Guess what I'm having for breakfast....

[2bearslumber]

...a bowl of GRITS!  And it's not bad at all...I was actually surprised to find this item at the grocery store, but I got curious after reading so many references to grits here, especially ohsoloco's posts on "sawdust grits".  

How do you grits eaters prepare yours? I can imagine a bowl of grits would taste good with some bacon on the side. I put a bit of maple syrup on  mine, but that isn't quite the right taste combo, is it? Needs something spicy, like jalepeno pepper jack cheese. Maybe some onions....I'm having a half of a ruby red grapefruit on the side and watching the snow come down outside.


Thanks for introducing me to a new food.

[Tom]

Way to go, 2bearslumber!

Your right, Grits is better as a "savory" dish.  I like mine with salt, pepper and lots of butter.  It's also good with eggs, bacon, (I crumble bacon in there sometimes) and different gravies.  Red-eye gravy is popular but most pan dripping type gravies are good.  Yep, just the pan drippings sometimes.

They don't even need a separate bowl.  If the consistancy is right, just put a bunch on your plate with your eggs and stuff.  They won't run all over everything.

Remember that the leftovers are good too.  You cut them into 1" pieces, dip in an egg wash and fry.  (bacon grease is best)  Makes a good 'nother meal.

I'm proud that you like'em

[HOGFARMER]

Salt pepper and plenty of butter is the way I eat mine.  We generally have fried eggs and bacon or pig brains (fried) with them.  Tom is right left over ones sliced and fried can be used with any meal doesn't have to be breakfast.  Now that you have tried grits try hominy.  You will probably like it too.

[2bearslumber]

Riiiight.....I'm such a northern girl I had to look up red eye gravy Tom    Ham drippings and coffee makes red eye gravy, huh? Sounds wicked good! Mmmm--I can almost taste it. I already bought a ham for Christmas dinner. Perhaps I'll try grits with red eye gravy the next morning. Or maybe just fry up some in bacon grease. Oooo! I think I gained weight just thinking about that.

Do you happen to know why it's called "red eye" gravy? Just curious. It's a funny sounding name to me.

Nancy

[2bearslumber]

Salt pepper and plenty of butter is the way I eat mine.  We generally have fried eggs and bacon or pig brains (fried) with them.  Tom is right left over ones sliced and fried can be used with any meal doesn't have to be breakfast.  Now that you have tried grits try hominy.  You will probably like it too.

[SCREAM!] Are you teasing me? No way will I EVER eat pig brains!       uh-uh!  No. No way.

I think I did try the hominy. All we had at the store was Quaker Quick Grits. At the bottom of the label it says "Enriched White Hominy"

Nancy

[Paschale]

Oh my.  Another northerner's been led astray by the Southern Culinary Brigade.    Let's all of us northerners have a moment of silence in memory of our fallen comrade.  

Be strong, northerners!  The only thing you have to fear is fear itself, and eating bizarre things like grits.    These southerners are charmers, for sure, and it's easy to get caught in their wiley webs of grits and hominy.  Don't give in!  See...they're sneaky.  First it starts with grits, made by our friendly Quaker Oats man, a comfortable face.  Who doesn't trust something that comes in a box with a beaming Quaker?  That Quaker man on those boxes of grits is a wolf in sheep's clothing!  That's how they lure you in--something familiar, which brings back memories of childhood of hot oatmeal steaming in a bowl.  But before you know it, you're eating pig and squirrel brains.  See...that's their real agenda.  Pretty sneaky!  The only thing to do is to be strong and courageous!  And it's time we start our own offensive against the SCB:  anyone up for some pasties?  

2bearslumber, it's not too late for ya.  I think you're "standing in the need of prayer."    

[Wannafish]

Myself, I'd rather have sumpin' pickled.  Pickled Bologna, Pickled Pork Hocks, Pickled Pigs feet, Pickled Turkey Gizzards, Pickled Eggs, Pickled Cow Tongue, Pickled Deer Heart, and ...
a beer!  

Now THAT's a Meal!

(Budweiser...it ain't just for breakfast, anymore)

[Tom]

I can't speak for the Budweiser but pickled stuff is mighty good.  I like it for heavy snacks in the woods especially.  Pickled Pigs feet or sausages, or eggs.......  stuff like that is good on a fishing trip.   For a meal at the table I prefer stuff from the kitchen though.

Hominy Grits is made from hominy,  2bearslumber.  You might like plain old hominy too.   It is in the full kernel rather than being ground and my favorite is fried in the frying pan after the bacon is done and when it begins to brown just a little, dump in a half dozen eggs and scramble them.   Hominy is also good cooked with green beens kinda like you would "new" potatoes or just as a side dish on its on.  You'll find Hominy in the canned goods area with the green beans, corn and stuff like that,  if your grocer carries it.

It's pretty good and I think variety is the spice of life. Stuff like that is really neat to fix if the people at the table have no idea what it is. Even if you don't eat it regularly, it's neat to experiment with foods that are popular elsewhere. Setting a table like that makes sure that your family never gets bored or entrenched in only one food.  I'd hate to eat if the only thing on the table was Milky Way candy bar every day.  Just think of what the kids will say, 20 years from now, about the "Table Momma Set".

Paschale,
We're undermining the stodgy "live in a rut" lifestyles that some folks have developed.

If there is one thing you can bet on a Southerner, it's that he won't go hungry for very long.

"The South's Gonna Rise Again!"  

We just don't want anymore of that violent stuff.


Besides....  with all the corn y'all grow up that-a-way, it amazes me that you don't make grits and hominy a staple.  We're just trying to teach you what's good to eat.

[etat]

If there is one thing you can bet on a Southerner, it's that he won't go hungry for very long  "The South's Gonna Rise Again!"      

Tom, that's exactly what I was thinking reading this thread.

[OneWithWood]

Well I hate to but I'm going to wade in here on this little discussion.

I have eaten hominy and grits since I can remember.  However, they have never become a staple of my diet, merely a once-in-a-while variation just to remind me that there are lesser palatable ways to fix corn for consumption

Real grits is made from field corn - we normally feed that to the livestock.  

I guess when you are surrounded by fields of sweet corn and high grade popcorn grits just don't get on the table much.

Nothin' against southern cuisine - I love cajun food!

[Tom]

Glad to hear that you aren't afraid to try something different, OWW. Part of the fascination comes from growing up with certain foods.  An open  mind keeps you from wearing blinders.  I like sweet corn too.

I guess there was a time when "our" society had to look towards meager pickings to find something to eat.  

We're Survivors!  

[mitchetb]

Yeah, at least us northerners don't eat disgusting stuff.  We play it safe with things like scrapple, puddins, and of course hog mall (sp?).

TM

[Tom]

Welcome Mitchetb !

My little brother, Charlie, was amazed at some of the food fare in Minnehaha when he moved up there.  We Southerners aren't the only ones to have the keys to the kitchen when it comes to eating "Stuff"

What's Hog Mall?  

[Percy]

I had the "grits" once from a very nice elderly American couple in a campsite that were travlin Canada. They figured the skinny kid on the motorcycle need somthin to eat. Well I was very polite and atem all(if they are kind enuff to offer, ya gotta eatem with a smile) but the stuff woudda made a buzzard puke. I been told that this may have been an anomaly but...I dont think so.

Nancy ,Ive ate pig brains(Baba called it headcheese..hmm)and while it wasnt somthin Id put on my toast everyday, it was better than the grit....I mean grits

[Tom]

Head cheese and brains are two different things down here.  Head Cheese is also called Souse in someplaces and is made from the meat and Gelatinous substances produced when the head (meat & bone) is boiled.  Usually quite spicy it is made into a loaf and sliced.

Too bad you're experience with Grits was a bad one. At least you tried them and know that you don't have to starve to death now.

[Timber_Framer]

Grandad served calf brains with saurkraut and rye toast at his bar during the holidays and Grandma always made headcheese each fall. I don't get either one any more sure do miss all four of em.
Ya'll will love what I had fro breakfast this mourning Chicken gizzards and gravy over rice! I mean a full pound of gizzards tossed in spicy flour and sauteed in butter and when they were just browned I added a cup of fresh home made chicken stock and let er thicken up!
Man! I'm gettin hungry all over again

[mitchetb]

Tom,

The real PA Dutch on here can correct me were I might go wrong, but hog mall (sp?) is stuffed pig stomach.  The authenic stuffing includes some of the wonderful things that also goes into scrapple (all the leftovers that are not quite up to hotdog meat standards).    

[Tom]

Oh-h-h-h--h ! !

Kinda like Haggis. ........cept different

[2bearslumber]

Alright--settle down now guys. I don't want to be the cause of a fight breaking out. My sincere apologies to you southern boys and girls. Shame on me for turning my nose up at eating (gasp!) pig brains for breakfast! It seemed...well....just..WRONG to eat something's brains--initially. But I guess they could be good. One never knows until one tries. Just like Green Eggs and Ham, you know?

I'm not a very adventurous eater, but I suppose if I had a few beers first, I might possibly be up to trying pig brains.

Please tell me they are at least spiced, or made into sausage or ground up. I'm trying to find a recipe to ease my queasy stomach, but haven't found one yet.

My brother-in-law brought back some goat cheese from France once. I turned my nose up at it too, but my mother-in-law said to me: "When I think of goat cheese, I think of Heidy and her grandfather up in the mountains..." She made it sound so wholesome and safe, that I tried some. It tasted good, for about a second. Then the after taste hit me. All I can think to describe it is what it might taste like to lick the hind end of a goat. And that taste seemed to bond with my tongue for hours afterward.

But at least I tried it. I'll go get started on the beer. Someone pass the brains, please.  

Tom, I'll look for canned hominy next time I go.

[hosslog]

Headcheese makes real good sandwiches when yer workin in the woods. I have to order it an the gals at the store call it that yuk stuff. Don't unnerstand

[Paschale]

Alright--settle down now guys. I don't want to be the cause of a fight breaking out.

Don't feel bad, 2bearslumber!  It's all in good fun.    It's a longstanding friendly discussion about the relative virtures of cuisines north or south of the mason dixon line that, from what I understand, has been going on since the beginning of the forum.  In fact, on your profile page, there's an option where you can say whether you're a grits person or not.  Debatin' and arguin' is half the fun!    This topic comes up in random threads from time to time, and everytime, people jump right in and make their case--and enjoy doing it everytime.    All I can say, though, is that the non-grits faction is right.  

[ohsoloco]

I thought headcheese and souse were two different things....at least the way we make souse anyway.  While browsing through one of my favorite catalogs (Cumberland General Store) I saw a cast iron souse pan that had the face of a pig on the bottom so the souse would...well, look like a piggy face    The recipie they had in there was for headcheese, which, from my understanding, would be kinda like a meatloaf looking thing    Souse is a little different, since it's usually the meat from pig's feet, and other parts where you kinda have to just pick little pieces of meat off of other stuff (head meat would work too), and it's in a gelatin suspension (my dad always used unflavored gelatin to make it set even better).  Even seen tongue souse before    and it's good stuff.  All the homemade souse I've had has been heavily peppered with coarse cracked black pepper, and is best served with some vinegar poured over it  

[Engineer]

These 'r good:  

Deep fried pickles
Cow's tongue
Chicken livers 'n onions
Red flannel hash
Single malt

These 'r NOT good:  

Brains
Head cheese
Haggis
Cream of Wheat
Grits

'Nuff said.

[Phorester]

Being a Southerner what married a Yankee...., lots of my favorite foods as a child are not offered at our table.  Actually I never got into the grits thing, although I love hominy, salt cured ham, pinto beans, blackeyed peas, corn bread, crappie, bluegill, bass, but since the cook doesn't.....  I either fix'em myself, wait until we visit Mom, or go without.  Can't complain about my wife's cooking though.  Lordy can she bake!  Biscuits better than Mom's (just don't tell Mom that - but nobody can beat Grandma's biscuits), cakes, pies, cookies.  Can't believe I don't weigh 400 pounds.

I am amazed, though, by the tremendous variety of human foods around the world, and the number of ways just one food item can be prepared.  I often wonder how in the world some of these were created.  I suspect either by accident or from people who were actually starving and had to cook that pig brain or die, cause that's all they had.  (Who in hell thought to fry that first slice of green tomato?)

[EZ]

Pig brains, I'll be DanG, I forgot all about pig brains. My mother use to fry them up for breakfast for us kids. We ate the heck out of them.
Aint nothing better.  
EZ

[ohsoloco]

My great grandparents were immigrants, and my grandmother had ten brothers and sisters.  The sole breadwinner (my great grandfather) died very young and his wife was left to raise 10 children (one of the daughters died prematurely as well).  Great grandma didn't speak English, so her job was a homemaker...my dad said she'd spent all day out in her garden, since that was their food.  Hard times probably doesn't come close to how they had it, but my dad said one of his aunts used to like to eat the chicken heads, probably just to get more food in her belly    Got me thinking real hard about the food that my grandmother used to prepare, like tongue, souse, tripe, beet leaves (roll em up in bread dough and bake, then dip in sour cream), and all those innard dishes that are so tasty    Most of it originally came from necessity, and now we've come to realize that it's just good eats  

[Faron]

Beef brain sandwiches have long been a staple in German resturants and taverns in Southern Indiana.  They have also long been a featured item at the big West Side Nut Club Fall Festival in Evansville IN. What with fears of mad cow disease, I understand the supply has about dried up,  forcing resturants to either drop them or go to pork brains, which are supposed to be inferior.  I've eaten them a few times,  kind of remind me of a meaty scrambled egg.  

[HOGFARMER]

Yes I do like eggs brains and grits for brekfast.  In southern Ohio this is quite popular.  We also have fresh side meat fried sometimes instead of bacon.  Someone mentioned pickled cows tounge, it can be sliced and makes a wonderful lean sandwich meat.
  Once I had supper with my vets family and they served me calf fries which were also good.  I won't tell you what part of the calf they are.  Sweetbreads (thymus gland from a calf ) are also popular in this part of the country.
  It is funny how different parts of the country vary in what the people like.

[hiya]

When we buchered pigs.The brains went in the scrapple, with the heart,liver,head meat,etc. My wife would clean the stomack, then  stuff it with potatoes, cabbage, onions, sausage and bake it.
Richard

[Tom]

Is that the same think that mitchetb was calling Hog Mall?

[Paschale]

Hmm...I bet the biggest reasons people started trying every part of an animal was simply for economic reasons.  You spend a lot of time/energy/money in fattening up your animals, and you better find the most efficient way to use as much of it as you can.  All those "non-traditional" things I guess are called offal.  And often times, as people became more affluent, they left behind the offal, and just ate the choicest cuts.  But there's an interesting movement in "haute cuisine" of serving offal.  The best chef in the country, Thomas Keller (I'm a fan of this guy) apparently really enjoys cooking with offal.  So what was once the domain of homesteaders, has now moved into the dining rooms of the $150 plate miniumum restaurants.  Pretty ironic, I think.

Here's a really interesting article on how offal is the new trend in fancy dining.  So your headcheese, and pig's brain and the like--well, y'all should bring down some northerners from New York City and charge 'em $100 for some scrambled pig's brains, with a side of grits!  :-)

http://slate.msn.com/id/2099281/

[hiya]

Tom, I think it is the same.

With a hog you eat everything but the squeel.
Richard

[Haytrader]

 

We never did eat the curl in the tail.

   

[Tom]

We tried to eat the squeal but couldn't catch it.

[CHARLIE]

I am literally laughing my butt off. And that is a lot of laughing. This thread went from grits to hog and beef innards and brains.   Where else could that happen but here.

[EZ]

Ok how about shunk cabbage. Dad use to boil it in the house and you didnt want to be in there for 3 or 4 days, but after it was done we had a feast.  
EZ

[2bearslumber]

 I thought skunk cabbage was poisonous......however, the fiddleheads that come up alongside it are delicious! I still have a mess of them in my freezer. I try to ration them out over the course of the year so I don't run out.

[HOGFARMER]

Another thing that we ate for breakfast that you might find more to your taste was pumpkin blossums.  You did them in batter then fry them in bacon fat.  Salt cod fish was also used for breakfast.

[MULE_MAN]

I like to keep it simple  I had fry ham & eggs & toast ,  a cup of coffee
and I'm happy  

I sometimes think if it wasn't for talking food, we wouldn't have  Forum.  

But you got to eat to saw  

               MERRY CHRISTMAS  MULE-MAN

[DanG]

I guess the local demographics dictate what the stores carry. Where I shop, you can get most any part of the hog. The proper term for pig stomach is "Hog Maws".  I'm surprised nobody has mentioned chitterlings. They call them "chitlins" around here, and they're made from the intestines of the hog. Most folks draw a line between what they will eat and what they won't. My line is drawn WAYYY before you get to chitlins.

We have a large Mexican and rural Black population here, so the stores(locally owned ones) accomodate their tastes. At Quality Meats, they keep a big stack of cow heads in the freezer, and sell a lot of them to the Mexicans for $20 each. Chicken feet are almost as expensive as the breasts. It is a fair-sized, self service type store, and about 15 feet of cooler space is dedicated to chicken, about the same to pork. The beef cooler is a little smaller, but the "Parts Department" takes up about 30 feet.

[ohsoloco]

Leave it to the ones that eat grits to eat the intestines    Intestines are for stuffing bologna and sausage  

[OneWithWood]

All I gots to say is when you are hungry you will eat anything.
I grew up hungry!  

[Chet]

Ain't never tried da pig brains but have eaten scrambled calf brains, yum-yum. Da UP has a very diverse ethnic heritage, including da Finns. On of da popular dishes of da old Finns in this area is Kalla Mojakka (fish head chowder). For some reason the only way I see myself trying this delicacy is blindfolded.  :-/

[pasbuild]

Every year the DNR will go out with the local commercial fishermen to do a count on there catch this is the only time of the year that they can keep lake trout. I volunteer my time filleting fish to get the trout cheeks.
BETTER THEN LOBSTER  

[2bearslumber]

BETTER THEN LOBSTER  

Oh-oh.....I think he's gone and done it now.....

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Ahhhh, just finished a BIG Plate-O-Grits. Made 'em with Bacon Grease, Butter, and a few small chunks of Jalapeno cheese. MMMmmmmmmmmmm.

[MULE_MAN]

What ever happen to good Ole Bacon & Eggs  

Surely you people down south have Chickens & Hogs      

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Make that Fried Chicken and Bacon & Ham. It all goes GOOOOOOD with them Grits.  B,sides, them Aigs is got Kohlisterall.  

[Jeff]

Well, this morning I went all out for the ethnic food.

I had a big bowl of Lucky charms.

[Kevin_H.]

Now we are getting into an area I know something about...Ya aint liv'n unless you are having capt'n crunch with crunch berries...

Once in a while, for a special occasion I will get the box of nothing but crunch berries

you may, if you like switch to peanut butter capt'n crunch once in a while.

lucky charms has way too many marshmellows...

[Jeff]

I also like apple cinnamon or nut-n-honey cheerios. with sliced up nanners

[Tom]

I like some of those cereals too.  But, they are so-o-o expensive.  I can eat 2 or three bowls and still be hungry by 10 AM.    

My favorite has to be  "N" Shredded Wheat Biscuits.  Granddaddy ate them.  

Charlie and I would watch the ceremony that he performed when he prepared the two biscuits in his bowl and it made us want them too.  

Grandmomma would tell us, "Boys, that's n adult cereal.  It' too coarse for little boys".  

"Shucks!",  I wanted some Shredded Wheat.  

I'm sure that she was just looking out for Granddaddy's cereal so that he would have some.

Guess what I bought when I got married and moved out of the house.  A Box of Shredded Wheat.

Grandmomma was right.

[ohsoloco]

I had to stop eating captain crunch when I no longer needed my retainer, which acted as armor for the roof of my mouth.  That stuff cuts it up pretty bad    I was just shopping the other week and discovered a new treat, peanut butter toast crunch  

[SwampDonkey]

Surely you folks have heard of taters down south. No one ever starved on boiled taters, brook trout or salmon with fresh spring fiddleheads. You can grow taters where corn won't even grow in cooler climates. Now let's not take that to the extreme, cause we sure can't grow stuff at -10 F , but we can ice fish.

[SwampDonkey]

Hey jeff that's right up there with Rice Crispies, Shreaded WHeat, spoon of honey and a topping of sliced nanners. That's me weekend breakfast dish.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm not partial to trout cheaks, sounds desparate to me. I'll dig out me left over lobster to make a couple lobster rolls thanks. Tastes dang good to me.  

[2bearslumber]

Ah SwampDonkey, you're my kind of people. Nothing beats fried potaotes with crab apple jelly, fiddleheads, and while I'm not partial to fish, I love to go catch them! Fiddleheads sort of smell like fish though, ever notice that?

When the fiddleheads are ready (right around Mother's Day here) I cook up a big mess of them along with some buttermilk biscuits. And that's my official "first fiddleheads of the season" meal. (It's ok to put molasses on your biscuits when eating fiddleheads, but I prefer just plain butter.)

[SwampDonkey]

My stomach's growling in response, don't know if ya can here it.

[sprucebunny]

Is that a friendly growl  


Chewy has seen a lobster or two but is really more interested in bait

[etat]

Shucks, my Viennas of choice used to be Red Bird Imitation Vienna Sausage.  They used to be lots cheaper than the other brands and was a little bit milder taste. They was just kinda throwed in the can.  I remember when they was 20 cents a can.  I liked em.  The fact is them ingredients in them was about all of the above stuff mentioned, and maybe then some.  If ya ever read the ingredients they used about ever part of the animal you couldn't use somewhere else, pork and chicken included.

I don't like the Red Birds near as good as I used to.  Now they are just like other vienna's and are packed neater in the little can.  Just ain't the same as when they used to throw everything in there.

However, I do have a question that I just can't get out of my mind.  And that's getting back to them trout cheeks.  Considering how I'm usually a pretty good eater I was just a wandering how many of em it would take to make a meal.  Not that I'll ever get my hands on that many, ain't no trout around here.  Mostly bass, brim, crappie, and of course catfish.  But, I was just a wandering.

[Timber_Framer]

Well if he's gettin cheeks froma comercial fisherman it should take much time to get a meal of them. Good ones are  abit bigger tehn a quarter.
Trout season reopens after the first of the year for lakes inside the BWCAW so that's where I'll be on the 2nd of January...I'll be on the couch all day on the 1st

I have an area south of my house that's about threea cres that is full of fiddle heads! Butter, garlic and lemon juice is how I fix and I can't think of much that goes better with FHs then those tasty little speckled trout!

[Furby]

Yep, peanutbutter capt. crunch!  
Them lucky charms get mushy WAY too fast!

Course I did have bacon, eggs, and a grease fried bagel the other morning.