Antebellum Coarse Grits

Big Daddy grits with big flavor and a mouth feel that really grabs your attention. Shown here in their virginal—unbuttered, unpeppered—state.

Time: In a slow cooker with no overnight soak, two hours and 10 to 15 minutes; in a saucepan with an overnight soak, 50 minutes; in a saucepan with no soak, 90 minutes.

Created in the tradition of the stone-ground, hand-milled grits of the Antebellum era, Anson Mills coarse grits have a large particle size that imparts a toothsome texture and pronounced corn flavor. Coarse grits do take time to cook—about an hour, at least—but are any cook's first choice when served as a stand-alone dish or as a complement to entrées such as fish, greens, or eggs. They make beautiful grits cakes, too.

Equipment Mise en Place
For this recipe you will need a fine tea strainer, a slow cooker or a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, an additional small saucepan if you’re using a saucepan, and a wooden spoon. A rubber spatula works best for stirring grits in the slow cooker.

Ingredients
1 cup (6 ounces) Anson Mills Antebellum Coarse Grits (white or yellow)
Spring or filtered water
Fine sea salt
2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. For a slow cooker: Place the grits in the slow cooker and cover them with 3 cups water. Stir once. Allow the grits to settle a full minute, tilt the vessel, and skim off and discard the chaff and hulls with a fine tea strainer. Cover the slow cooker and turn the heat setting to high. Cook, stirring once or twice, until the grits are creamy and tender, but not mushy, throughout and hold their shape on a spoon, about two hours and ten or 15 minutes. (Cook times in slow cookers may vary slightly depending on the capacity of the individual cooker and its heat settings.) Season with 1 teaspoon salt and stir in the butter with vigorous strokes. Add more salt, if desired, and the black pepper.

2. For saucepan cookery: Place the grits in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and cover them with 2 ½ cups water. Stir once. Allow the grits to settle a full minute, tilt the pan, and skim off and discard the chaff and hulls with a fine tea strainer. Cover and let stand overnight at room temperature. Note: If you have not soaked the grits, cover them with 2 1/2 cups water, and skim off and discard the chaff and hulls as directed above.

3. Set the saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the first starch takes hold, 5 to 8 minutes. Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting and cover. Meanwhile, heat 2 cups water in a small saucepan and keep hot. Cook the grits, covered, over low heat, stirring every 10 minutes or so, and adding small amounts of the hot water to the grits when they become thick and the spoon can stand upright, about 1 1/2 cups water or more in 4 or 5 additions. Cook until the grits are creamy and tender, but not mushy, throughout and hold their shape on a spoon, about 50 or 90 minutes, depending on whether or not they were soaked. Add 1 teaspoon salt halfway through the cooking time. To finish, uncover the pot and stir in the butter with vigorous strokes. Add more salt, if desired, and the black pepper.

Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish.

Cooking Remarks

If you’re cooking grits in a saucepan it would be remiss of us not to mention that Anson Mills grits improve enormously when they are soaked overnight in water before being cooked. Not only is the cooking time shorter, but the finished texture of grits is also superior—the corn particles experience less trauma during cooking and hold their shape in the pot.

Soaking the grits in water overnight and cooking them in the soaking liquid will reduce their cooking time by about 40%. In real terms, this means that a cup of coarse grits, soaked overnight, will cook in about 50 minutes. If you don't soak the grits, their cooking time will increase to 90 minutes. Either way, don't rush these grits. If you do and the grits boil, their aromatic oils will emulsify, coat the larger particles of corn, and prevent the particles from softening in the water. They'll take even longer to cook.

But the simplest, and ultimately, the best way to cook grits is to let your slow cooker deal with them. A first-rate caregiver, the slow cooker offers gentle, moist, and well-insulated heat, and using one precludes the need to soak the grits before cooking. The slow cooker comes up to temperature so slowly that the grits effectively soak in the process—and then “bloom” or swell in the steady, even heat. Slow cookers also eliminate the need for additions of hot water normally required to maintain grits hydration in saucepan cookery. In fact, you barely need to stir them!