Grits

[zimmerstutzen]

You sure it was scrapple and not puddin' (liver pudding)

Puddin' is disgusting stuff. Pork skins, lips and livers ground up into crumbles and cooked until it congeals.

here in PA, we have scrapple, mush, ponhaus and (liver) puddin' Puddin is disgusting stuff and smells terrible when cooking. Mush is just pork broth and corn meal cooked together. Scrapple is like mush, but with small bits of meat included.

 

[satx78247]

Well,

All that I know for sure is that Annie's Mennonite grandmother called it "scrapple". - And that I didn't like it at all.
(Over the last 6+ decades, I've learned that couples don't have to like the same things in food or much of anything else.)

Fwiw, Annie and I are "close enough" to have adopted our daughter together & remain close friends.

yours, satx

 

[crockett]

On the fried grits. Left over grits solidify into a block and some folks cut into small squares and fry and then pour molasses over them- a breakfast sort of thing. If you are a "newbie" from the north you might think of grits as more of a breakfast thing- they always sell them with oatmeal, etc in the super markets. If you have morphed into a local grits become more of a dinner thing. Shrimp and grits, etc. The corn aspect of grits actually makes them a good thing with any fish fried in cornmeal- go well together.
And kicked up a notch with tabasco, jalapeno, etc- indeed.

 

[Black Hand]

Grits and cornmeal mush (also known as Polenta) are essentially the same thing.

 

[mr.flintlock]

My wife and I were recently in Savannah and went into a restaurant. When I looked at the menu I saw a dish they offered was shrimp & grits. I ordered it and it was in a large bowl and it had grits, shrimp,Kapasa sausage, crispy bacon bits, bell pepper and maybe a few more things. It was floating in sauce of some kind. It was pretty good but I thought it would have been better without the sauce. I am going to try to re-create without the sauce here at home. I believe a little jalapeno would give it a little kick. It would be a great meal for deer camp.

 

[George]

Grits and cornmeal mush (also known as Polenta) are essentially the same thing.

It's true that cornmeal mush, aka hasty pudding, and polenta are the same, but that doesn't hold for grits. Grits are not made of plain cornmeal as the others are, but from hominy. Corn is converted to hominy by treatment with a base, such as lye, is then dried and ground into meal. That's hominy grits, commonly called grits. If you grind it into flour instead of meal it becomes masa, the basis of corn tortillas.

Spence

 

[54ball]

I've read accounts of Benjamin Hawkins, The first US Indian Agent for the southern tribes and Sam Dale, a frontiersman of the same era.

In 1796 Hawkins stated the Indians would cook their corn in the hot coals and sift the ashes and pound the corn into a coarse flour. Then they would boil it in their coffee and sweeten it with honey. But only honey harvested at a certain time of year because the Indians believed that honey made when a plant, I cannot recall was in bloom, It was poison.

Sam Dale mentions bags of Corn Coal Flour in his 1794 GA militia provisions. I can't help but think this is the same stuff and is a cousin to grits.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

shrimp & grits. I ordered it and it was in a large bowl and it had grits, shrimp,Kapasa sausage, crispy bacon bits, bell pepper and maybe a few more things. It was floating in sauce of some kind. It was pretty good but I thought it would have been better without the sauce. I am going to try to re-create without the sauce here at home. I believe a little jalapeno would give it a little kick. It would be a great meal for deer camp.

I would make a "shrimp & grits" for my boys. It was just a bowl of good Grits a little butter, with about 4 Vary spicy HOT, salty, slightly sweet shrimp. Nice way to feed 4 people with less then 1/2lb of shrimp.

*** Made the shrimp by cooking the shells in Thai sweet red chili sauce, and some of about anything spicy hot in the kitchen :redface: Cooked it down till it was a little thicker. pull the shells to one side drop shrimp in the thickened sauce (away from the shells) about a min a side. Salt, drop in a bowl & cover with grits.

 

[BillinOregon]

Grits are not easy to find out here on the West Coast, and when I do, I order them.
Like many, my ancestors came in Yankee and Southerner versions.
But I have to admit that it wasn't until my first trip to the South -- my newspaper sent me to the Pointer Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida -- that I had the chance to eat the real deal: catfish, grits, fried plantain, Key lime pie, hush puppies. I was in heaven!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Apparently, though, they stop at the US border. My wife if from seriously South of the US Border, and won't touch the stuff. My kids got the food gene from her, though they are all Southerners by birth, they won't touch 'em either. (The kids do have Scottish in them and will touch oatmeal... I will do either, and even Farina or Creme of Wheat.)

Well....more grits for me. :grin:

LD

 

[crockett]

Scottish huh- me too. Wonder if haggis was ever eaten on the frontier? There are white and yellow grits and the yellow have more of a "corn" taste. The choice depends on what else you are eating. On the shrimp, I suppose crawfish are native in many areas so crawfish and grits might be a pc thing.
Tell your kids there is a newly discovered food; "American Polenta", It's real expensive and not many folks know about it. Only true gourmets eat it. :grin:

 

[Billnpatti]

For a while we lived in Southern Indiana. Grits was not unheard of but was not nearly as popular as here in the south. But MY! My! My! I discovered a dish that should have come from the south. It was fried mush. That stuff is delicious with either salt and pepper on it or with syrup on it. It is very similar to fried grits only it is made with boiled cornmeal that is allowed to cool and set up just as one dies when making fried grits. If you have never tried it, it is simple to make. Just boil some cornmeal just as if making grits and then let it cool overnight in a loaf pan. The next morning, slice it up, roll it in cornmeal and fry it. DE-LICIOUS!!!!!

 

[gearheart]

Stir some bacon bits or chunks into that cornmeal before it sets up. :thumbsup:

 

[Preacher Jeremy]

I've added minced apple, cinnamon, and brown sugar, once set up and fried, they make a great dessert. :grin:

 

[Billnpatti]

Yep, both those ideas sound good, too. I'm going to have to give both a try.

 

[satx78247]

You have "reinvented" a GREAT "pore folks" one-dish meal out of rural Italy. - It's the same thing as fried polenta & "our guys from Italy's army" told me that it's a traditional "shepard's dish" & was often "taken in a pocket out to graze the flocks".
(Italian "rednecks" often put "left over" lamb, chicken, cheese and or pork into polenta before chilling it overnight & then frying it.)

yours, satx

 

[tenngun]

And just is good is plain old fried mush.Cook it up put it in a bread pan and cool over night. Serve sweet with maple syrup,or spicy under peppered eggs.You can make fried bacon sandwichs with it also.
Some hae meat and cayn nay eat,some would eat that hae none,we hae meat and means to eat so let the lord be thankth

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Our mush is done in huge cast kettles over a fire, but a dutch oven or other pan will do. We boil pork bones until all the left over meat falls off and then strain the broth. The broth is brought to a boil again and, while constantly stirring, then yellow corn meal, a little salt and pepper to taste, are added and cooked until it becomes real thick. After another 15 minutes, again, constant stirring, it is removed from the fire and placed into loaf pans and permitted to cool and "set". The congealed mush is sliced in 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch slices and fried in a medium hot skillet until crispy on both sides, but still soft in the center. Some folks like syrup on it. I prefer apple butter. Scrapple is very similar, but has ground meat (almost always pork scraps) included and the meal added to thicken it is about half corn meal and half wheat flour.

Small batches can be made in crock pots

The recipe for Indian pudding is very similar to the recipe for mush. However most folks use milk and water instead of meat broth and while the cornmeal is cooking, cinnamon, mace and a sweetener are added. The end result is a dish that looks similar to and tastes like pumpkin pie filling. The consistency is a little more grainy though. Quite good. In early days, the mixture was placed in a small pumpkin and steamed for a couple hours until the "pudding" set.

 

[crockett]

Well I've never done it but you guys have motivated me to try. So fried corn meal mush. Question- is it pc?

 

[Rev_William]

Where I grew up they called this scrapple if you added ham or bacon to it. pour it in a mould and sliced it once cold before frying it, it seems scrapple is different depending on what part of the country your from.