Putting Food By, part 7

Grits, where I come from, are a necessary addition to a stick-to-the-ribs breakfast of fried country ham, homemade sausage, fresh from the hen house eggs scrambled up with some smoked goat cheese you've made yourself and some big fluffy biscuits whipped up from scratch.

You have already made your hominy, canning some and drying the rest. It's the dried hominy that you make the grits from. This is 'true grits' rather than that scion of grainy wallpaper paste that cooks in three minutes and comes, today, in a box from the grocery store.

You'll need some sort of grinder for making grits. Or you can do it the really old time way by putting the dried hominy on a flat rock and then grind it down with another rock till you've got grits. Let's use the grinder.

Using the grinder is really simple. Just set the grinder for coarse grind and keep adding hominy till you've either wore yourself out or you have enough grits ground. The dried grits store very well as long as it is put into mouse-proof containers and kept dry.

To cook the grits just add boiling water to it and cook till they are tender, sometimes as long as four hours. So it is best to plan ahead by either cooking them the evening before or if you've got lots of morning chores to do, put them on to cook just as soon as you light the fire in the cook stove. You can add salt to the grits while they cook if you like.

To measure the grits for cooking add about three and one half or four parts water to one part of grits. Remember, they are going to swell as they cook so use a big enough cooking pot. To get them cooked quicker, put them to soak in water over night, then cook them in the water they soaked in.

If you cook too many grits it is no problem to use them. Pour the leftover grits into a flat buttered cake pan and set them in a cool place. The grits will settle into a slab that can be cut into squares or slices. Put a fry pan on to heat with a bit of lard, then use a spatula and remove the grit slices from the cake pan and place them in the hot lard. Fry them until they are brown, turn then over and brown the other side. You can do the same thing with cooked cornmeal, which I like better. Fried cornmeal tastes like corn chips only much better, as well as crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. There is a recipe for them at the end of this section right after my cornbread recipe.

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