Well, that batch of grits I got at Great Lakes was
1) Served up around 9:30PM by a cook who seemed a tad irritated about having his TV time interrupted by actual work.
2) Still in a great big mixer bowl right fresh out of the freezer, no condiments or utensils in sight.
...I’m afraid that combination soured me on both grits and Navy cooks for good. (My opinion of the cooks only got lower after getting stuck in Training Commands for most of my “career”....)
Maybe we’ll do some running a bit south of Denver this next summer and try some REAL grits, just on your recommendation.
...never too late to learn things.
Cooks in the sub fleet were OK, but I share your lack of enthusiasm for the “Grit”
Hell we had cornbread in the north, Chicken fried steak and all, folks down south get most animated about some odd staples,
I suspect that’s all there was....
In the North we would take cornmeal and mix that with pig scraps all ground tight and fry that and douse it in maple syrup
Grits indeed LOL
Grits are kinda like toast, in that they are not all that exciting until you put something on them. They're pretty good as a side dish with butter, salt and pepper. Or with melted cheese. Melted cheese with bacon. Topped with a couple of eggs, sunny-side-up.
Grits with fried-chicken gravy sounds pretty decadent, or with green beans fried up in bacon grease.
It seems, that the process of turning corn into hominey actually makes it more nutritious than plain old cornmeal.
Similarly, the by-product corn mash, after being fermented to make ethanol, is a better cattle feed than the original raw corn.