Grits

What's the difference between stone-ground, old-fashioned, quick, and instant grits?

The short answer: The biggest difference is how they're made: stone-ground grits keep the germ and the corn flavor, and mechanically processed grits don't. After that, it's how fine the grind is and how much of the cooking is already done for you.

The most important distinction is between stone-ground and mechanically processed grits. Mechanically processed grits have the germ removed so they'll keep on a shelf. Stone-ground grits keep the germ and more corn flavor.

America's Test Kitchen also sorts grits by cooking time. Instant grits are precooked and ready in about a minute. Quick grits are ground fine and cook in about 5 minutes. Slower grits take 25 to 90 minutes, depending on the brand.

Don't let the name fool you. America's Test Kitchen says stone-ground and old-fashioned grits "are the same thing," and that's not correct. "Old-fashioned" on a supermarket can doesn't mean stone-ground. Quaker Old Fashioned, the one on most shelves, lists "degerminated white corn grits" on its label, with vitamins added back in, since the germ is deliberately removed by mechanical processing in order to make them shelf stable. In ATK's own tasting, Anson Mills stone-ground beat Quaker Old Fashioned: tasters called the Anson Mills "sweet," "rich," and "creamy" and found Quaker "less flavorful, though pleasant."

We draw one more line, and for good reason: stone-ground comes in two types. Stone-ground quick grits are ground finer and cook in about 15 to 20 minutes with no soak. Stone-ground coarse grits are the long-cooking kind, 50 minutes or more, that do better after an overnight soak. Both are stone-ground, but they are not the same cook.

Keeping the germ has a cost: stone-ground grits need to be stored in the freezer.

You can see the two side by side in What is a grit, anyways? on The Standard.

Grits

Which grits are best?

The short answer: The pros keep landing on stone-ground from a real mill.

“No self-respecting Southerner uses instant grits.”

Sam Tipton, My Cousin Vinny (1992)

America's Test Kitchen picked Anson Mills Colonial Coarse Pencil Cob over Quaker Old Fashioned. Tasting Table ranked 13 grits from 10 brands, worst to best. Quaker Instant landed last, and Palmetto Farms Stone Ground, Charleston Favorites Stone Ground, and Marsh Hen Mill's Sea Island Blue took the top three. Their list covers store-bought grits only, so Anson Mills, which is sold on its own website and not in stores, isn't on it. Their write-up doesn't say how the tasting was done.

Not every ranking is judged by tradition, and some favor flavored or fancy grits. Here, the standard is plain stone-ground grits, made the way the Lowcountry has always made them. [DRAFT: Jeremy's own picks go here.]

Grits

Do coarse stone-ground grits need an overnight soak?

The short answer: They don't need it, but it helps. A soak roughly halves the cooking time and lets you skim the hulls off before they end up in your bowl.

This question is for coarse stone-ground grits. Quick grits, stone-ground or not, don't get soaked. Anson Mills, which mills grits the stone-ground way, says its coarse grits cook in about 50 minutes after an overnight soak and about 90 without one, and that they "benefit enormously" from the rest.

The soak has a second job. Stir the grits into the water, let them settle for a minute, and the chaff and hulls float to the top where you can skim them off. Tasting Table points out that hulls left in turn into hard, straw-like bits, and that the shorter cooking time keeps more of the corn flavor.

Southern Living's Test Kitchen Director, Robby Melvin, calls covering the pot while the grits simmer the game-changer. He says it cuts the cooking time in half.

Then the pros split. Anson Mills warns that if the grits boil, "their aromatic oils will emulsify, coat the larger particles of corn" and keep them from softening, so they take even longer to cook. America's Test Kitchen's shrimp and grits recipe, a members-only page, toasts the grits in butter for about 3 minutes before adding any liquid, which they say brings out the most corn flavor. It doesn't call for a soak: the grits simmer covered for about 25 minutes, with 25 more for fresh-milled grits like Anson Mills. Cooks don't always agree on grits, and that's part of the fun.

Grits

Should you toast quick grits in butter before cooking them?

The short answer: Yes. Two to three minutes in butter brings out more corn flavor, and we wouldn't make quick grits without it.

America's Test Kitchen toasts its grits in butter for about 3 minutes before any liquid goes in, and says it brings out the most corn flavor. Most recipes, and most package directions, skip it.

We tried it on Quaker Old Fashioned, a quick grit, side by side with the directions on the can. Toasted for two to three minutes in butter until fragrant, the grits had a corn flavor that was clearly stronger. The pot cooked the can's way tasted plain by comparison. The toasted pot finished in about the same time.

Keep going and it turns into something else. Toasted 7 to 8 minutes in butter, stirred constantly, until dark and smelling of buttered popcorn, the same grits taste like an almost entirely different dish, closer to dinner than breakfast. That's our Dark-Toasted Grits.

So far we've only toasted quick grits. Coarse stone-ground grits can't be soaked and then toasted, since the dry grits have to hit the butter first, so they're a separate question.

  • CookDark-Toasted GritsThe Kitchen

    How we toast them dark, as a side or to go under shrimp and gravy.

Shrimp

How long should you brown and simmer shrimp shells for stock?

The short answer: Brown them for a few minutes, then simmer about five. With shrimp stock, a shorter simmering time is better.

America's Test Kitchen put this to a real test. They simmered the shells from 1½ pounds of large shrimp for 5, 10, 15, and 30 minutes and had people taste the results. Nearly everyone found the 5 and 10 minute stocks "shrimpier" than the 15 and 30 minute ones.

Their explanation: the savory flavors stay put, but the aroma that makes shrimp smell like shrimp is delicate and escapes with long cooking. Chicken and beef stocks improve with time. Shrimp stock goes bland.

For the browning, they heat a tablespoon of oil over high heat and stir the shells for 2 to 4 minutes, until they turn "spotty brown." In their shrimp and grits recipe, they brown the shells in butter for about 7 minutes, stir in tomato paste, and simmer for 5.

Shrimp

Local shrimp or store-bought?

The short answer: Unless you live where shrimp live, the "fresh" shrimp at the store aren't fresh. They were frozen first and thawed at the counter.

America's Test Kitchen's Cook's Illustrated article "You Should Be Buying Your Shrimp Frozen" says nearly all the shrimp at a fish counter was frozen and thawed by the store. They recommend buying frozen, thawing at home just before cooking (the meat starts to go mushy within a day of thawing), and choosing shell-on when you can. It costs less, holds together better, and the shells make stock.

The Takeout says shrimp bought right off the coast, never frozen, is often noticeably sweeter and more tender. That is one writer's opinion, not a test.

A blind side-by-side of boat-fresh shrimp against grocery shrimp is still waiting for someone to run it.

Coming up

On the test list

These are the questions we'd like to settle ourselves, in an ordinary kitchen with ordinary pots. Results will land here as we finish them. If you get to one first, we'd love to hear how it went.

  • Soaked or covered: which saves more cooking time with stone-ground grits?
  • A hard boil or a gentle simmer for stone-ground grits?
  • White, yellow, or Sea Island Blue: can anyone taste the difference?
  • Boat-fresh shrimp, store "fresh" shrimp, and store frozen shrimp, side by side.

Tell us how it went