Schipperkesue":ig5a8uss said:
I was, however, quoting a previous comment about greasy grits. Are they indeed greasy? After all, I have never tried them, but if they taste like creamed wheat I am in.
No, grits all alone aren't greasy. Cooked the right way, they are creamy yet fluffy at the same time and taste...let's see, how does one describe the taste of grits? Ok, fasten your seat belts--this is gonna be a long drive...
Well, let's start with texture. If they are cooked well (at least, the way I like them) they sort of resemble a pile of mashed potatoes on a plate. Creamy, like cream of wheat or farina, but you can still eat them with a fork. They are cooked all the way through so each "bead" of corn is soft and tender but with a thin gel around the outside from having been cooked long enough. Overcooked grits can get like wallpaper paste; grits that have too much water are soupy and run all over. Undercooked grits are...gritty. Like eating waxy cornmeal. Undercooked or soupy, they don't soak up any butter or gravy or pot likker (the liquid left in the pot when you cook your vegetables for so long that they finally surrender) or other yummy liquids/fats, which is another purpose for grits. They are your starch on the plate that gives you quick energy and nutrients, helps stretch the meat, and captures every last nutrient and flavour of the more expensive foods.. The taste is very mild, in my opinion, but with a hint of earthiness and of course cornishness.
Southern foods usually have an interesting story, like just about everything else in the south. I have a fondness and admiration for traditional southern foods because they say so much about the people and history. Many traditional southern foods were items that were easy to grow or harvest, and were easy to preserve in some form during an era before canning or refrigeration was practical. A lot of methods of cooking came from ways of putting the most nutrition , calories and flavour into whatever you could get your hands on so you could keep your family's bodies and souls together while still showing a little love and flair. Many iconic foods were just practical: biscuits use simple ingredients, and could rise and be baked quickly in our hot summers, where yeast breads required yeast and more babying (and a hotter oven for a longer time.). And you don't want to waste those leftover cold biscuits. so you can fry up a little bit of sausage, mix it up with some milk gravy, season with salt and herbs you had growing around your house and pour some over each buiscuit. That way, you take sausage that would have fed one person and stretch it to feed four without making the portions or calories smaller. And with the amount of hard physical labor people were doing you needed every calorie you could get , so fat and lard were good. A lot of what has become known as Southern food comes from the slaves and peoples who worked the lands instead of those who "owned" them. They found ways to take the offal and less desirable meat scraps allowed them as well as garden items and food they could gather and turn them into the most flavorful and imaginative dishes out of necessity. So with all that said, I say long live grits! Long live pecan pie, cornbread and biscuits with gravy! All hail okra, sweet potaoes and turnip greens! And give a reverant "huzza!" to collards with fat back, country ham and black eyed peas!
Now, with all that said, when it comes to red velvet cake and boiled peanuts, the rest of you folks living in the south better step up to the plate 'cause I got nuthin'. Cake that has so much food coloring you probably spit pink for a week and mushy goobers that taste like burlap are getting no help from me...
