Grits Mystique
How has a hot breakfast cereal become so identifiable with the South? Could it be because grits have been the common ingredient of Southern society? After all, grits have crossed over every culture, from Indian to farmer, from white to black. Or maybe it’s because grits simply can’t be found anywhere else?
The American Indians, who depended on corn as a year-round staple, had different names for this softened corn dish. The Creek Indians called their version “sofki.” The English colonists borrowed the name, “hommony corn,” from the northern tribes. The colonists also borrowed the Indian cooking techniques, learning two ways of hulling the corn. They would either break the corn into pieces, and then clear the hulls by winnowing; or clear the hulls by boiling the kernels in lye, which was made from sifted hardwood ashes dissolved in a pot of boiling water. Lye hominy was the popular choice among early settlers.
These days grits (Anglo-Saxon “grytt” for bran and “greot” for ground) are still produced by variations of each method. The corn in mass-produced grits, either instant or regular, is steamed to remove the hull, then dried and quickly milled. Stone-ground corn, on the other hand, is milled slowly and leaves behind more of the heart of the kernel, which has nutritional value.
How do you cook grits? Which foods should they accompany? Lewis Grizzard answered these questions for most southerners in his “Grits Billy Bob” recipe from Gettin’ It On, a Down-Home Treasury:
“First, don’t fool with no instant grits. The idiot who invented instant grits also thought of frozen fried chicken, and they ought to lock him up before he tries to freeze-dry collards.
“Get yourself some Aunt Jeminas or some Jim Dandys. Cook ‘em slow and stir every chance you get. Otherwise, you’ll have lumps, and you don’t want lumps.
“Salt and pepper and stir in enough butter to choke a goat. Fry some bacon and sausage on the side and crumble that in, and then come right on top of that with all the cheese the law will allow.
“Grits Billy Bob ought not to run out of the pot. They ought to crawl. Serve hot. Cold Grits Billy Bob are harder than a steel-belted radial.”