Grits are a 'Southern comfort' food group

North Carolina is “grits country,” and the corn-based gastronomic delight is engrained in the culture and heritage of southern living. Do tell. 

If you were born north of the Mason-Dixon Line but have relocated to one of the southern states…and hope to “fit in”…you have two options. 

Either dig in and savor a big old bowl of creamy grits…or hush your mouth on this subject. 

“I’m always sketchy of people who don’t like grits,” wrote Jaycee Ford, a contemporary author and a native of Louisiana.

 

Janis Owens of Marianna, Fla., who has published multiple cookbooks, offers a historical perspective: “Grits are hot; they are abundant, and they will by-gosh stick to your ribs. Give your farmhands (your children) cold cereal for breakfast and see how many rows they hoe. Make them a pot of grits and butter, and they’ll hoe till dinner and be glad to do it.” 

Judy Peiser, co-founder and executive director of the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tenn., comments: “We Southerners grew up eating grits. Even today, they are still a staple of a Southerner’s diet, a tradition. I guess you could say that grits are the cement that holds the South together.” 

Author Sid Kirchheimer of Floridana Beach, Fla., makes the point: “Like noodles and potatoes, grits are chameleons of the kitchen, a neutral food whose character changes depending on what is served with – or on – them.”

Grits were introduced into southern cooking when the Native Americans served pots of “grits to Sir Walter Raleigh’s men and the subsequent Jamestown colonists,” according to Ciera Jade-Henry, a student at the University of Hartford (Conn.) and a contributor to the Spoon University digital media platform. 

Southern Living magazine tells us that the word “grits” actually comes from the Middle English word “gyrt.” It is the outer bran of any whole grain. The whole grain found in grits is corn – white, yellow or mixed. 

Sheri Castle, a storyteller at Fearrington Village in Chatham County, says: “Grits double dare us to like them. When a freshly cooked pot of high-quality grits is dolled up with butter and enough salt, it’s easy to see why they’re peerless on a North Carolina plate. In the right hands, grits are full of promise and potential.

“A thriving gristmill was once a strong predictor of a growing local economy,” Castle said. “Community planners usually built gristmills before schools and churches. Townships bloomed around them, and roads radiated from their sites. A few historic water-powered gristmills still turn in our state. 

“They’re often picturesque,” she said, “sitting alongside the millponds, swift creeks and natural waterfalls that turn their works. Heavy millstones waltz the corn into grits to the tune of the babbling water.” 

“When slowly simmered and attentively stirred, stone-ground grits are creamy, chewy, nutty, earthy and delicious,” Castle noted. “Instant grits often turn out insipid and…and there’s not enough cheese and hot sauce in the land to prop up that stuff.” 

Christin Mahrlig of Fort Mill, S.C., creator of the Spicy Southern Kitchen blog, agrees. She said: “No self-respecting Southerner would eat…or serve…instant grits.

In eastern North Carolina, Atkinson Milling Co., is a historic site. The original mill opened in 1757 on Little River in rural Johnston County, about midway between Selma and Zebulon. (North Carolina was still a colony when the mill was built.) 

The Atkinson Mill is the only water powered grist mill still operating in the region. Free tours are available. Go to www.atkinsonmilling.com.