h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Grits - A16207283
Author: Milos - Go Cards! Go Tigers! - U224935

Another attempted Flea Market salvage. I hope I've done it justice and kept it interesting.

Original: A760150
First PR: F91205?thread=186980

I also took some information from the other thread on the entry, and credited those authors as well.

Another grand rescue Milos

It reads nicely and covers the necessaries in a chatty and affable way - and nothing jumped out at me on skim where I thought, 'now what the heckers does *that* mean?'

I've always wondered just exactly what grits were - the only question I have is are they related in some way to couscous?

Once again, nice work. Makes me peckish

You're gonna think that I'm 'on your case', but it really is pure coincidence...I promise.

Just a couple of things to query:

the accompanying side of grits. (side dish/order)?

If you've overslept the alarm clock ('if you've overslept' is usual... in these parts)?

of air conditioning oats [air-conditioning, oats]

in the south grits [in the south, grits]



So *that's* what they are!

Stop picking on me!

I know you're not on my case, and you always point out legitimate issues. Your comments are always welcome, Elf.

I didn't run across any mentions to couscous, Matt, but that doesn't mean there isn't a connection. I've always wondered what couscous was, anyway.

But I won't find out today, I'm due to lose power any minute... scheduled maintenance at work. I'll be able to dig a little deeper and touch up my errors on Monday.

Thanks guys!

Hi Milos,

I like

A few points for you to consider:

For the difference between polenta and grits, take a look here: http://ask.yahoo.com/20021007.html


Prior to milling the >>> Prior to milling, the

middle guage >> gauge

can you define 'hominy' the first time it is mentioned?

Pellagra is a disease caused by deficency of niacin or tryptophan. Is in incidental that some people cannot absorb them.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000342.htm

utilize >> utilise

air conditioning oats >> air-conditioning, oats

As part of a nutritious diet, grits contain no fat or cholesterol, and are high in calcium and iron. They are also a good source of several B vitamins.

Grits are fat free, no matter what the diet is like.... you also need to mention pellagra again here, perhaps.


W

As far as I know, couscous is made from wheat semolina, so a completely different cereal.
Maybe there's rather a connection between grits and polenta, than between grits and couscous.

Couscous is made from wheat.


W

Good work - can't find anything wrong with it meself

Okay, I've tinkered with it a bit.

various typos and punctuation errors fixed.

Other issues:
are they related in some way to couscous?
As Wilma and Bel said, couscous is made from wheat, so I thought at best grits would be to couscous as they are to oatmeal, but in the US couscous is considered a pasta (because we got it from the Sicilians, not the Africans where it is most popular) so it would be nothing like grits.

the accompanying side of grits. (side dish/order)?
Changed to: "it is nearly impossible to order a meal in a Waffle House that isn't served with a side dish of grits." Better?

If you've overslept the alarm clock ('if you've overslept' is usual... in these parts)?
Removed "the alarm clock"

can you define 'hominy' the first time it is mentioned?
Done, see what you think.

I've also reworked the pellagra bit and moved it to a new header with the nutrition information. Does this work better than the way I had it before?

Thanks all!

Excellent Entry, Milos.

I like the changes. Just one typo:

Lye is no longer used in the productin of hominy, [production]



Thank you for your kind comments.

(By the way, couscous is well worth sampling. It's much lighter than rice or pasta, cooks within a few minutes and has a pleasant taste.)


Next time I read the Entry, I expect it to be on the front page.

I object! I object to this Entry on the grounds that it makes grits sound, not merely edible, but even positively pleasant. Wildly inaccurate!

Nah - it's a great Entry!

(My brother-in-law's from the south and, wuss or no, he always has jam or something with them on the one day of the year he's forced to eat them. He's only ever persuaded me to join in once. Never again *shudder*)

Seriously - do people north of the Mason-Dixon line *really* eat grits? Is it not a southern nostalgia thing?

You know - people reminding themselves why they left?

*sneaks back for P.S.* I'm with Rudest Elf - this is top notch stuff and it should head directly for the FP and not pass 'go'

It reads very well, Milos, and tells me all I need to know about grits (and makes me very curious, too ). Btw, have you ever tried to grind corn yourself? It's extremely hard, I once nearly killed my coffee mill when trying Maybe that's the reason why they steam and remove the outer hull first, so that it's not so hard? In any case, I guess it takes special mills for it.
Btw, you can save time cooking grits by using a pressure cooker

Milos, this is looking great. Really great

Being a pedantic person, I am still stumbling over a couple of things:


"Grits are similar to porridge or oatmeal, but are closer to the Italian dish polenta1, made from corn instead of oats."

It may just be me, but it sounds like you are suggesting polenta is made from oats. I know you're not, but my brain reads it that way

and this one:


"Pellagra is a disease characterised by a deficiency of niacin (vitamin B3) due to the body's inability to absorb it from the diet."

Nah, see pellagra is a disease of deficiency. You don't have to be unable to absorb the nutrients, you can get pellagra if you just omit the nutrients from the diet... do you see what I mean? It is a subtle difference but necessary for accuracy's sake, sorry



W

Okay, I'll grant you that pellagra could also be caused by eliminating those nutrients *but* for the context of the entry keep in mind that corn was a major staple in the southern diet. Corn is also difficult for the human system to digest, so it is natural that it would be hard for the body to derive as many nutrients from corn as it would from other sources. I think that the fact that the occurrence of pellagra was drastically reduced with the introduction of hominy and hominy grits would suggest that in the south the disease was caused by absorbtion issues.

So, I've changed it to say "Pellagra is a disease characterised by a deficiency of niacin (vitamin B3) which can be caused by the body's inability to absorb it from the diet."

On the polenta reference, doesn't the footnote cover it?

Oh, and I meant to thank you for the links earlier. They were very useful

it looks great now.


W

Nice one!

And I finally know what grits are/were in 'Sloop John B' by the Beach Boys:
The poor cook he caught the fits
And threw away all my grits
And then he took and he ate up all of my corn

Baffled me for years that did...

Hey, I really enjoyed reading this. My spouse is a fan if grits, though I always found them... well,.... gritty.

It does sound as if you are really from the south in the US. Perhaps that's why you made what may be an erroneous assumption. If I'm not mistaken, the Waffle Houses in the North and Midwest (maybe other areas) do not serve Grits with the Waffles (at least not automatically). You may want to put a locale identifier to specify a State or just 'southern US Waffle Houses'.

Otherwise, Nice read, Nice job, CONGRATS!

I have to confess... I'm not from the south (although northerners would probably argue that), and I've never been tempted by grits. To answer Trin's question from a few posts back, Mr B eats grits with breakfast whenever we go to Waffle House or Cracker Barrel, and he's north (and a bit west) of the line.

The comment in the entry about the Waffle Houses was me taking a bit of creative licence, and it does say 'nearly impossible' . I'm hoping the link to the WH entry will set right any misrepresentations I might make.

I must say that writing this has made me curious enough to give them a try next time we're out to breakfast. With sugar and butter, of course.

WOW! Waffles! uhhhhhh.... waffles!

Did a big of Google on Waffle House and was surprised that they have 1,500 locations in 25 States (mostly southern, but Pennsylvania and Ohio are definitely not southern).

They did mention that they don't post a menu because of all the local variety possible (although they have their specialities).

Your 'Nearly Impossible' sounds fair enough to me!

Hi Milos

Hows this doing now, you happy with it?

ST.