Sorry, I wasn’t trying to give that impression. They are most definitely both made of corn. I was trying to use the masa vs cornmeal example with the assumption that it was understood that both are corn products, but I could have made that more clear.
He’s not from around here.
Simple Cooking, Mouth Wide Open and Serious Pig. SP is where is stole a really good baked beans recipe.
Coffee is in a lot of recipes I’ve run across. From a meat marinade, to making a BBQ sauce, and even brownies.
I use it a lot when making a brine for pork, poultry, or beef. Subtly enhances the flavours without becoming over powering.
ymmv, of course
I don’t do it myself, but my brother makes a very nice dry rub for steaks that includes coffee in it. It’s pretty damned good. I will very occasionally use coffee in some types of chili, myself.
I’ve tried stone ground corn meal from Norah Mill in Helen, Georgia, Jim Dandy grits, Dixie Lilly grits, Quaker Oats grits and Kroger store brand grits, and I’ve never been able to taste a dime’s worth of difference in any of them, so I just by the Kroger store brand as it’s cheaper. I use a fair amount of butter, a TON of black pepper, and a little salt. Some of the Mrs. Dash salt substitutes will enliven a bowl of grits nicely, even if you don’t need to control your blood pressure – I’m particularly fond of the Southwest Chipotle.
Also, don’t make a ton of it. I find that 2 tbsps of grits and one half cup of water makes a nice full serving. Grits are a big glob of carbohydrates, it does not take a lot to fill you up.
When I was a boy my dad one day brought home a number 10 can of hominy. Mom put it into a pot with stewed tomatoes, and served it up as our side dish for dinner that night. That was the night I decided that hominy was not actually made out of food. Several years later I heard of grits for the first time. And the label said “hominy grits.”
That was when I decided it grits were not made out of food. In recent years it has occurred to me that I may have been mistaken about this. I still haven’t tried them yet, though.
But the whole deal about being introduced to them as a breakfast food has me wondering. For over 50 years Tony the Tiger and his friends have been telling us that breakfast cereals are supposed to be sweetened. Why are grits exempted from this rule?
Because Tony the Tiger’s a yankee.
Yep. But I think the same is obviously true about the guy you responded to.
I can tell because he doesn’t like hominy.
I believe grits is one of the things we began eating during Reconstruction. Folks who are poor and eat ground corn can’t afford sugar. 
Oatmeal can also be eaten savory or unsweetened (really, any hot breakfast cereal can pretty much go either way.) Regular oats is just cooked with water and a pinch of salt, after all. I like to have mine occasionally with a poached or fried egg, some scallions, and a bit of hot sauce.
We call them Hoggly Wogglies.
Cue Wet Willie:
“If I don’t love you baby
Grits ain’t groceries,
Eggs ain’t poultry,
And Mona Lisa was a man!”
Re Tony the Tiger.
A few years back, before I ran the DeathPool, I got points as a player for the guy who was the voice of Tony from the time he first appeared, to just a few years before his death.
His name was Thurl Ravenscroft. Don’t know why he wasn’t big onscreen, the guy not only had a great voice but looked good too!
You will have heard him doing “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
This article and wikipedia both say grits originated with Native Americans. Well duh. But apparently the term had been used for other similar grain concoctions in Europe. I have no idea when it became a staple for a Southern breakfast, but I’d assume it was pretty popular going back before the Civil War. I recall something about breakfast cereal becoming more popular in the late 19th-early 20th century due to a glut of horse feed as mechanized transportation became more popular. I’m not sure if that’s true, or if it applies to grits if it is true. Dried corn keeps better than other grains so in the rough days of Reconstruction it may have been the grain most available, and grits is a simple dish just requiring the ground corn and water.
I spoke with a history teacher about my theory, ham bones, tripe, ribs, etc. and she suggested finding pre Civil War restaurant menus.
Thanks for the link.
I’ve seen the bones of Native women and the shoulders and backs are horrible from the being hunched down over those grinding stones. I’m assuming peasants in antiquity and the pre water milling days were as well. I swear I’d try eating dried leaves and grasshopper shells before I wanted anything that badly.
Not a Southerner but during the 1980s I was there frequently. I distinctly remember being told by more than one person that the only acceptable ways to eat grits was with one or more of the below:
Runny eggs.
Hot sauce.
Butter.
Black pepper and salt.
Sausage or bacon, including the resulting grease.
Cheese.
Damn, I am hungry now.
Has anyone ever made popcorn grits? I saw it a few times on menus and cooking shows. I think the method is, make popcorn, soak in water, push through sieve. I could do that! But SHOULD I?
I’ve had shrimp and grits at a wedding. The shrimp was, I think, in a sauce (and I cannot remember for the life of me). The grits were triangular wedges, deep fried to a crisp brown, like potato patties.