Here’s a curiosity: Having lived in The South all my life, grits was a staple, as was “regular” corn.
However, only a few times in my life have I ever been at a meal where whole [sup]1[/sup]hominy was served. So, I wonder, is hominy eaten (commonly) in other parts of the country. I eat out a lot, and I have never been to a restaurant that served it. Grits, however, is readily available, and many restaurants have their own specialties in the way that they create various [sup]2[/sup] grits concoctions.
So, if you are a long-time Southerner, did you ever get hominy often? I see it in the supermarkets, so someone must buy it. If you’re not a Southerner, have you ever heard of it or eaten it?
[sup]1[/sup] Non-southerners sometimes refer to grits (short for “hominy grits”) as “hominy.” When I say “hominy,” I mean whole hominy–corn kernels with just the hull and germ removed. “Grits” is cracked-up hominy.
[sup]2[/sup]BTW, if anyone is interested, the annual St George Grits Festival will be held in April in the lovely burg of St George, SC, just off I-95 some miles south of the I-26 interchange.)
I live in Denver (been here my whole 27.6 years) and we frequently ate hominy when I was growing up. White hominy, to be exact. Yum. Just put a little salt on and you’re good to go. We had it usually with pork chops and stuff like that. Probably 2 or 3 times a month, and it was canned.
I’ve never had it at a restaurant, though. I never noticed if they serve it anywhere. Probably do at the Black Eyed Pea.
I was raised in Florida, and never saw Hominy in a restaurant that I can recall.
However, when I was an impoverished college student in Calif. we used to make a casserole that involved Golden Hominy, hamburger and cheese, inexpensive ingredients in those days. (The recipe came from a student at Reed College in Portland, OR.) I liked it, but my wife doesn’t, so I haven’t made it in years.
We had hominy when I was a kid. I hated it. But maybe it’s hatred by association. We were a family of 4 kids, not a whole lot of money. Sometimes I think we were trying to set a world record for the consumption of Spam, hot dogs, and salmon croquettes, served with, hominy.
I have eaten hominy all my life. You can find hominy in mexican restaurants that serve menudo. Menudo is a delicious soup/stew made with tripe, hominy, peppers, tomatoes, onions and other ingredients. A bowl of menudo and some fresh warm tortillas is heaven.
I make a kick-ass vegetarian chili by adding a can of yellow hominy to meatless black bean chili. The corn+beans make a complete protein, not to mention being mighty tasty.
I also throw it on taco and various other salads, and have been caught eating it out the can like candy.
I want to try toasting it in the oven; are not Corn Nuts™ merely toasted hominy?
I, too, am a southerner who grew up eating hominy (yellow, with butter and salt) but have never seen it served in a restaurant. Hmmmmmm, Mjollnir may have identified a niche market that needs exploring. This restaurant will need a name. How about:
International House of Hominy (IHOH)
Hominy Heaven
Hominy King
Ad Hominy 'em
Hominy Can You Eat? (a buffet style restaurant)
Hominy, Hominy, Hominy
Hominy House
I grew up eating hominy fairly often. What is far better, however, is the southwestern version of the same food: posole!
Especially with fresh pork and lots of chile pequeños!
I’m from Maryland and as a kid, we would often eat hominy at my gramma’s house. I always liked the stuff which we usually ate with gravy.
Decades later, I remarked to my girlfriend that I hadn’t eaten hominy in years and come to find out, she had NEVER tried it. We were off to the grocery store to get a can and then served some with dinner.
The result? Blecchh. Awful. Borderline disgusting. And that was MY opinion of the stuff. I don’t know what I had been thinking all those years ago but I suppose it was an acquired taste that is now forever lost.
Fine with me.
Cook a pork roast (about 4 lbs.) in crock pot until tender. No need to add water. It will cook in its own juice. Reserve juice. Strip pork off bone, discarding any fat or gristle. Freeze half the meat for use another time or to put into another dish.
Cook dried posole in crock pot or pressure cooker until tender. Use pork drippings as part of the liquid, adding water until posole is covered + 15%. If no dried posole is available buy two large cans of white hominy. Drain.
Made a mixture of stripped pork, hominy or cooked posole, pork seasoning, salt, pepper, and red chili paste.
Red chili paste is made from boiling 14 large pods of dried red chili pepper in water until moisture is re-absorbed. Peel peppers discarding seeds and peelings.( Wear gloves to peel peppers). Put peeled peppers into blender with a few tablespoons of water and puree.
If red peppers are unavailable, pure ground chili powder may be substituted to taste. (Start with 1 Tb.) Serve with Tabasco sauce for those who want it really hot. (Chile powder at the grocery store is a mixture that contains garlic and other undesirable ingredients. Ideally look for genuine Chile powder at Mexican grocery store).
As an australian, I’m impressed at the many different ways you can cook and eat this vegetable. Obviously the origin of the expression as captured in the song …oh, hominy range…
Seeing this thread is a funny coincidence. In the grocery store today (in York, PA) I saw cans of hominy for sale. Not unusual in itself, as I’ve seen it before, but I realized that, when I lived near Williamsport, PA, about 100 miles to the north, no hominy was available anywhere.
epeepunk’s mom makes great hominy - NOT from a can, thanks! Baked home-cooked hominy, YUM. I’d never had it before joining the family, never seen it in a restaurant, either.
MIL grew up on a SE Pennsylvania farm (ish - don’t know how much they grew for sale, but I do recall her telling tales of being paid by the rat - one of her chores was killing rats…), I think they ate it growing up, too. So it definitely exists north of the Mason-Dixon line (humming: “sailing to Philadelphia, a world away from the coaly Tyne, sailing to Philadelphia, to draw the line… the Mason-Dixon line…” yeah, Mark Knopfler)
Now, I’m assuming that what she cooks is the ‘real’ hominy, and not just grits, but it seems much coarser than the grits I’ve had.