Grits: Y/N, if Y: How?

Flint • Dec 10, 2006 11:20 am
Me = w/ cheddar cheese and Tabasco.
fargon • Dec 10, 2006 11:49 am
Yes with salt pepper and bacon:yum:
Ibby • Dec 10, 2006 11:52 am
FUCK yes, with half a stick of butter and a couple spoonfuls of salt.

Per bowl.


...Well, okay, maybe not quite THAT much, but...
DanaC • Dec 10, 2006 11:59 am
Never had grits.....what are they?
xoxoxoBruce • Dec 10, 2006 12:32 pm
Corn that's been ruined. :vomit:
DanaC • Dec 10, 2006 12:33 pm
ahhh ok :)
Hoof Hearted • Dec 10, 2006 1:24 pm
Yes. Butter and salt with cold milk to drink.
busterb • Dec 10, 2006 2:51 pm
Butter and Tabasco. With a side of sausage.
zippyt • Dec 10, 2006 5:20 pm
Corn that's been ruined
That would br homine.

For me EXTRA sharp chedder , and some garlic !!!
chrisinhouston • Dec 10, 2006 5:31 pm
DanaC wrote:
Never had grits.....what are they?


Grits are a USA southern tradition, mostly served at breakfast but now trendy with dinner. Similar to polenta, grits are basically ground corn meal. In the south they were common among the poor as a subsistance meal or side dish.

I'm not big on them the southern way at breakfast but I don't mind them in dinner concoctions, like with shrimp or with a cheese mixed into them. I do prefer the coarser texture of polenta which is milled slightly less fine then grits.
DanaC • Dec 10, 2006 6:17 pm
Now, see...all these years I've assumed grits were something dry and crunchy.:P
Bullitt • Dec 10, 2006 6:20 pm
Cheddar cheese and Cholula!
footfootfoot • Dec 10, 2006 7:06 pm
"If I don't love ya baby
grits ain't grocery
eggs ain't poultry
and Mona Lisa was a man..."

(coming soon to a cmep near you!)

Grits are best savory/salty/spicy not sweet, that'd be the oatmeal thread.
cheddar, bacon crumbs, garlic, tabasco, why only a half stick Ibram? you're too young to worry about your heart.
Urbane Guerrilla • Dec 10, 2006 9:40 pm
DanaC wrote:
Never had grits.....what are they?



Busted-up hominy, corn at one time treated with lye, then rinsed clean, dried and milled to make grits or hominy grits, same thing. Amounts to cornmeal with some pretty rigorous pre-processing. East Africans and East African Brits name the stuff posho.

Now, see...all these years I've assumed grits were something dry and crunchy.:P


Well, in the box they kind of are...

Grits, yes -- and about with anything from brown sugar to all the above serving suggestions, though perhaps we should stop short of nine-layer dip? Really, that stuff requires corn chips.

But what I want to know is how to make the stuff without it tasting mostly of the box it came in -- southerners have the knack of it, most northerners don't.
Clodfobble • Dec 10, 2006 11:13 pm
Grits are wretched and foul, and oatmeal only very slightly less so.
Ibby • Dec 10, 2006 11:37 pm
Ewwwwww, I cant bear to eat oatmeal at all. It's completely and totally foul.
Tonchi • Dec 11, 2006 4:27 am
Do not bust up the hominy, use it whole. Make Posole instead, using both sweet and hot dried chiles, garlic, onion, tumeric, oregano, salt, and pork butt with ox tails cooked in a large open pot with water or broth until the meat falls off the bone. Add honeycomb tripe (menudo) for the brave ones :yum:
dar512 • Dec 11, 2006 12:56 pm
I once dated a gal who's mom was an O Miss graduate. Quite the diva and drama queen, but man she could cook. She made a cheese grits casserole thing that was delicious.
Kitsune • Dec 11, 2006 1:50 pm
Grits are mandatory at breakfast. Either with cheese or a fried egg whipped into them.

chrisinhouston wrote:
I'm not big on them the southern way at breakfast


...and yet, you will never hear anyone talk about how much they enjoy a good northern breakfast which, I can only imagine, must consist of plain oatmeal and a steaming mug of hot water.
wolf • Dec 11, 2006 1:54 pm
What are Grits anyways?
Grits are 50.
But what are they?
They're extra.

~~ Laurie Anderson (Somewhere on United States Live, but I'll be darned if I can remember which of the 10 sides of vinyl it falls on.)
wolf • Dec 11, 2006 1:55 pm
Ibram wrote:
Ewwwwww, I cant bear to eat oatmeal at all. It's completely and totally foul.


Steer clear of the Quaker. No matter what you do it tastes like wallpaper paste.

McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal is a chore to cook, but a joy to eat. Wee bit of cream and honey and you are good to go.
Flint • Dec 11, 2006 2:03 pm
wolf wrote:

McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal
The only oatmeal that counts as oatmeal.
Happy Monkey • Dec 11, 2006 2:18 pm
Kitsune wrote:
...and yet, you will never hear anyone talk about how much they enjoy a good northern breakfast which, I can only imagine, must consist of plain oatmeal and a steaming mug of hot water.
You see a northern breakfast in cereal ads. Cereal with milk maybe with fruit, and a glass of OJ.

Or maybe a Pop-Tart on the way out the door.
dar512 • Dec 11, 2006 2:45 pm
The true breakfast of champions is Twinkies and Mountain Dew. ;)
melidasaur • Dec 11, 2006 2:51 pm
Want to know what grits taste like and have the texture of? Ground up rice.

I hate them.

However, if you want the best grits ever - I highly recommend the Shrimp and Grits at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I've never had it, but people rave about it.
vsp • Dec 11, 2006 3:03 pm
Y/N? Absolutely absolutely absolutely positively N. A five-story letter-of-fire visible-from-space N. Grits are wallpaper paste mixed with sand, and are simply a delivery mechanism for whatever they're mixed with.

Northern breakfast: meat and potatoes. Sausage, ham, or pork roll; home fries or hash browns.
busterb • Dec 11, 2006 4:06 pm
Don't like GRITS? Don't eat the sobs
Spexxvet • Dec 11, 2006 5:06 pm
vsp wrote:
...simply a delivery mechanism for whatever they're mixed with.
...

That's right. Just like oatmeal, they're a carrier for the stuff you really want to eat.

BTW, tried grits once......ONCE.

Oatmeal with Skippy Super Chunk and syrup. Mmmmm.
Sundae • Dec 11, 2006 5:09 pm
Nononono

Breakfast of the Gods is a proper British fry up.
Amended in my case (ie virtually unrecognisable) to:
Grilled sausage (links, not patties)
Grilled bacon (in rashers, not your little shavings!)
Egg - fried sunny side up, poached lightly or scrambled
Baked beans
Brown sauce
White toast with unsalted butter
A great big mug of strong tea

But the best brunch I've ever had (and believe me, I've brunched!) was the Cityscape buffet in San Francisco. I still recommend it to people travelling to the States. And the free top-ups of Bucks Fizz were only partly to blame.
Spexxvet • Dec 11, 2006 5:12 pm
I'm partial to sausage gravy and biscuits, and I'm from the north.
DanaC • Dec 11, 2006 5:38 pm
Even though I know that biscuits are what you guys eat with gravy, I still smile when I read it. Biscuits are pretty much always sweet for us.
Sundae • Dec 11, 2006 5:53 pm
It took me years to work out what US biscuits were.

Even now I'm hazy (and I don't think they mean Bisto either Dana)

Ok that's it - I'm putting a trip to the US ahead of getting online at home - I gotta have me some grits, some biscuits & some gravy.

Anyone fancy an exchange visit?!
Happy Monkey • Dec 11, 2006 5:57 pm
Sundae Girl wrote:
It took me years to work out what US biscuits were.

Even now I'm hazy (and I don't think they mean Bisto either Dana)
Extremely fatty unsweetened, bread, smaller than muffins.
DanaC • Dec 11, 2006 5:59 pm
and what's the gravy like?
Happy Monkey • Dec 11, 2006 6:05 pm
Is gravy all that different across the pond? Cooked down juices from the meat, with spices?
DanaC • Dec 11, 2006 6:12 pm
That's like ours except a lot of people use packet gravy :P)
Sundae • Dec 11, 2006 6:14 pm
and no spices!
DanaC • Dec 11, 2006 6:17 pm
I put spices in my gravy.....oh hang on, no, just a little paprika actually. Mainly it's herbs.
Kitsune • Dec 11, 2006 6:55 pm
"You never heard of grits?"
"Sure I've heard of grits. I just never actually *seen* a grit before."


Someone fill this thing in for me:

US "cookie" = UK "biscuit"
US "biscuit" = UK "_____"
footfootfoot • Dec 11, 2006 8:12 pm
Happy Monkey wrote:
Extremely fatty unsweetened, bread, smaller than muffins.


Oh the injustice! a well made biscuit is divine. It's like saying Alexander was a soldier. Well made biscuits can be as flaky as a croissant, though a bit more substantial. And there's nothing wrong with extremely fatty is there? As long as the fat is good fat. ie fresh cultured butter or lard, or both!

(An aside: Another thing I did which will no doubt earn me an additional aeon in hell. My MIL, who has serious "food disparagement" issues, declared my supremely awesome pie crust as being "too rich" because I use a 50/50 lard butter mix. She objects to the lard for psuedo health reasons, claiming the result is too heavy. yeah whatever. So I made my next piecrust with a 50/50 mixture of butter and manteca. She heartily approved of the change and declared it the best she had ever tasted, her tongue can't be fooled, etc. There are other stories of my switching "farm fresh eggs" from my firend's chickens with supermarket eggs from some giant egg ranch, of course she could tell that the supermarket eggs, no doubt going on 90 days, were fresh from the chicken's bum...)

I'm sure I'll meet a few other dwellars when I shuffle off this mortal coil; we can swap recipes.
footfootfoot • Dec 11, 2006 8:19 pm
My gravy recipe:
get the fat away from the other liquid
to the other liquid add stock.
heat the fat in a cast iron pan and add white flour to make a stiff roux
stir constantly with a whisk.
constantly, I mean it.
when the roux turns as brown as you like your toast, rapidly whisk the liquid/stock mix into the roux. whip it like a red headed stepchild to keep it from getting lumpy. (I think each tablespoon of flour will thicken a cup of stock--google this, I'm not sure)
soy sauce makes a nice substitute for salt, if you swing that way. It adds a nice dimension.

herbs, of course. you can sort that out yourselves.
bluecuracao • Dec 11, 2006 8:36 pm
Y to grits with lots of Cheddar cheese, OR lots of butter and a little salt.
And oatmeal (even Quaker) with crumbly brown sugar and a dollop of plain, tangy yogurt.
Happy Monkey • Dec 11, 2006 10:41 pm
footfootfoot wrote:
Oh the injustice! a well made biscuit is divine. It's like saying Alexander was a soldier. Well made biscuits can be as flaky as a croissant, though a bit more substantial. And there's nothing wrong with extremely fatty is there?
I never said it was bad! I love me a good biscuit. I was just trying to think of a way to differentiate a biscuit from, say, a roll.
footfootfoot • Dec 11, 2006 11:48 pm
Happy Monkey wrote:
I never said it was bad! I love me a good biscuit. I was just trying to think of a way to differentiate a biscuit from, say, a roll.


speaking of which, do you remember Busterb's photo of deep fried biscuits?
They looked yum.
skysidhe • Dec 12, 2006 12:24 am
Sundae Girl wrote:
Nononono

Breakfast of the Gods is a proper British fry up.
Amended in my case (ie virtually unrecognisable) to:
Grilled sausage (links, not patties)
Grilled bacon (in rashers, not your little shavings!)
Egg - fried sunny side up, poached lightly or scrambled
Baked beans
Brown sauce
White toast with unsalted butter
A great big mug of strong tea

But the best brunch I've ever had (and believe me, I've brunched!) was the Cityscape buffet in San Francisco. I still recommend it to people travelling to the States. And the free top-ups of Bucks Fizz were only partly to blame.



:yum:
Urbane Guerrilla • Dec 12, 2006 1:07 am
Happy Monkey wrote:
I never said it was bad! I love me a good biscuit. I was just trying to think of a way to differentiate a biscuit from, say, a roll.


Biscuits are raised with baking powder, and are thus far quicker to make than a yeast-raised roll. Bread-in-a-hurry, you could say, and thus favored for breakfast. (Buttermilk biscuits may perhaps be raised with baking soda, reacting with the buttermilk's acid. I suppose, though, that using a proper double-acting baking powder instead of just soda bicarb may yield a fluffier, loftier biscuit that voluptuously takes up the butter.)

For any of our friends across the water who are still mystified: for what a Brit calls a biscuit, a Yank says "cookie."

and what's the gravy like?


A white gravy, with a little or a lot of ground meat in it, or perhaps crumbled bacon. Maybe shredded chipped beef like Armour sells in those little glass jars.

And the oatmeal haters are a pack of Martians, or else have been cursed with eating it overcooked into a gruel and unsalted -- or think instant oatmeal is as good as the stuff gets. News flash for you guys -- the less processed stuff is the kind worth eating. Steel-cut oatmeal/pinhead oatmeal, etc., taste largely the same, with a grainier texture.

Off to experiment with making brown sugar out of fructose for a lower glycemic load...
rkzenrage • Dec 12, 2006 1:16 am
I only make yellow hominy grits, never any that have been fucked-with (no damn instant or "5-min" shit).
Butter, salt and pepper or with cheese is fine.
I also make a Caribbean (Being from here) recipe called Nassau Grits.
Grits folded into a Ham, onion & tomato gravy, topped with freshly made bacon bits.
Sometimes I'll top Nassau with a bit of cheese and a fried egg as well.
DanaC • Dec 12, 2006 5:43 am
I don't think we have an equivalent to the American 'biscuit'. The nearest we'd get is either the pastry of a pie covered in gravy, or a dinner roll, which would be served alongside a meal and possibly used to mop up the meal's gravy.
rkzenrage • Dec 12, 2006 6:03 am
Buttermilk biscuit, the only way to go.
Ibby • Dec 12, 2006 8:27 am
I'm embarrassed to say it, rkzenrage, but I actually prefer instant grits... mostly just for the instantness, partly because thats what I started with, and partly cause... I dunno, there's just something about 'em that I like more.

Disgusting, I know....




And the only biscuits better than a good ol'-fashioned southern buttermilk biscuit is a cheese-and-garlic biscuit. Red Lobster's are really good, but FAR from the best. Homemade is the only way to go.
Spexxvet • Dec 12, 2006 9:18 am
DanaC wrote:
and what's the gravy like?

The gravy in sausage gravy is nothing like the gravy you make from roasting a piece of meat. It's really a white sauce (roux?).

Image

Fry and crumble the sausage, throw it in a white sauce, and pour it over the biscuits, or serve it in a bowl on the side. MMmmmmmmm.

Image

Do you Brits know "creamed dried beef", also known as "shit on a shingle"?
Ibby • Dec 12, 2006 10:14 am
I thought they INVENTED shit on a shingle!

Oh wait, they didnt have the shingle, just the shit.


Shuddup, It's late and I had a math exam today, I'll come up with something better later.
rkzenrage • Dec 12, 2006 1:11 pm
Ibram wrote:
I'm embarrassed to say it, rkzenrage, but I actually prefer instant grits... mostly just for the instantness, partly because thats what I started with, and partly cause... I dunno, there's just something about 'em that I like more.

Disgusting, I know....




And the only biscuits better than a good ol'-fashioned southern buttermilk biscuit is a cheese-and-garlic biscuit. Red Lobster's are really good, but FAR from the best. Homemade is the only way to go.

Everyone has their stuff... but, :eek:
Flint • Dec 12, 2006 1:13 pm
Sometimes I go through Popeye's chicken, just to get a half-dozen biscuits...
Skunks • Dec 12, 2006 5:20 pm
I misread the title of these posts as "Girls: Y/N, if Y: How?" and was much more excited than I am now.

N.
DanaC • Dec 12, 2006 5:54 pm
Great pictures! I prefer the idea of brown gravy though.
Urbane Guerrilla • Dec 12, 2006 9:21 pm
DanaC wrote:
I don't think we have an equivalent to the American 'biscuit'. The nearest we'd get is either the pastry of a pie covered in gravy, or a dinner roll, which would be served alongside a meal and possibly used to mop up the meal's gravy.


Well, here's a business opportunity.

Come to think of it, a popover comes fairly close, even the Yorkshire pudding kind of popover.

Who's got a favorite homemade biscuit recipe they'd put on the "this is the latest recipe thread?" Let's fix up Dana with something tasty!
Urbane Guerrilla • Dec 12, 2006 9:26 pm
Spexxvet wrote:
Do you Brits know "creamed dried beef", also known as "shit on a shingle"?


And don't look to US military chow halls for a properly done creamed chipped beef. They use ground beef which simply doesn't have the right tanginess to it. It has to be real chipped dried beef, not hamburger.

Big ole mess sergeant to dweeby little PFC: "It's a savory combination of select meats and tasty gravies, appetizingly poured over a shingle."