The Nitty Gritty

[hwilson41]

Sorry guys... I regularly buy canned yellow HOMINY for use in my variation on Texas Caviar. And it is hominy. Big swole up kernels.

OK Fifi, fess up. When I make Texas caviar, I use black eyed peas. How about a recipe for the hominy version? TIA.

THW

[fifi]

The original I started from was in the Pace Picante cook book (no longer available and the recipe isn't on their web site either). I think it had a can of blackeyed peas and a can of hominy. It has morphed over the years... Red bell pepper instead of green, added celery and sometimes jicama for crunch, parsley instead of cilantro (lots of cilantro haters in my crowd), black beans and/or garbanzos instead of the peas, onion, garlic, picante sauce and cider vinegar. I don't have a recipe per se but I will put what I have in RecipeGullet.

I choose the yellow or white hominy depending upon the color mix I am after. I don't find any taste difference. I don't recall finding any taste difference between yellow and white grits, either.

[Mabelline]

Some N/A's still use wood ashes to produce hominy. I used to have a nutrition chart of the minerals involved in hominy made in Hopi and Zuni fashion(they use a particular species of desert shrubby bush called saltbush in Hopi). Pile it in a big pile on a cleaned sand area. Burn for hours,piling on more, watch that fire you kids! Gather up carefully and store. Now, something else- that explanation of a cracker is weird and has no relation at all to what I learned growing up.

[forever_young_ca]

For what it's worth, I HATE cream of wheat, but love grits....

Thanks for the explanation on grits. I hated c-of-w as a child, but love it as an adult, so I am sure that I would love the real thing.

I will keep an eye out in a Vancouver specialty store and see if I can buy some.

[Dave the Cook]

Well, I'm confused. One source (not that mine are on the level of Thorne's) said that dried corn was steamed to remove the hull and germ. To me, this means a water-based process. Maybe this is still considered to create hominy as the intermediate product? Or do you suppose that "hominy" is being used for marketing purposes because it sounds authentic and nicely old-fashioned?

I'm going to dash off an e-mail to Quaker to see what they can tell us.

I finally received an answer from Quaker:

Historically the word hominy has been used and the name in our product and was never changed. The term Hominy is hulled corn with the germ removed. Quaker uses mechanical methods to remove them. (sic)

They did not respond to my specific question about the use of alkali, but based on thier response, I assume that they no longer use it, if they ever did.

[fifi]

Doesn't sound like hominy to me. If it isn't processed with an alkali, it isn't hominy.

Dave, I think you nailed it here:

Or do you suppose that "hominy" is being used for marketing purposes because it sounds authentic and nicely old-fashioned?

[stevea]

I'm late coming into this discussion, but it's been a fascinating read. Thanks much, folks.

I recently mail-ordered some southern white grits from Hoppin Johns (in South Carolina, I think). They are advertised as whole-grain, stone ground. I made some last night (4 cups water, 1 cup grits, 1TBS butter, salt, a little milk at the end, and about a half cup of cheddar mixed in off heat) and frankly, they were FABULOUS, the creamiest, most luscious grits or polenta or whatever you call it that I've ever had.

However, they did take about an hour to cook on the stove. And here's where my question comes in. When I buy yellow polenta, it only takes about 15 minutes to cook and the texture is soft but a bit grainier. I have a package of Bob's Red Mill grits in my pantry now. It claims to be all natural, etc, and the instructions say to cook for five minutes or so. It doesn't claim to be instant grits, but is this what it actually is? I mean, if I stopped cooking the Hoppin John grits at five minutes, I'd have had stone soup. So there must be something different in the products.

[hokan]

Hello from three years in the future.

Has anyone still reading here a source of real hominy grits. And by "real" I mean nixtamalized -- lime processed.

Quaker claims to have hominy grits, but has redefined "hominy" to exclude lime processing.

I've emailed a number of regional mills on have gotten only negative replies.

I suppose I could make my own but I'd have to buy a grain mail and find a source of whole dry corn.

[Kent D]

Hello from three years in the future.

Has anyone still reading here a source of real hominy grits.  And by "real" I mean nixtamalized -- lime processed.

Quaker claims to have hominy grits, but has redefined "hominy" to exclude lime processing.

I've emailed a number of regional mills on have gotten only negative replies.

I suppose I could make my own but I'd have to buy a grain mail and find a source of whole dry corn.

←

I've always got my grits from War Eagle Mill in Arkansas, but I believe they're just yellow corn grits, not specifically hominy grits. I did see a mention on another message board about Anson Mills, somewhere in South Carolina, and this post said that they DID have hominy grits, but I don't see anything definite on their website. They do have quite a mix of grit products, including commercial volumes. If you haven't already, you might check with Anson Mills, or even War Eagle.

oh, and here's the thread on mouthfulsfood.com forum. Along with a discussion of grits, mush, and polenta, there are several snarky comments about Rachael Ray.