Recently, my wife and I visited a old Vietnam war buddy and his wife in Valdosta, GA. One morning we went to a restaurant for breakfast and I was encouraged to order some grits. Never had them before and after hearing the phrase "kiss my grits", they did not sound very appetizing.

When served I put some half/half cream on them...not good, put some honey on...better, mixed in some raisins...very good. The only complaint was there was no lumps in the bowl of grits, which is what I like in a bowl of Cream of Wheat.

Can a northern boy make a good bowl of grits?

With honey, raisins, and cream in it what you ate was not grits. Grits only need butter and cracked black pepper. Cheese or shrimp maybe. But not a fruit salad.

Grits are part of my favorite breakfast. Add 3 or 4 slices of bacon chopped into 1/4" pieces, couple of soft fried eggs and a chunk of butter......mix and eat!!

I like grits with butter and an over medium fried egg on top.



I also like to cook polenta (also ground corn meal) a little firmer. Then I take a bread pan and line it with plastic wrap with enough hanging over the side to cover the top. Then put your polenta in there and let it set up in the refrigerator overnight. Slice it, fry it in a touch of EVOO and top with a slice of sharp cheddar, a fried egg(again I prefer over medium), a slice of canadian bacon or ham, a slice of tomato, some avacado and hollanndaise sauce.

ain't that the truth. i put butter, shredded cheese and hot sauce. now that's grits.

milk on grits? honey? raisins........only a damn yankee would bastardize a bowl of grits like that.

Well, it seems I made a mistake thinking grits was a breakfast cereal. Glad the fire set me straight so I won't embarrass myself in public should I encounter it again.

Heaven forbid that you eat them in a way that you enjoy!

It is fun to sit here in the midwest, and read, and think on the foods of the south, and the north. My trouble is I tend to like most all of them. My waistline also tends to show that.

I had never had grits until I joined the military. At my first duty station my best friend introduced me to them at a friends house and this is how they made it. One of the best things I ever ate and I still eat them this way to this day.

GRITS=Girls Raised In The South.

Couple of things for me:

They have to be coarse stone ground grits. No instant grits!

Salt, pepper and butter! That's it! Maybe a little red eye gravy but NO sugar!

But once again---whatever makes one happy is the way to do it!

Roundoak, just don't eat chit that you need to doctor up to that severity and you'll be fine.

Grits are one of those things you learn to just let be.

I have no idea what the hell folks like about them, but they damn sure like em and if a "yank" so much as mentions the word, it will end badly.

Perfectly normal for you to be curious and try them. Also perfectly normal for you to grab anything within reach to attempt to make them edible.

Also perfectly normal for you to be flamed for talking about it publicly.

Bingo...spot on.

As I said earlier, I was a little hesitant to eat grits in the first place being associated with "kiss my grits."

I know! Let's put beans in them!

BYC is right Girls raised in the South, I will be glad to to send you a bag of stone ground grits from the Farmer's Market here in Greenville, SC.
Just don't put milk or raisins or sugar on them.
Try shrimp, cheese, deer sausage or all of the above!

Send me an address and I will send to you the staple of the South!

Claude

grits, fried eggs, bacon/sausage, and toast is the breakfast i was raised eating. still eating it 55+ years later. the wife and i eat out quite a lot, and often frequent a fine eatery which features shrimp grits. absolutely outstanding!

Watch it.

I was raised on grits...most of my kith and kin going back generations come from Georga, 'Bama, the Okefanokee swamp etc, were raised on grits.

When dad moved the family to the west coast way back, to work in the facturies during WWII my mother was almost in tears because she couldn't find her grits ANYWHERE in "damyankeeville" and our supply was getting pretty low before she got a bag from kin in Atlanta. She was/is a "Rosy the Riveter".

We had hot grits boiled for 15-20 min, butter, salt/pepper/hot sauce, with AND without sugar/honey/cheese(depending on the ration book or swapping), bacon or sausage, eggs snatched from under the hens, and home made toast or fried bread for breakfast,(AND MANY TIMES with raisins or other home dried and chopped fruit), grits left over from breakfast, packed into a tin can and cooled then pushed out and cut into rounds, fried in the mornings bacon grease and whatever else the sitter could scrape up for lunch and grits as a side for dinner. Not at every meal or every day, except for breakfast and lunch.

When my grandaddy died and was buried in Texas, EVERY breakfast at my great uncle Newt and aunt Mary's ranch had a big bowl of hot grits at the ready. Uncle Newt wouldn't tolerate no grits for breakfast, and Aunt Mary wouldn't THINK of not having grits. "Get the grits" would be about the only thing Aunt Mary said everytime we made the 125 mile trip to Delhart from the ranch during that time. I never figured out if that was just her way of saying 'bye or really telling Newt to buy grits.

For many ears Albers quick grits was a staple because of the time constraints of modern day life...Quick grits might not be "pure down home" but I don't mind them any more than I mind my "nukerbox" to cook BOTH quick and "real" grits...one takes 4 minutes and the other 13 for 1 1/2 cups water, 1/3 cut grits.

I call/email up my cousin up in Atlanta when I'm running low and have her send me 5 lbs of course ground grits from a local mill the family has been buying from for as long as I can remember. White grits IS grits...yellow grits is Polenta, but Polenta doesn't taste OR look quit right.

I do my grits only about twice a week now...and a week without grits is a mighty poor week.

Ya'll who never had grits, bacon/sausage and scrambled eggs, and hot buttered biscuits, all covered with sausage gravy and "Loozy-anna" hot sauce, don't know what your missing...'sep maybe a heart attack.

Hummmm...Guess whats for breakfast, Ma�ana...

Thanks for the generous offer, Claude, however I respectively decline due to the temptation of using milk, raisins, bananas, sugar, honey, cinnamon which apparently could be a sacrilegious act in the southern states.

Wayne

Now, NFG, that is a real good down home story. Dang near got me convinced to try your heart attack receipe.

Wayne

You know the old story about a horse and water...besides we need to keep the heart Docs in business and enjoying the Bahamas and the widders new boytoy happy spending the insurance money. Hahahahahah

On second thought...don't even think of trying that good stuff...wouldn't want that to happen to ANYONE...I WAS LYING TOTALLY...I WOULDN'T PUT THAT NASTY STUFF IN MY WORST ENEMY'S MOUTH...nothing but a total fabrication...I don't even KNOW what them grits things is...just a story I heard...I'm having delusions of grandeur...hallucinating...flashbacks from the Haight during the 60's...I lost my mind...forgot who I am...WHERE AM I?...WHAT AM I?...WHO ARE YOU?...WHY?....MOMMMMEEEEEEEEEE.

Grits can be for breakfast and they make a fine supper too. Don't tell nobody but I like butter and brown sugar in mine unless they have bacon/sausage and eggs to go with a bowl of grits.

Hey just picking, eat them anyway you want, my own daughter born and raised in SC doesn't like them, go figure. At least you are eating them and keeping the farmers busy.

Haven't read the whole thread, maybe this has been said, but grits are not "oatmeal" or "cream of wheat" they're corn. Grits: real grits, not instant, butter, salt and pepper. It's ok to crumble so sausage or bacon in it, or add cheese. Maybe use to sop up egg yolks. Its not a bowl of cereal. Every yankee I went to basic with at Fort Benning did just as you did with their first bowls of grits.

I have no idea why I thought my late entry here would be the first take like this. LOL

It's easy. Buy a package of it and follow the instructions, but I always just put salt and butter in mine, then serve them under my lightly fried eggs.

My grandmother introduced me to it when I was a kid visiting her in Virginia, where she lived most of her life, though she was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. But she always called it mush. I loved it, and made her make it for me whenever I visited thereafter. She just cooked it with salt, and put butter on it. Nothing else.

That show was not written by a Southerner, or that waitress character would never have popularized that term. Just a Northerner's idea of what a Southerner would say.

I believe grits has a excellent potential to be a great breakfast cereal. Stopped at a food co-op today and bought a 1 lb. bag for $2.99.

Grits, sliced banana and some light cream should be a good way to start the day.

Troll

RO---You should really take Claude up on his offer to send and receive some real Carolina stone ground grits. Nothing compares!

David

Damn yankees!

Take that back.

Seriously, my wife wants to prepare grits as some of you have suggested. Will be expanding my culinary horizon.

Thanks

Wayne

When I was growing up, we usually had red eye gravy with grits. If my mother didn't cook ham, then we had them with butter melted in them. Good either way.

L.W.

Well, whatever you do, do not bother ordering grits at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. I have tried them at several locations and they have no clue as to making a decent pot of grits. They do not not make them with salt or butter, thinking that the customer can add salt to taste. Does not work worth a dang for grits. Salt must be boiled in the water, preferably with a generous portion of butter before stiring in the grits. Then make sure they are cooked long enough until good and soft, making sure they do not get too dry and stick to the bottom of the pot. They are very easy to make, just follow the directions on the box. May be seasoned with pepper if desired. Do not add sugar, syrup, honey, fruit, etc. Do serve with additional butter if desired. Also really good mixed with gravy, crumbled sausage or bacon. Avoid instant grits if possible. They are better than no grits, but a poor substitute. Quick grits do not take very long to cook and the taste is far better.

Being raised in the southern half of Alabama back in the 1960s, my father regularly made me breakfast before taking me to school. He always made a pot of grits. As an occasional treat, sometimes he would add a bit of cheddar cheese to them as they were cooking for cheese grits. Mighty good eating!

Other than with butter, salt and pepper, or redeye gravy, or as a "yolk vehicle", or in shrimp and grits, the only other acceptable way to treat grits is deep frying them for Alabama Hot Brown. Grits are stone ground grits made with chicken stock, bacon crumbles, and cheese in them. Poured in a loaf pan, and refrigerated. When they set up, you slice about an inch thick, dredge in buttermilk, and bread crumbs, and deep fry until golden brown. The crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside, golden brown grit plank is served topped with thinly sliced smoked turkey, covered in a jalapeno cheese sauce, then topped with sliced tomato, and a couple of slices of crispy hickory smoked bacon.

OUT

OF

THIS

WORLD!

280 i got to try that. man that's got me hungry now.

Just posted the full recipe

just saw it and printing it out.
thanks.

I love grits. Real butter, black pepper and perhaps some grated cheddar cheese. Mighty fine eats with buttermilk biscuits.

all this talk about grits has got me to thinking.

my Grandmother, rest her Soul, used to have a grits tree in her backyard. yielded the biggest individual grits i ever saw. just a few would fill ya plumb up.

won't ever forget the Sunday dinner when the new out of town Preacher came to eat Sunday dinner with us, right after closing his serman at noon.

after the obligatory fried chicken, potatoes and gravy, and green beans, he was asked if he'd like to try some grits.

his response, attempting to be PC in rural Georgia, was that he had never eaten any, but perhaps now would be a good time to try one.

Offer still stands, anytime, let me know, we need another Son of the South!

bacon,eggs and grits. and toast of course