When it comes to grits, coarse is a compliment, and no producer does them better than Anson Mills in South Carolina. The roughly ground dried corn has admirable texture and phenomenal fresh flavor. These are grits you can eat with a fork, not a spoon.

Grits go with everything Southern and Southwestern and some things French: andouille sausage, shrimp, crab, chilies, beans, omelets and especially duck confit.

And while they don't need dairy to taste creamy, they won't turn it away, either. Sharp cheddar, Gorgonzola, Parmigiano-Reggiano and even pepper Jack all round out the corn flavor.

Glenn Roberts, who founded Anson Mills in South Carolina in 1998, refers to them as antebellum grits, meaning the extremely coarse kind that were routinely produced until the end of World War II. They have a sweeter flavor from the corn, which he notes starts with "high mineral, floral notes." The finer the dried kernels are ground, the more flavor they lose along with the texture that should define them.

These are not grits to boil up in five minutes or less. Anson's coarse-ground grits need up to two hours of simmering over very low heat and can be soaked overnight to cut the cooking time and, coincidentally, improve both the flavor and nutrition thanks to fermentation, which changes the starch character.

Anson's grits are particularly fresh -- they are produced entirely by hand, in small batches, from corn that it grows organically. They have to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer because they retain enough oil in the corn to turn rancid. "We mill Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and farm Thursday, Friday, Saturday," Roberts says. Grits in the familiar round box, by contrast, can probably last through a nuclear winter in a cupboard.