available nationwide. Grits are often part of a dinner entrée shrimp and grits, served primarily in the South.^[1]

Grits are similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world, such as polenta and mieliepap. In the Charleston, South Carolina, area, cooked hominy grits are called “hominy” and uncooked grits are called “grist.”^[2] The word “grits” is derived from the Old English word grytt, meaning “coarse meal”.^[3]

The dish originated with the Native American Muscogee tribe using a corn similar to hominy.^[4] American colonists learned to make the dish from the Native Americans, and it quickly became an American staple.^[5]

At that time, the hominy for grits was ground on a stone mill. The ground hominy was then passed through screens, the finer sifted material used as grit meal, and the coarser as grits.^[6]

Three-quarters of the grits sold in the U.S. are bought in the South, in an area stretching from Lower Texas to Washington, D.C., that is sometimes called the “grits belt”.^[7] The state of Georgia declared grits to be its official prepared food in 2002.^[8] A similar bill was introduced in South Carolina to name it the official state food,^[9] but it did not advance.^[10] Nevertheless, South Carolina still has an entire chapter of legislation dealing exclusively with corn meal and grits.^[11] State law in South Carolina requires grits and rice meal to be enriched, similar to the requirement for flour.^[11]

Grits may be either yellow or white, depending on the color of the corn used. The most common version in supermarkets is “quick” grits, which have the germ and hull removed. Whole kernel grits is sometimes called “speckled”.^[12]

Preparation[edit]

Grits are prepared by mixing water or milk and cornmeal, and stirring them over heat.^[13][14] Whole grain grits require much longer to become soft than “quick grits”.

Some people serve grits with sugar, while others object to sweetened grits. They are often served with butter. They are served with grated cheese, sausage, bacon, salt and pepper, or red-eye gravy.

Left-over grits congeal and can be sliced then fried either plain or with a breading, making “fried grits”, “fried hominy”, or “grit cakes”.^{[citation needed][15]}

Grits are eaten with a wide variety of foods, such as eggs and bacon, fried catfish, shrimp, salmon croquettes, or country ham.^[16]

Shrimp and grits is a traditional dish in the coastal communities in the South Carolina Lowcountry and Georgia’s Lower Coastal Plain.^[17] While shrimp and grits may have come from the South Carolina Lowcountry, particularly the Gullah people, the Shrimp and grits dishes eaten by most people trace a much more recent heritage to the Crooks Corner restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1982.^[4]

Solidified cooked grits can be sliced and fried in vegetable oil, butter, or bacon grease, or they can first be breaded in beaten egg and bread crumbs.^[18]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Look up grits in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Grits.