Old-Style Milling Brings out Full Flavor of Grits
by Teresa Taylor

Once called wallpaper glue and worse, grits are seeing a revival. They blazed the way for what Lowcountry natives call "hominy" to become haute cuisine over the past two decades. Grits, typically paired with shrimp or other seafood, have appeared on the dinner menus of Charleston's upscale restaurants since the late 1980s. Shrimp and grits have gone national from their Southern roots, spreading to menus in big cities such as Chicago and New York.

Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills in Columbia goes so far as to say that stone-milled grits can be like fine wine. "There are mineral flavors in great corn that come through in well-crafted stone-ground grits, and floral flavors, from citrus blossom all the way to lilac and back again...even faint chocolate and spice."

From a Southern perspective, Roberts says, the best grits will be large particles with flecks of yellow from the germ throughout and put out a "massive" corn taste. "Roast corn, creamed corn, all those flavors are supposed to be there, just booming," he says.

Roberts' grits, cold-milled from organic heirloom corn, have been hailed by his customers, including some of the country's best-known chefs. And while he does business with a high-end clientele, he understands grits as the salt-of-the-earth food they are meant to be.

Artisanal milling involves two stones that are "hand-buhred." Millwrights chisel channels into granite stones on the bias, creating sharp edges that cut the corn kernels like scissors as the revolving stone moves against the stationary stone.