On 8/30/2013 1:26 PM, Tina Manley wrote:
> Go to Charleston and have shrimp and grits at Husks. Better than any
> polenta, anywhere! If you buy Bob's Red Mill Stone Ground Grits, it says on
> the package: (also known as polenta). They are the exact same grain and
> grind. Difference is in the preparation.
This disagrees with on-line research. Traditional polenta is made from
cornmeal, ground whole dried corn.
Grits are made from hominy, corn cooked with alkali, in the same process used
to prepare masa South of the border. In
the process, the hulls are lost and important chemical and structural changes
occur in the grain, including the
availability of niacin. This process was a crucial part of a nutritionally
complete diet from what's now the US
Southwest to Patagonia for at least 3,200 years, probably longer.
Grits are nutritionally superior, unless the cornmeal is fortified with niacin.
I have no plans to visit Charleston, heading much further North to New England
in a couple of weeks. Perhaps this thread
will prod a couple of displaced Southerners into grits action. ;-)
Carol loves grits, but says a great, creamy polenta is still better than the
best grits she's had. She's of Neapolitan
extraction and raised in Brooklyn, so that makes sense. :-)
Culinary Research Moose
>
> Love my grits!
>
> Tina
>
> On Friday, August 30, 2013, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> On 8/30/2013 3:48 AM, Brian Swale wrote:
>>> Tina wrote;
>>>
>>>> Girls Raised In The South love GRITS! ;-) Just our name for polenta!
>>> I had to look up grits and polenta in Wikipedia to find out what you are
>>> discussing.
>> Technically, Tina is right. However, I have yet to have grits that come
> close in culinary quality to even a decent
>> polenta. Such may exist, but is not easily encountered in my casual
> travels in the US South.
>> Grits is bib overalls with faded flannel shirt in a yard full of the
> remains of defunct cars and farm equipment. First
>> class polenta is a stylish young couple eating at a nice restaurant in
> Rome (Italy, not Georgia). :-)
>> I've had bad grits and better grits. The best I've had is decent food,
> but as yet never good enough to be preferred to
>> alternatives.
>>
>>> Neither word is any part of the vocabulary in New Zealand - practically
> quite
>>> unknown.
>>>
>>> It seems that they take the place as a staple diet item of potatoes,
> which are
>>> very much a staple here. I feel deprived if the evening meal doesn't have
>>> potato - boiled, boiled and mashed, roasted. The best variety is Agria,
> a
>>> yellow-fleshed Dutch variety..
>> Huh. A wide variety of starchy foods is a normal part of the diet here,
> and, I think, in many parts of the world.
>> Potatoes every day would be weird and limiting, to me. We have Irish
> immigrant friends who don't eat potatoes every day.
>> :-)
>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>> I'm not quite so stuck in a rut now, and often cook noodles, rice,
> risotto (
>>> bought ready to cook in a packet), and spaghetti.
>> No quinoa yet? :-) Here, I'm eating grains and tubers I never even knew
> existed until recently.
>> Moose D'Opinion
>>
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