Help with Corn Grits

Ok, my wonderful and wise American friends, what do I do with these? I bought them on a whim from the wholesalers today...

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I have absolutely no clue, so comprehensive advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!

Celia

That looks like great scratch feed for yard chickens. As for grits, they aren't ground finely enough. Grits sold as such in the USA (especially Southern USA) are ground to about the same degree as cream of wheat cereal, coarser than cornmeal. What's in your bag is equivalent to cracked wheat, and does indeed look almost exactly like cracked corn sold as scratch feed here.

Here's a link to a Website that sells Southern foods, with pictures.

Here's a better site with better pictures, actually showing all the steps in making grits.

Hi, Celia
I'd say what you have is definitely a dried corn. But, until it's ground it is not yet a grit! I'm with Robert on this, it looks more like feed corn than a culinary ingredient. I see on the pkg that it say Nuts & ... There must be some other instructions on the back that tells you how it might be used. If you have a local grainery, I'd take it there to inquire and/or be ground to your desired size or culinary interest. Then, experiment -- or write us back when you have something different to work with. Good luck!

Use it in a mash to make Bourbon. Just in time for the Derby!

Grits are not made simply by coarsely grinding corn. You have to use hominy--corn that has been treated with lye to release the niacin.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

Not entirely correct, Paul. There are corn grits and there are hominy grits. Corn grits aren't much different from coarse polenta.

Grits are not made simply by coarsely grinding corn. You have to use hominy--corn that has been treated with lye to release the niacin.

There's something about watching a water-powered stone mill in action that is very relaxing to me. maybe it's the slow pace, or the aroma of freshly ground corn, but I like it.

Oh for goodness sake. Chicken feed? Lucky I only paid $2.61 for the packet.

No instructions at all, since they were bought from the wholesaler, who just packaged them up into bags. I'm going to experiment and see what I can find to do with them.

Thanks!

Celia

If I wanted to try and turn that chicken feed into a meal I would probably give it a long simmer, and perhaps add butter and molasses to the water. If you have some regular corn meal (like flour) and you got this stuff soft and edible you might make a corn bread or spoon bread and add a bit of this for texture.

I don't know though, I have some doubt that it will cook up tender and tasty... Looks like it might be tough stuff even after boiling.

Celia, hi from Melbourne
I have bought the same product from, curiously, an Asian store, called yellow maize grits.
Your post a) finally brought me out of lurking and
b) set me to cooking my grits
I haven't got far yet but may save you some time if you haven't already begun.
I tried steaming in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes to not much effect.
However, cooking in water in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes achieved a result. Of sorts. Bland, not much corn flavour but plumped up and a nice slightly chewy texture certainly useable in a variety of ways where you might use other cooked grains. Have not time yet to go any further.
The packet directions advise soaking for several hours, adding (sic) water, bring to the boil for 2 minutes and leaving it covered for 1-2 hours until plump.
I also tried "popping" it which produced nothing even vaguely edible, which is obvious if I had stopped to think about the physics of that process for maybe ten seconds!
Interested to follow your progress with this stuff.
cheers

Hi Barb, and welcome - always nice to have a fellow Aussie here!

I'm capitulating and giving my "grits" to Christina for chook feed. We managed to produce something edible by soaking them overnight and then boiling them up until they were soft. Towards the end of the cooking time, the liquid became quite creamy and I added some parmesan cheese and pepper on a whim. Ended up ok, but not something I'd cook again - like you, we got a chewy, grain-like result somewhat reminiscent of barley.

I hope you have better luck with yours than I did!

Thanks, Celia

To me that looks like what our Publix (local supermarket) sells as Golden Corn Homin...not the whole kernel (chips of the kernels, some whole), yellow, dried. It's packaged by Goya, which does a lot of Latin ingredients/products...Pulled it out and see there is a recipe for Hominy Corn Chowder: Soak 1/2# overnight; Drain, rinse, cover with 4 c. water, cook 1 hour. In skillet, cook 2 slices bacon--take bacon out, chop and reserve; remove most of grease, add 1 chopped onion, 2 potatoes, peeled and shopped, 1 stalk celery, chpped..Cook. Add 2 Tbsp. flour, stire..Add this mixture to hominy. Add 2 bouillon cubes. S and P. cook til hominy is tender...Finish by adding 2 c. milk; heat until just hot. Garnish with chopped bacon

Photo of what's in my cupboard (I was developing a recipe w. hominy and bought every type of hominy I could find...in case anyone was wondering what on earth this was doing in my cupboard)...

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My "grits" have gone to a friend, and as a result her non-laying chickens laid eggs last week! So they were good for something..

After taking a gander at the images, I believe those corn products--particularly the Goya--could be used to make posole/pozole, an easy and tasty dish to make in a crockpot.

Probably, Larry--I've always used canned hominy for posole--lazy cook that I am. But I've got this now...might as well try to use it (I know no one with chooks to feed! )

feed them to deer or squirrels. I bought some too, my squirrels won't eat them and the deer don't come into neighborhoods, so if you come up with something that is edible, let us know.