# Grits for LTS



## unregistered29228

Hi everyone! We were discussing grits here tonight, and I wondered if anyone stores grits for long term storage. Do they go rancid like cornmeal, or get an off taste like instant potatoes? Do you vacuum seal them in their original box, or in mason jars? Do you freeze them first? I've only kept a box or two in the pantry up until now, but I think I'd like to put some away for longer storage.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice!


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## foxfiredidit

I'm assuming that vacume sealing them or oven canning either one will work. I've done some oven canning on them but haven't gotten into them since putting the pints away. If I were going to vacume seal them, I'd put them in the freezer for a day or two first. 

If you don't have some grits in your preps, survival would not be really worth it!!


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## Texasdirtdigger

Yes, they can go rancid if not handled properly.

I keep them in my storage. I vacuum pak them, place them in mylar and seal....so far so good. Freezing would also work.


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## marlas1too

i vacuum pack bags of grits all the time-have opened some after a couple of years -still good-breakfast food of southern champions --lol


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## unregistered29228

Thanks for the responses! We're not natural Southerners, so this didn't occur to me until last night....haha.


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## hsmom2four

I have some grits that are more than one year past their package expiration date and we are still eating them. They look, smell and taste fine. When I first bought them they were stored in the freezer. I can't remember how long they were in there though. Then they were allowed to come up to room temp for a few days and prepacked into glass jars and vac sealed. They've been stored this way for a couple of years. I have written on the jars that they had an expiration date of six months from the time I bought them.


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## bee

I got a deal at the scratch and dent and got 2 pound bags of white quick grits(Jim Dandy brand) for 49 cents each..not out of date either. I just put them in the freezer for a week, brought to room temp and transfered to canning jars. If I had vacum available I would do that too.


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## BillHoo

I like grits.

But I don't like them enough that I eat them every day.

In fact, I've been known to have an open cardboard can of grits setting up on the shelf for up to two years before I decided to make some. They taste the same to me! Butter, salt, black pepper and some hotsauce. If they're rancod, I guess I'd just put on more hot sauce.


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## Trixters_muse

Pretty much the same thing here.... freeze, bring to room temp a couple of days, then vacum pack. I also have some in a 2 gallon bucket that I packed in mylar, been stored for about a year but have not tried them yet.


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## Trisha in WA

Help a northerner out here. What's the difference between grits and corn meal. I thought they were the same with just different regional names.


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## belladulcinea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grits

Grits are a breakfast type grain/cereal, good with sugar and milk or garlic, cheese and bacon! YUMMO! Oh yeah, with lots of butter!

Cornmeal is for breading fish, making cornbread and hoe cakes.


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## jwal10

Grits are just reconstituted corn meal in a ratio of 3 to 1 and heated until the water is absorbed, seasoned to your liking. I never found enough/any seasoning to make me likey....James


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## Ohiogal

I oven canned mine. And the cornmeal too - works fine. Keeps the flavor and is fresh as the day it was canned. The glass jars help hold the flavor IMHO.


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## unregistered29228

I don't care for grits much - I'm an oatmeal girl. But since the family likes grits, I'll set store some for them. They like them with butter and maple syrup, but not cheese.

I think I'll oven can what I picked up yesterday, since I've got plenty of jars. I found 5 lb. bags of it at Walmart, not on sale but reasonably priced. So I got 15 lbs. and figure that will be enough.

Thanks again for the tips!


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## BillHoo

Trisha in WA said:


> Help a northerner out here. What's the difference between grits and corn meal. I thought they were the same with just different regional names.


Grits, cornmeal and polenta are all nearly identical - but with one important difference.

Grits start out as just ground cornmeal. The native americans processed the corn with slaked lime and lye from wood ash, washed and dried. Somehow, they realized this helped them to release B vitamins (particularly Niacin) from the corn. Or maybe it just stored better and was less likely to go rancid where cornmeal still has volatile oils in it. Thus transformed, it is much healthier than plain cornmeal.

When the Europeans came to the Americas, they discovered this new food source - maize. They sent it to Europe where it was adopted by Italians as a cheap bulk food. The italians ground up coarse cornmeal and boiled it to make polenta. However, they left out the slaked lime and lye processing. Cornmeal by itself is nutritionally barren. Just sugar and starch and fiber. But it's good to fatten you up if you have nothing else to eat!

Pretty soon, Italians began to suffer form all kinds of diseases from the lack of vitamin B complexes. Beriberi (nervous system failure and heart failure), Cheilosis (cracks in lips and sensitivity to sunlight), and in particular, severe Pellegra (ever see old Italians with dark boils and blisters on their skin? They probably grew up poor, eating nothing but polenta and maybe a little salted meat. It also leads to dementia).

In fact, early on they found that Pellegra was so rampant in the corn growing regions of southern italy that some blamed corn for producing an unknown toxin as the source of their ills.

It was like feeding your kids candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A diet devoid of vitamins and minerals.

If you had a choice store grits or learn to process the corn yourself.

Now, I've always believed that the slaked lime processing bleaches the corn white. So I cannot be sure that Yellow Grits have the same nutritional content as the White Grits.

SEARCHING.....
{Ding!}
Yellow grits include the whole kernel, while white grits use hulled kernels.


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## Trisha in WA

BillHoo, Wonderful information. Thank you.

Jwal10, that's kind of what I was thinking...LOL yup northerner.

I like sweet corn bread, but if it isn't sweet, I don't like it. So we don't use use much corn meal here.


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## foxfiredidit

"Dent or Flint?

The premier mill corn of the American South, known as dent (the name derives from the dent that forms on the top of each kernel as it dries), has a relatively soft, starchy center. Dent corn makes easy work of milling--_it also makes phenomenal grits._


One type of American flint--indigenous to the Northeast--was, and remains, the traditional choice for Johnny cakes. 

In Italy, flint has been the preeminent polenta corn since the 16th century when Spanish and Portuguese treasure hunters brought Caribbean flint to the Piedmont on ships."

The first corn was taken to Italy in the hold of ships to hide gold and other treasures from pirates on the high seas. However there were famines and the people used it for food. Finding that they liked it, they began to cultivate it in Italy and another New World crop became part of Italian cuisine.


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## ||Downhome||

Trisha in WA said:


> Help a northerner out here. What's the difference between grits and corn meal. I thought they were the same with just different regional names.


grits is simular to polenta. think ground hominy. little coarser then polenta. pretty simular except maybe preperation or at least serving.


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## GrannyCarol

jwal10 said:


> Grits are just reconstituted corn meal in a ratio of 3 to 1 and heated until the water is absorbed, seasoned to your liking. I never found enough/any seasoning to make me likey....James


Well, I met grits visiting a friend in SC. She made shrimp and grits and it was WONDERFUL. Her shrimp had a rich spicy sauce that soaked into the grits, I could have eaten it all day.  You just need a good southern cook to get you hooked on 'em. Consider trying them in a savory dish, with meat and a sauce and you may find you do like them.


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## foxfiredidit

Shrimp and grits are fantastic for sure.
I like them for breakfast....eggs overeasy, laid out over a bed of grits.
Grits and redeye gravy is superspecial.
Add some cheese to hot grits to suit your taste, they will stick to your ribs and warm up most any winter's day.
Just a few of my favorite ways to go about enjoying them.


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## oldmanriver

well being raise very poor in Ala grits are made by taking white corn making it into hominy. The hominy is then dried then ground up . The only way to eat grit is salt pepper and butter lots of butter .


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## jwal10

foxfiredidit said:


> Shrimp and grits are fantastic for sure.
> I like them for breakfast....eggs overeasy, laid out over a bed of grits.
> Grits and redeye gravy is superspecial.
> Add some cheese to hot grits to suit your taste, they will stick to your ribs and warm up most any winter's day.
> Just a few of my favorite ways to go about enjoying them.


May be but I still don't like them or shrimp or eggs over easy. I do like hominy and cornbread though....James


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## jwal10

oldmanriver said:


> The only way to eat grit is salt pepper and butter lots of butter .


Now I have eaten them this way, not great but not bad if left overs are put in loaf pan and chilled, sliced and fried. My Grandmother was born in Arkansas, she loved grits, Mom didn't....James


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## Guest

_Store bought_ grits keep very well for the long-term if properly packaged. If you live in a dry climate and don't have a weevil problem you can keep them pretty good in just the box or bag they came in. I've been keeping them for years and they've never gone bad. Vacuum sealed in glass canning jars just as it came out of the bag.

If you're going to freeze treat then repackage into the jars or vacuum bags FIRST then freeze them. This will keep condensation out of your food that could lead to spoilage.

Now note that I specified store-bought grits. This would be the Jim Dandy, Quaker, Dixie Lily, and many other brands of industrially produced grits. They keep well because they've been degerminated so no germ oil to go rancid.

But some folks have grits (and corn meal) available that were produced by small-scale millers or even milled themselves. If your grits still includes the grain germ it's not going to keep well outside of a refrigerator or freezer, just as with real whole-wheat flour and for the same reasons.

Industrially produced (as in degerminated) grits, corn meal, white flour, pear barley, all keep well if properly packaged. _Whole-grain_ grits, corn meal, flour and so on will not. Better to produce them as needed from the whole-grain using your own grain mill.

And, yes, grits can be produced several ways. This is because "hominy", from which grits are made, was originally produced by several methods or the original Europeans who first encountered these foods misunderstood what their local Indians were trying to communicate. However it came about it's possible to produce hominy grits from either corn that has been alkali treated (lime, ashes, lye, etc.) and corn that has not been. They cook differently, their flavor is different, their nutritional profiles are different, and ultimately their storage qualities. But they are both still grits.

If you want to store it away and keep it for a long time get the store-bought degerminated kind.


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## 7thswan

jwal10 said:


> Grits are just reconstituted corn meal in a ratio of 3 to 1 and heated until the water is absorbed, seasoned to your liking. I never found enough/any seasoning to make me likey....James


I like the white grits. I'm with ya on the yellow. Cornbread,yeck but Johneycake, I guess it has sugar and white cornmeal,now that is good. Only have eaten that at the MIL house,but to me there sure is a diffrence.


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