All about Grits

[JDOCKERY132445]

The BEST cornmeal is Joy Brand cornmeal. Their facility burned to the ground several years ago and my mom called me in a panic. I had to go buy all I could find and put it in the freezer for her. Thankfully, they rebuilt and I can find it locally.

[Weasel]

Has anyone mentioned grits with butter, and then mix up a fried egg with them? That's my favorite...

[Newstar]

This thread had me a-hankering for grits. I ordered shrimp and grits at a local brew pub the other night. They were good but not as good as mine. Guess I'm going to have to make a batch.

[JackRiepe]

[QUOTE=Bullet;862795]Next morning, slice the Grits into squares and fry them in 1/2″ of cooking oil and butter until they turn a golden brown.

Dear Bullet:

My name is Jack Riepe (code name: Steel Mammoth), and I am writing directly in this BMW Forum for the first time ever. I am not quite sure of the protocols and I am using a dictation program that is highly critical of my writing style, personality, and choice of friends. Please forgive any unintentional deviations from the norm. I wanted to write a highly sensitive, informative, and complimentary comment to your statement. What comes out of this dictation program is anyone's guess.

I am delighted that you took the trouble to demystify the origin and history of "the grit." In my native New Jersey (a state in which people are famous for their pleasant and trusting nature), grits are assumed to be one of the more edible parts of opossums, easily harvested after the animal's unsuccessful experiments with crossing a road. Your explanation and detailed background of the grit was compelling and inspirational. It had my mouth watering for grits. Not finding any in the kitchen, I had a rum and Coke instead, which was a great breakfast option when I was 19.

I love grits. In my blog and in my column, I have celebrated the grit as one nature's most perfect foods. The southern breakfast is one of the most delightful expressions of culinary perfection one will encounter in the US or the world. (I would rather have breakfast in Alabama than sex in Moscow, but that is not exactly the same thing.) I have had grits in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia (which is not quite south but two world's over from Pennsylvania.) For creation of the grit, southerners can be forgiven for the fried green tomato, which is the forerunner of the clay pigeon.

You are quite right in exposing "Wheatina" and "Cream of Wheat" for the "good morning slap in the face" they are. Yet if northerners do not eat grits as a rule, and if southerners left the Union over the question of state's rights and instant grits, this begs the unspoken question, "Who eats instant grits anyway?"

Not wishing to highjack this blog into an "oil thread," I timidly question one of your facts. Regarding the reanimation of the grit as a leftover, you advised, "Next morning, slice the Grits into squares and fry them in 1/2″ of cooking oil and butter until they turn a golden brown." It is my understanding that everything in the deep south is fried in a deep puddle of lard. Lard is the rendered fat of a pig, left over after the children are through chewing the hides for clothing. I was told that lard is the preferred frying medium for chicken-fried steak, pork ears, collard greens, chitlins, corn bread, cat fish, opossum snouts, and yesterday's macaroni and cheese-flavored spackle. I'm assuming next day grits can only be improved by lard as well. Have I got this right? Culinary authenticity is my passion.

I thought your piece on grits was one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

Sincerely,
Jack Riepe
AKA Steel Mammoth

[Newstar]

Not to hijack this wonderful thread but since Jack mentioned Lard, I feel I must share a new delicacy, pig butter.

Put some lard in a mixer with some finely minced onion, salt and pepper and whip it for 7-10 minutes. If that's not a cholesterol jolt, add a bit of chopped bacon bits. This, my friends, is heaven on a piece of toast!

[lvermiere]

[QUOTE=JPRiepe;865070]

Next morning, slice the Grits into squares and fry them in 1/2″ of cooking oil and butter until they turn a golden brown.

Dear Bullet:

My name is Jack Riepe (code name: Steel Mammoth), and I am writing directly in this BMW Forum for the first time ever. I am not quite sure of the protocols and I am using a dictation program that is highly critical of my writing style, personality, and choice of friends. Please forgive any unintentional deviations from the norm. I wanted to write a highly sensitive, informative, and complimentary comment to your statement. What comes out of this dictation program is anyone's guess.

I am delighted that you took the trouble to demystify the origin and history of "the grit." In my native New Jersey (a state in which people are famous for their pleasant and trusting nature), grits are assumed to be one of the more edible parts of opossums, easily harvested after the animal's unsuccessful experiments with crossing a road. Your explanation and detailed background of the grit was compelling and inspirational. It had my mouth watering for grits. Not finding any in the kitchen, I had a rum and Coke instead, which was a great breakfast option when I was 19.

I love grits. In my blog and in my column, I have celebrated the grit as one nature's most perfect foods. The southern breakfast is one of the most delightful expressions of culinary perfection one will encounter in the US or the world. (I would rather have breakfast in Alabama than sex in Moscow, but that is not exactly the same thing.) I have had grits in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia (which is not quite south but two world's over from Pennsylvania.) For creation of the grit, southerners can be forgiven for the fried green tomato, which is the forerunner of the clay pigeon.

You are quite right in exposing "Wheatina" and "Cream of Wheat" for the "good morning slap in the face" they are. Yet if northerners do not eat grits as a rule, and if southerners left the Union over the question of state's rights and instant grits, this begs the unspoken question, "Who eats instant grits anyway?"

Not wishing to highjack this blog into an "oil thread," I timidly question one of your facts. Regarding the reanimation of the grit as a leftover, you advised, "Next morning, slice the Grits into squares and fry them in 1/2″ of cooking oil and butter until they turn a golden brown." It is my understanding that everything in the deep south is fried in a deep puddle of lard. Lard is the rendered fat of a pig, left over after the children are through chewing the hides for clothing. I was told that lard is the preferred frying medium for chicken-fried steak, pork ears, collard greens, chitlins, corn bread, cat fish, opossum snouts, and yesterday's macaroni and cheese-flavored spackle. I'm assuming next day grits can only be improved by lard as well. Have I got this right? Culinary authenticity is my passion.

I thought your piece on grits was one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

Sincerely,
Jack Riepe
AKA Steel Mammoth

You SIR, are the main reason I continue with my MOA subscription after all these years! Cheers.

[36654]

Not to hijack this wonderful thread but since Jack mentioned Lard, I feel I must share a new delicacy, pig butter.

Put some lard in a mixer with some finely minced onion, salt and pepper and whip it for 7-10 minutes. If that's not a cholesterol jolt, add a bit of chopped bacon bits. This, my friends, is heaven on a piece of toast!

AKA Schmutz..........or, grease trap pate

[36654]

[QUOTE=JPRiepe;865070]

Next morning, slice the Grits into squares and fry them in 1/2″ of cooking oil and butter until they turn a golden brown.

Dear Bullet:

My name is Jack Riepe (code name: Steel Mammoth), and I am writing directly in this BMW Forum for the first time ever. I am not quite sure of the protocols and I am using a dictation program that is highly critical of my writing style, personality, and choice of friends. Please forgive any unintentional deviations from the norm. I wanted to write a highly sensitive, informative, and complimentary comment to your statement. What comes out of this dictation program is anyone's guess.

I am delighted that you took the trouble to demystify the origin and history of "the grit." In my native New Jersey (a state in which people are famous for their pleasant and trusting nature), grits are assumed to be one of the more edible parts of opossums, easily harvested after the animal's unsuccessful experiments with crossing a road. Your explanation and detailed background of the grit was compelling and inspirational. It had my mouth watering for grits. Not finding any in the kitchen, I had a rum and Coke instead, which was a great breakfast option when I was 19.

I love grits. In my blog and in my column, I have celebrated the grit as one nature's most perfect foods. The southern breakfast is one of the most delightful expressions of culinary perfection one will encounter in the US or the world. (I would rather have breakfast in Alabama than sex in Moscow, but that is not exactly the same thing.) I have had grits in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia (which is not quite south but two world's over from Pennsylvania.) For creation of the grit, southerners can be forgiven for the fried green tomato, which is the forerunner of the clay pigeon.

You are quite right in exposing "Wheatina" and "Cream of Wheat" for the "good morning slap in the face" they are. Yet if northerners do not eat grits as a rule, and if southerners left the Union over the question of state's rights and instant grits, this begs the unspoken question, "Who eats instant grits anyway?"

Not wishing to highjack this blog into an "oil thread," I timidly question one of your facts. Regarding the reanimation of the grit as a leftover, you advised, "Next morning, slice the Grits into squares and fry them in 1/2″ of cooking oil and butter until they turn a golden brown." It is my understanding that everything in the deep south is fried in a deep puddle of lard. Lard is the rendered fat of a pig, left over after the children are through chewing the hides for clothing. I was told that lard is the preferred frying medium for chicken-fried steak, pork ears, collard greens, chitlins, corn bread, cat fish, opossum snouts, and yesterday's macaroni and cheese-flavored spackle. I'm assuming next day grits can only be improved by lard as well. Have I got this right? Culinary authenticity is my passion.

I thought your piece on grits was one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

Sincerely,
Jack Riepe
AKA Steel Mammoth

Jack,

Have you ever met a cracklin? You've known squat about Lard until you've faced a cake of cracklin's

A neighbor in PA

[JackRiepe]

Dear 36654:

I once found myself in a country tavern overlooking the Rhein. It was a traditional sort of place where social events just needed a good putsch. Simple heavy planked tables bore the stein rings of Olympic drinking bouts and held huge plates of coarse rye bread, accompanied by crocks filled with something that I thought was sweet butter. This substance was the color and consistency of shortening. No stranger to most indigenous food, I spread some on my bread and ate it with gusto. My German host looked on with amazement.

He explained I was eating "Schmaltz," or clarified goose fat. Germany is another one of those places where they eat every part of an animal, except the noise it makes. I thought the schmaltz was okay. Your recipe for pig butter sounds like something similar. It even has a similar name. I have had cracklin' but again, I was in the deep south. The depression and the years following the war between the states got people eating anything. I once saw a starving southern belle swallow a whole political speech ÔÇö promises, lies and all ÔÇö after it had been fried in lard. Never underestimate the power of pig fat.

Sincerely,
Jack Riepe/ AKA Steel Mammoth

[Ken F]

Ah Jack, good to see you here finally!

Ken

[JackRiepe]

Dear LVermiere:

That was a very nice thing to say. Thank you. I'm afraid I let you down this month, though. I missed the deadline for my column in the March issue owing to circumstances. I developed a flat spot on the back of my head. Turns out it was caused by a former wife who whacked me with a frying pan . She is still pissed about the microwave I gave her mother one Christmas. Her mom had a pacemaker and I had removed the seal from the microwave's door. (I thought her mom was a good dancer naturally.)

I am trying to get Vince to post a replacement column on the MOA website so it can at least be read electronically. Then again, I am posting for the first time in a month on Twisted Roads (my blog ÔÇö http://jackriepe.blogspot.com/) late tomorrow. That's like a column, except a bit more pointed.

Sincerely,
Jack Riepe/Steel Mammoth

[JackRiepe]

Ah Jack, good to see you here finally!

Ken

I called the MOA today and a nice lady walked me through all this. I asked for her name, in case I had to call back with questions, and she replied, "The Next Operator..." That's a cool name.

Good to see you too, Ken...

Sincerely,
Jack Riepe/Steel Mammoth

[MANICMECHANIC]

Mm.m.m.m.m, scrapple!
There, somebody had to say it.

Good to see you on the Forum, Jack!

[JackRiepe]

Mm.m.m.m.m, scrapple!
There, somebody had to say it.

Good to see you on the Forum, Jack!

Dear ManicMechanic:

I'm just here for the recipes. I met a woman yesterday... I invited her over to split a pitcher of pig butter tonight. That should break the ice.

Fondest regards,
Jack Riepe/Steel Mammoth

[MANICMECHANIC]

Well, Jack, I remember meeting you in a hotel bar a couple years ago in Bloomsburg. Good times then! Details shall forever remain buried.