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But now, if you go to the Waffle House, you'll get runny grits (I like them, but not everybody), and if you go to a good restaurant, you'll get them lumpy (like them too), but I prefer them sort of in between, LOTS of butter.
Lumpy grits? No self-respecting Southern cook would ever serve lumpy grits. If they're lumpy, you didn't stir them enough. The only option then is to throw them out and start over.
Waffle house grits are lumpy or one big glob because they have been siiting for awhile.
Cracker Barrel grits are ok only if you have them when they open. Thats about only time they make grits, rest of day it also turns into one big glob.
The best grits I would give to I Hop its creamy like a bowl of oatmeal.
Ditto Ihop. Must have mixed up Dennys and Waffle on being too soupy. I like them halfway between soupy and globby... if I make them at home, I go for in between, add lots of real butter, salt and pepper is good, unless using package grits which are already too salty. Ohhhh, I gotta quit visiting this thread. I just LOVE grits with breakfast. There is an Ihop opened last year a mile down the road... chemo makes a person hungry at the oddest times, I'll go down there next week maybe. Yum, yum. Garth, we gotta get you INTO this stuff. Just chance it at an Ihop breakfast place, next time you feel good and Southern.
What a fun thread!
My dad and mom grew up in the NC mountains...as did their families back through the 1700s. Fried chicken, fried pork chops, diced potatoes fried in an iron skillet. A streak o'lean for breakfast if you're rich, or for dinner if you're poor. Or if you're real poor, as mama was, you take a chunk of fatback, slice it real thin with the gristle still on it...use the fat in the skillet for cooking other stuff and gnaw on that fatback and gristle. And biscuits made with buttermilk!
Green beans, cooked in just a bit of fatback and a little water...cooked all afternoon, of course. And lots of "shellies," which are the beans from the green beans that have matured and are a little too tough to cook...unless you're real poor that week. A couple of hours before dinner, add some cut-up potato. But don't eat the potato until you've put the beans in the springhouse overnight. They're better the next day with the green beans.
No grits in the mountains...that corn was way too valuable for corn squeezins!
My dad loved livermush...usually eaten at breakfast. Mom and dad also liked scrambled eggs with brains (pigs' brains), and pickled pigs feet. And even when mom was in her 80s and hadn't eaten it in probably 50 years, she talked about squirrel stew, made from fat squirrels shot by her father out in the woods.
Just don't eat the meat from the black critter with the white stripe down its back!
Last edited by Southlander; 03-19-2011 at 10:08 AM..
I agree with southlander--my parents cooked and ate that stuff when we were growing up. Plus they fixed country ham with red eye gravy. Milk gravy with fried steak or chicken or of course home made bsicuits is good too! I remember my dad eating pig brains scrambled in eggs--I could never bring myself to eat them though. Fried chicken livers on white bread with mustard is good--liverwurst sandwich with mustard was good too.
My ex mother in law always wanted me to cook green beans because she loved the flavor and how they are kind of soft, not crunchy--it's the fat back or crisco added to them when cooking! Add them to fresh boiled potatoes in the spring and early summer-yum!!
My favorite but not sure if it is a NC thing: tomato sandwich with mayo, tomato has to be perfectly ripe and room temperature...best if it sort of drips when you bite into it!!! I'm making myself hungry!
Barf, gag, yuck, grits. My Dad was born and raised right here in Murphy in very W NC and he'd rather starve than eat grits. (me too). Now the tomato sandwich, that turns me on but grease in green beans doesn't do a thing for me, nor shellies, nor fatback, nor gravy and biscuits, nor anything greasy whatsoever. The liverwurst sandwich sounds great but you must have rye bread!!!
Barf, gag, yuck, grits. My Dad was born and raised right here in Murphy in very W NC and he'd rather starve than eat grits. (me too). Now the tomato sandwich, that turns me on but grease in green beans doesn't do a thing for me, nor shellies, nor fatback, nor gravy and biscuits, nor anything greasy whatsoever. The liverwurst sandwich sounds great but you must have rye bread!!!
You're definitely in the minority here if you don't like grits. I don't know a native Southerner who doesn't like them. As far as putting fatback in green beans, that's pretty typical. It does give them a better flavor, but it's not the best thing for you.
And if you don't like biscuits and gravy, you need your head checked, haha.
Also, it's livermush, not liverwurst. I know liverwurst was just mentioned, but that's not a Southern food. And sorry, but we really don't eat rye bread in the South. :P
Here's another thing that I don't understand - Hushpuppies. It appears to be a southern food because I've never seen them anywhere else. I went to an Asheville fish restaurant a few years ago and ordered dinner. I got brown fried catfish, brown hushpuppies and brown french fries. Everything was the same color It didn't quite work for me!
I had never seen hush puppies before so I had to ask about them. I also asked the waitress where the vegetables were. She told me they were the hush puppies - fried corn meal. As my grandparents would have said, Ish Da . . . perhaps even Fi Da!
I've tried to like grits, but it doesn't work for me. The only way I can get them down is to put brown sugar on them. I just don't see the point in that. It's using the grits as a medium to eat piles of sugar, so I stopped trying long ago.
As for the hush puppies - never again. It just hits me as a reason to ingest a bunch of fried grease, which I prefer not to do. I guess I'll have to stick with corn only from the cob in Summer.
BTW, does anyone know of a place with good BBQ beef ribs around here? Yes, I know pork is where it's at, and I like them fine. However, I'm having BBQ beef rib withdrawl.
Here's another thing that I don't understand - Hushpuppies. It appears to be a southern food because I've never seen them anywhere else. I went to an Asheville fish restaurant a few years ago and ordered dinner. I got brown fried catfish, brown hushpuppies and brown french fries. Everything was the same color It didn't quite work for me!
I had never seen hush puppies before so I had to ask about them. I also asked the waitress where the vegetables were. She told me they were the hush puppies - fried corn meal. As my grandparents would have said, Ish Da . . . perhaps even Fi Da!
I've tried to like grits, but it doesn't work for me. The only way I can get them down is to put brown sugar on them. I just don't see the point in that. It's using the grits as a medium to eat piles of sugar, so I stopped trying long ago.
As for the hush puppies - never again. It just hits me as a reason to ingest a bunch of fried grease, which I prefer not to do. I guess I'll have to stick with corn only from the cob in Summer.
BTW, does anyone know of a place with good BBQ beef ribs around here? Yes, I know pork is where it's at, and I like them fine. However, I'm having BBQ beef rib withdrawl.
Haha, since I grew up eating hush puppies, it seems weird to me that you'd not have heard of them. They're pretty common. But if you're not from here, I guess it kinda makes sense. I love hush puppies, though. By the way, I can't officially confirm this, but I think the oblong shaped hush puppies are almost entirely exclusive to WNC. Everywhere else seems to make 'em into round balls. Also, the inclusion of onions is not something we do with ours, either.
I grew up eating grits, too. I love 'em. I don't understand why so many people who aren't from the South have a problem with 'em. It's not like they're made of some weird animal part. It's just ground up corn, is all. And again, I dunno why any would put sugar on their grits. They're not s'posed to be sweet.
I like corn on the cob, too, of course.
As far as beef ribs, you might be outta luck. I've never encountered such a thing, except for when my friends (from Pennsylvania/Colorado) made 'em. I guess you could try your hand at it?
And I had no idea what you were talking about with the "Ish da," and "Fi da," until I Googled it, haha.
Oh, and I know you seem to be opposed to anything fried or deep fried, but you oughta try friend okra. It's definitely one of my favorite foods.
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It appears to be a southern food because I've never seen them anywhere else. I went to an Asheville fish restaurant a few years ago and ordered dinner. I got brown fried catfish, brown hushpuppies and brown french fries. Everything was the same color It didn't quite work for me! 
- fried corn meal. As my grandparents would have said, Ish Da . . . perhaps even Fi Da!
The only way I can get them down is to put brown sugar on them. I just don't see the point in that. It's using the grits as a medium to eat piles of sugar, 
