Posted by Ed Kiser on August 09, 2000 at 05:08:37 from MIAMA030-0085.splitrock.net:
In Reply to: Grits posted by Phoebe on August 09, 2000 at 00:03:26:
GRITS
The question has been asked: "GRITS" - just what is it?
A very simple answer: "CORN."
There are those, I'm sure, that would consider GRITS to be an ODDITY...
When you eat grits, you are eating nothing but corn. What makes that corn
become "grits" is how that corn is processed.
Grits is (note: "Grits" is a singular noun) a very basic and traditional
item very commonly found on the breakfast plate throughout the Southern
United States. Having Grits for breakfast is a very essential part of
Southern culture. To a true, died-in-the-wool Southerner, if there is no
grits, then there is no breakfast.
Corn is a very commonly produced farm item in the South. It serves two
purposes: it is good feed for the livestock, where the cattle can eat the
stalk and its leaves, and the corn grains themselves are good feed for
horses, hogs, chickens and turkeys. The corn grains are also excellent
people food.
There are two stages of the development of the kernels of corn: the first
or earlier stage is when the kernels are moist and soft. This is called
"fresh corn", suitable for roasting in the still green shucks, or, remove
the shucks and boil them to make "corn on the cob," to be eaten dripping
with butter and salt. The kernels are soft enough to be chewed
comfortably. The second stage is when the corn is not harvested soon
enough to be used in this soft stage, so it becomes hard, and somewhat
brittle. The shucks have become brown and dried. After removing the
shucks, you can take two ears of corn that are hard and dried and by
rubbing them together, the individual grains will be rubbed off the cob as
free individual grains. This hard corn is the stage that is usually fed to
the livestock. It keeps well in this hard state. This hard corn is just
too hard to chew, for humans to manage. Too bad, the SOFT corn is a very
brief season; as the corn rapidly ages into hard corn.
The trick here is to get that hard corn, which keeps very well, into a
state that humans can manage to eat it. To do this, it must be softened.
Hard corn is softened by soaking it in a solution of lye. The lye gets
into the kernels, swelling them up, and making them very rubbery soft.
This must then be thoroughly washed to remove the lye. What we now have is
something called BIG HOMINY. Each individual piece looks like a grain of
corn, but it is much larger than the original kernel, all puffed up with
the treatment in the lye. An optional step can be to first take the hard
corn and crack it, that is, put it through a process of coarse grinding,
breaking up the kernels into fragments of the original kernels. These
fragments are then subjected to this soaking in lye to make the product of
a more soft edible consistency. This is sometimes called LITTLE HOMINY.
Another word for that is "GRITS."
This hominy is then throughly washed to remove the caustic lye.
This HOMINY is then dried out for more longer lasting storage time. When
ready for human consumption, this dried granulated broken pieces of corn
(or the whole kernels, if the BIG HOMINY is being used) is then dumped into
boiling water. The water will be absorbed into the grains, much like what
happens when you cook rice. The water seems to disappear, but the product
becomes a soft pile of mushy consistency.
There are those, who don't know better, think that grits is like a cereal,
and as such is to be eaten in a cereal bowl, with some milk on it. That
totally ruins the whole idea. Grits is to be served, just as you would
serve cooked fresh corn, as a pile on the plate, just like any other
veggy. One serving of grits is referred to as: "a mess of grits." The
word, "mess," is not intended to imply any attribute that is degrogative.
The phrase, "a mess of grits," is synonymous with "a helping of grits."
Once this mess of grits is plopped onto the plate, along with the rest of
the breakfast, like country ham and several fried eggs for example, then,
in a manner similar to what you would do with mashed potatoes, you make a
little depression in the center, like a crater in a volcano, and put some
"red-eye" gravy in there. This is a very special nectar that comes from
frying country ham which is very salty, making a very salty gravy. Kinda
stir around the gravy with the grits to get it all mixed in there together.
Or use some other gravy, such as white gravy, made with flour in the bacon
drippings, if that is what you are having, then this mix after browning
getting some milk stirred into it, frying up the resultant greasy fried
flour into a white paste called white gravy. That goes good mixed in with
the grits also. Now, if none of these condiments are all that handy, you
have to do the best you can by melting a chunk of butter in that crater in
the middle of that mess of grits. Don't hardly ever eat just grits with
nothing greasy added, like some sort of gravy.
(Sounds like a heart attack, in the making...)
Because this form of corn can be stored well for some time, it becomes
available year round, and therefore becomes a traditional item on the
breakfast plate.
Now, the making of the lye that was used to soak that hard corn with is
another process unto itself. A funnel shaped rack is made, that somewhat
resembles a huge funnel, similar in function to the funnel that you have on
the top of your drip coffee maker, where the funnel contains a paper filter
into which you dump the ground coffee, and then pour hot water thru the
whole mess, which soakes the essence of the coffee from the ground beans
and drips thru the paper filter into the coffee pot. This LYE funnel is
worked on the same principle, but is quite larger.
The kitchen stove is a wood stove, burning small logs of wood in it,
producing a quantity of ashes. These ashes are periodically shoveled out
of the stove and dumped into this LYE funnel. Over a period of time, this
large hopper becomes filled with wood ashes. Take a pot of boiling water
and slowly pour it on the top of this hopper, soaking the ashes. The
result will come slowly dripping down at the bottom into a vessel put there
to catch the drippings. What comes out is caustic lye, or potassium
hydroxide.
This lye is primarily used for two purposes: one, to make lye soap, by
combining it with tallow (fat from cattle), and second, to render hard corn
into hominy.
If you are familiar with the TV show, "Beverly Hillbillies", you are aware
of Granny and her lye soap. It is pretty strong stuff. It takes the dirt
off, probably more by removing a good layer of skin in the process.
At least, that is the way it used to be done, in the rural South USA.
All that was part of "the Good Ol' Days."
Today, grits is readily available on the shelves in grocery stores, so we
no longer have to deal with the caustic lye phase. All that has been
washed out, and the grains dried, put into boxes, ready for us to dump into
boiling water - and enjoy.
If you stop for breakfast at the typical small diner in rural Southern USA,
Grits will be served, unasked. And frankly, if you don't want to get funny
looks from the locals, you best be eating it, and looking like you enjoy
it, 'cause if you don't, then there may be checking to see if your car
outside has New York plates on it, which can be the start of more grief.
That is what GRITS is all about.
"Ya'll come on in now, and set a spell. Take yo' shoes off..."
"Ya'll come back now, y' heah?"
I 'preciate it...
Ed Kiser