Grits as Icon and Sacrament: Mothering through Food

Grits as Icon and Sacrament: Mothering through Food

Grits are an iconic food of the American South. I grew up with them. My mother was from the piedmont area of central North Carolina, and she fixed them for breakfast frequently. My father was from the mountains of North Carolina (Ashe County), where he ate hominy instead of grits, but he liked them and grits are inexpensive, so there were no power struggles there.

     Grits are also iconic of my cooking as a mother. When my three children came into being, it was natural that I would make grits for them—although I frequently had to purchase them during summer trips to North Carolina since they weren’t available in grocery stores in northwest Ohio. (Now they are; times have changed--for the better in this case!) It was perhaps partly because they were not easily available that grits became a tradition for special breakfasts as well as an everyday item. I would fix them with salt, lots of butter, and optional cheddar cheese chunks stirred into each bowl according to each child’s preference. Once my children grew up and went off the college, grits became one of their homecoming foods. I would usually serve them with scrambled eggs (or tofu or tempeh for the vegan ones) and maybe vegan sausages.

       It was with great delight, then, that I responded to my oldest son’s request to make grits when I went to spend Thanksgiving with him and my younger son in Wisconsin. At 31 and 28, they had their own busy lives to enjoy. Unfortunately, colon cancer had overtaken the older one, and they called on the Thursday before Thanksgiving to see if we could come out sooner than planned. We drove out early the next day, and I was pleased to be asked to make grits for breakfast in the morning. Of course, I did, and the following 2 days as well. The last bowl I made took my son 2 days to finish, and it was one of the last things he ate. (The very last thing was vegetable sushi and a small taste of vegan pumpkin pie.) Grits have become more than just a tradition and a ritual meal. With apologies to any friends who are perhaps more orthodox in their theology, grits now represent a sacrament. It was my son’s gift to me to request this tangible evidence of both my own identity and my love for him.

     I include the recipe here. Grits are made like any other hot cereal, but they should be stirred constantly and then treated like a savory dish, not a sweet one. Also, grits are more nutritious than corn meal (a nice little feather in the cap for the on-going friendly family rivalry between New England and the South.) They are ground from dried hominy, which is corn soaked in an alkaline solution (originally, wood ashes) until the hull softens and the kernels expand. This treatment, called nixtamalization in Central America where native peoples invented it, causes a chemical change that releases niacin (vitamin b3) as well as other nutrients. The over-reliance on cornbread made from untreated corn meal in poor southern diets led to an epidemic in the first half of the 1900s of pellagra, a fatal disease. So eat your grits for health as well as for a taste of region, and perhaps, for some others, family memories and comfort.

   Recipe--Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add about 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir in ½ cup of grits, then lower the temperature to a simmer. Keep stirring, but be careful to turn down the heat quickly. Otherwise, the grits will start bubbling and splattering, and can actually burn your skin. Depending on the brand of grits being used, they need to cook around 5 minutes. If they seem to be getting too stiff, add a little water. They shouldn’t be runny, but not too thick either. When ready, serve on a plate or bowl and top with butter (we use vegan substitutes). I also stir in cheese, and nutritional yeast to add a pleasant nuttiness. Eat as soon as possible, before the grits cool completely and solidify. Leftovers are best reheated in the pan with a little water added. Or, as my mother used to do, poor the grits into a loaf pan. They naturally solidify. Slice into ½ inch slabs, dredge in flour, then fry until golden brown. Sweet toppings--syrup, honey, molasses, jam—are allowed on this version of grits.