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Grits is a Native American
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 corn
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
-based food common in the Southern United States
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
, consisting of coarsely ground corn
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
. Grits can also be made from wheat.

Grits are similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world such as polenta
Polenta

Polenta is a dish made from boiled cornmeal. Although the word is borrowed into English language from Italian language, the dish is popular in Italian cuisine, Slovenian cuisine, Savoyard, Swiss cuisine, Austrian cuisine, Portuguese cuisine, Bosnian cuisine, Croatian cuisine , Cuban cuisine, American cuisine, Hungarian cuisine , Serbian cui...
. It also has a resemblance to farina
Farina (food)

Farina is a cereal food, frequently described as mild-tasting, usually served warm, made from cereal grains. In contemporary English use, the word usually refers to semolina or Cream of Wheat made from soft wheat....
, a thinner porridge. Grits can be served hot or cold and as a base for a multitude of dishes from breakfast to dessert, depending on the additives. Additives can range from salt and butter, meats, vegetables, and sugar.

Hominy grits is grits made from nixtamalized
Nixtamalization

Nixtamalization typically refers to a process for the preparation of maize in which the grain is soaked and cooking in an alkaline solution, usually Lime water, and hulling....
 corn, or hominy
Hominy

Hominy or nixtamal is dried maize kernels which have been treated with an alkali.The traditional United States version involves soaking dried corn in lye-water , traditionally derived from wood ash, until the hulls are removed....
.






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Grits is a Native American
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 corn
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
-based food common in the Southern United States
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
, consisting of coarsely ground corn
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
. Grits can also be made from wheat.

Grits are similar to other thick maize-based porridges from around the world such as polenta
Polenta

Polenta is a dish made from boiled cornmeal. Although the word is borrowed into English language from Italian language, the dish is popular in Italian cuisine, Slovenian cuisine, Savoyard, Swiss cuisine, Austrian cuisine, Portuguese cuisine, Bosnian cuisine, Croatian cuisine , Cuban cuisine, American cuisine, Hungarian cuisine , Serbian cui...
. It also has a resemblance to farina
Farina (food)

Farina is a cereal food, frequently described as mild-tasting, usually served warm, made from cereal grains. In contemporary English use, the word usually refers to semolina or Cream of Wheat made from soft wheat....
, a thinner porridge. Grits can be served hot or cold and as a base for a multitude of dishes from breakfast to dessert, depending on the additives. Additives can range from salt and butter, meats, vegetables, and sugar.

Hominy grits is grits made from nixtamalized
Nixtamalization

Nixtamalization typically refers to a process for the preparation of maize in which the grain is soaked and cooking in an alkaline solution, usually Lime water, and hulling....
 corn, or hominy
Hominy

Hominy or nixtamal is dried maize kernels which have been treated with an alkali.The traditional United States version involves soaking dried corn in lye-water , traditionally derived from wood ash, until the hulls are removed....
. It is sometimes called sofkee or sofkey from the Creek
Creek language

The Creek language, also known as Muscogee , is a Muskogean language spoken by the Creek , Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Kialegee Tribal Town, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and other Muscogeean peoples....
 word.

Origins

Traditionally the corn for grits is ground by a stone mill
Mill (grinding)

A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them....
. The results are passed through screens, with the finer part being corn meal, and the coarser being grits. Many communities in the U.S. used a gristmill
Gristmill

A gristmill or grist mill is a building where grain is ground into flour, or the grinding mechanism itself. In many countries these are referred to as corn mills or flour mills....
 up until the mid-20th century, with families bringing their own corn to be ground, and the miller
Miller

A miller usually refers to a person who operates a Gristmill, a machine to grind a cereal crop to make flour. Geoffory chaucer wrote a tale about a miller....
 retaining a portion of the corn for his fee. In South Carolina
South Carolina

South Carolina is a U.S. state in the Southern United States of the United States. It borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north....
, state law requires grits and corn meal to be enriched, similar to the requirements for flour, unless the grits are ground from corn where the miller keeps part of the product for his fee.

Three-quarters of grits sold in the United States are sold in "the South
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
" stretching from Texas
Texas

Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
 to Virginia
Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
, also known as the "grits belt". The state of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
 declared grits its official prepared food in 2002. Similar bills have been introduced in South Carolina, with one declaring, "Whereas, throughout its history, the South has relished its grits, making them a symbol of its diet, its customs, its humour, and its hospitality, and whereas, every community in the State of South Carolina used to be the site of a grits mill and every local economy in the State used to be dependent on its product; and whereas, grits has been a part of the life of every South Carolinian of whatever race, background, gender, and income; and whereas, grits could very well play a vital role in the future of not only this State, but also the world", if as Charleston's The Post and Courier
The Post and Courier

Charleston's The Post and Courier is oldest daily newspaper in the South and the eighth oldest newspaper still in publication in the United States....
 proclaimed in 1952, "An inexpensive, simple, and thoroughly digestible food, [grits] should be made popular throughout the world. Given enough of it, the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight about. A man full of [grits] is a man of peace."

Yellow grits include the whole kernel
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
, while white grits use hulled kernels. Grits are prepared by simply boiling
Boiling

Boiling, a type of phase transition, is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which typically occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding environmental pressure....
 the ground kernels into a porridge
Porridge

Porridge, or porage, is a simple dish made by boiling oats or another cereal in water, milk, or both. It is eaten in a flat bowl or a dish....
; normally it is boiled until enough water evaporates to leave it semi-solid.

See also

  • Cuisine of the Southern United States
    Cuisine of the Southern United States

    The cuisine of the Southern United States is defined as the regional culinary form of states generally south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and extending west to Texas....
  • Cuisine of the United States
    Cuisine of the United States

    The cuisine of the United States is a style of food preparation derived from the United States. The cuisine has a history dating back before the Colonial history of the United States when the Native Americans in the United States had a rich and diverse cooking style for an equally diverse amount of ingredients....


External links

  • - SCIway.net, South Carolina Information Highway