How different are grits from polenta?

[yvr girl]

I'm familiar with polenta, grits are hard to find in my neighbourhood.

[GOPisEvil]

1. About $10 on the menu.

They are basically the same thing, except grits tends to be white corn and polenta tends to be yellow corn.

They're prepared differently, but they are essentially the same thing.

[yvr girl]

3. Are grits ever served with a nice marinara sauce?

[Jara sang]

8. No but polenta is.

[GOPisEvil]

9. No. Usually grits are served with butter.

[jukes]

26. but here in the republic of GA

you can order "cheese/garlic" grits @ the waffle hausen.

or so i've heard.

[Richard Steele]

40. A good chef can do ANYTHING with grits.

My sweetie likes them with cheese and a sweet/smokey tomato-based salsa.

[Modem Butterfly]

2. Sort of like the difference between drywall and flour

One is an edible substance, the other is a joke played on Southerners everyday at breakfast.

If you've ever seen the way people down here eat grits, you know what I mean. They'll tell you they love grits, then load them with so much butter, cheese, ham, sugar, and who knows what all that they can't actually taste the grits. Which is good, because grits taste like wet drywall.

[skygazer]

6. And just when have you tasted wet drywall?

Wet drywall - rather a contradiction, wouldn't you say?

[Modem Butterfly]

11. Unfortunately, no

It's still called drywall even if you have a leaky roof. :(

[xultar]

7. NO THEY DON'T! n/t

[Modem Butterfly]

13. If grits tasted good, why would people put so much crap on them?

Seriously, whipped shit would taste good if you put enough butter, cheese, salt and ham on it. And, not coincidentally, so do grits. The less you can taste the actual grit, the better.

[Lex]

17. Most people I know just put a little salt, pepper, and a bit of butter

on their grits.

But if people didn't like the taste of them, I don't know why they'd eat them.

:shrug:

[Modem Butterfly]

21. Tradition, I guess

That and the stuff you put in there to cover up the taste of the grits actually tastes good together.

[forgethell]

30. Maybe they're

just using a different taste aesthetic than you are??

You don't like 'um, fine. Don't sneer at those of us who do.

[Modem Butterfly]

33. Who's sneering at you?

Eat all the dry wall you want, that way there's less for me. :evilgrin:

[jukes]

27. same reason SOME of them eat "fatback"

dirtpoor ignorant hillbillys that spend their welfare checks and faked workers' compensation on whitelabel beer.

(private rant against the EXTREME redneck that squats in the shanty behind my house: NOT meant to offend the sensibilities of southerners that grew up w/ grits as i did w/ oatmeal. if i've pist any1 off, i'm sorry.)

[forgethell]

29. And I love pancakes, but

I still put butter, syrup, jelly, and/or eggs on top of them. Starch needs fat to be palatable.

Grits are great if you know how to cook them.

[Modem Butterfly]

34. You had me 'til the eggs

Eggs on pancakes, yargh!

:puke:

But I do agree, drywall, er, grits, are good if you put enough good-tasting stuff on there that you can no longer taste the grits. But then, so is a lot of other stuff, too...

:evilgrin:

[forgethell]

35. Exactly right.

rice with no salt, pepper, butter, gravy, or Chinese ingredients gets old rapidly. so do most breads. A naked baked potato is mainly inedible.

But the taste of grits, by itself, is pleasant, if not particularly exciting. Besides, it's a old native american food.

[Modem Butterfly]

36. So's pemican, but I don't think that's a real popular breakfast food...

I'm not sure what it is with grits. Every Southerner I know either brags about how good they are while loading them down with all kinds of stuff just to make them palatable or otherwise they'll pretend to like them and only admit they don't when securely in the company of non-Southerners.

[forgethell]

38. I generally only

use butter, salt, and pepper. Although they go very well with saw-mill, red-eye, or sausage gravy. I also like another method, but seeing as how you didn't like the eggs on pancakes idea, I won't mention it here and will spare your delicate sensibilities.

Cheese grits require nothing else. But then cheese will make even broccoli palatable.

As a matter of interest, several higher class restaurants in the Birmingham and Atlanta areas are including grits on their dinner menus. It seems to be selling.

But, hey, I don't like sushi or sake, most white wines, un-cheesed broccoli, except raw is OK with ranch dressing, cooked spinach, olives except as a flavoring for something else, buttermilk, or squash of any kind. Most anything else I will eat with relish. Or at least try before rejecting.

[On the Road]

4. Are Grits Treated with Lye Like Hominy?

Hominy grits, that is? Maybe that's the difference. Grits are just the granulated version rather than the whole corn kernel. I understand the lye makes the kernels swell up and become softer.

[Jara sang]

Grits are loose

You can put sugar, butter,or cheese on them. Have you ever heard of Hominy? This place is really cool, you can order online. http://www.wadesmill.com/

[xultar]

5. Grits are good. Polenta is not. n/t

[yvr girl]

10. I LOVE polenta

Very good stuff.

[jukes]

28. or polenta is great

& grits are tasteless. depends on your background i guess. i grew up adjacent to an italian neighborhood in a midwest metro area.

chill the polenta o'er night, slice, brown in a little olive oil, top w/ a dab of really good marinara & a sprinkle of fresh grated asiago..

lovely, but prbly much the same as "cheese/garlic" grits, i guess. both have the blandness disguised.

[Lex]

12. Aha!

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season8/grits/true_grit_trans.htm

Alton Brown of Good Eats says:

" . . . when you remove the cultural part of the equation, grits and polenta are the same thing"

[chaska]

14. GIVE CHASKA GRITS NOW!!!

CHASKA HOMESICK. :^(

[Lex]

15. Here ya go Chaska:

[chaska]

19. Mmmmmm, better.

[KamaAina]

18. Please, I beg you, do not put the packets of mayo on the grits!

Eeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwww gross! :puke: :puke: :puke:

[chaska]

20. I'll try.

[ahem]

39. Mmmm. Not too runny/Not too thick. With a little pool of butter on top.

Piping hot with salt and pepper.

Grits. :9

[Rowdyboy]

16. Actually, you can let grits cool and solidify, slice them, and fry them

Then you could serve them with a nice marinara or anything else you choose. My preference would be a lemon butter sauce with shrimp and artichokes...

Here's a basic recipe

http://southernfood.about.com/od/gritsrecipes/r/bl00219b.htm

[yvr girl]

23. You can do that with polenta too

[chaska]

24. Nah....

I like mine with samon (canned preferably). Or maybe with my fried eggs mashed into 'em, with lots of Tobasco. Then too, eting it with lots of butter on toast (strangely enough) is pretty darn good too. But the best of all is with quail and quail gravy.

Oh, but I forgot about having them with ground hot sausage or bacon.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Polenta hasn't anything to do with Natalie Portman naked and petrified.

(You have to be a Slashdot veteran to get that.) :crazy:

[efhmc]

25. Equally nasty stuff, no matter how fancied up and expensive they are.

[mondo joe]

31. I love them both but they're not the same

Different consistency at the very least.

[bertha katzenengel]

32. polenta is slightly less disgusting than grits

[MissMarple]

37. Similar, but grits are made from hominy and polenta from corn meal.

Polenta is like our corn meal mush. Grits, well...they need a lot of butter.