My biggest UK food fear

Also, grits can be made from hominy and it is a much coarser grain than polenta.

I thought Grits were only made from hominy corn??


You can buy premade Polenta here in a squishy block and you just cut into it and fry it or how ever one would eat thickened and set Polenta and you can buy the dried kind.

I have never found "proper" for want of a better word - corn meal that is equal to what we have in the USA. I have found very fine mealed corn maize and also a very very course corn maize in Holland and Barretts Health stores but not ever found the kind I was used to. I made do with what I find and it still works but I always bring packets back with me when I visit home.

If your honey has found proper corn meal I would love to know where!



 

Well seems like the discussion of Grits vs Polenta is quite common thru the Internet...
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season8/grits/true_grit_trans.htm


My hubby refuses to eat Grits..says is like wall paper paste and only taste of what you put in it..ie butter and salt and pepper...

It's the one thing I still haven't been able to convert him to..although he did say he would try grits and shrimp....

I don't make or eat grits so I'm not quite sure what "proper" cornmeal is! I use polenta meal to make cornbread and that works fine. Is it just the colour that's wrong? And that you need white cornmeal for grits? If that's the case, what about this? If it's something more than that, sorry!

DW likes grits and she brought some back from the US, she doesn't have very often so bringing some back every year is fine. I tried them years ago when I visited New Orleans and thought they were disgusting, I did try some of DW's and hadn't changed my view!
She does buy polenta/corn meal for coating chicken before baking it.

My hubby refuses to eat Grits..says is like wall paper paste and only taste of what you put in it..ie butter and salt and pepper...

It's the one thing I still haven't been able to convert him to..although he did say he would try grits and shrimp....

Take it from someone who has ACTUALLY tasted wall paper paste (it was in a bowl, covered with a towel, on the kitchen counter, when I was a teen.  I thought my mom had some bread dough going).... grits tastes nothing like it.  But yes, it does take on the taste of whatever you put in it... it's a wonderful canvas on which to paint a true southern breakfast.  The same way Lobster is just a reason to eat butter. 

I put a bit more than butter or s/p in my grits though.  It has a couple kinds of cheese usually, and some bacon, or ham, or sausage, or some kind of combination of them.   It's a bowl full of heaven.   

Jimmy Dean sausage recipe   2 lbs pork belly or 2lbs pork butt,

update: I've sent your recipe to my honey, and he's constructing a shopping list.  Thank you again!

  The same way Lobster is just a reason to eat butter. 

You're joking, right? 

I love dipping my lobster in butter---mmm, mmm indulgence.

Grits can be yellow.  I always had the Quaker type white ones growing up, but my Mom lives in North Carolina, and I asked her to bring me some proper southern grits when she came last, she brought bags that are actually quite a bit like a really coarse polenta, so I can kind of see where the OP is coming from on that.  It took a little getting used to for me to have these yellow grits, but they are heavenly now.

I haven't really had a hard time finding polenta that works fine in my corn bread recipes either.  I've seen them in about three different thicknesses in the store.  I think I bought mine in a local health foods shop, but I've seen varying thickness in Tesco too.  I agree though, that the fine polenta, which seems to be more common in the shops, just wouldn't be the same for bread.  I buy the coarse stuff in big bags and keep it in a plastic container since I only use it periodically.

You're joking, right? 

Weeeellll.... no, not really.  I mean, I'm joking in so much as it's a funny way to put it, but that's what I've heard from a lot of Lobster-lovers.  I don't care for shellfish myself so not speaking from experience, but I first heard this from someone who is known to have very discriminating tastes and when I've repeated it, other people generally think about it for a moment and then say yeah, you've got a point.

In this application, what I'm saying is that people who LOVE lobster agree that the butter is a huge part of the flavor when eating lobster... and yet no one suggests the lobster itself isn't worthwhile because of it.  So it should go with grits.

I  love lobster, in my mind the butter enhances the taste of the lobster, the creaminess of the butter is an accompaniment so you get the full flavour of the lobster. One of my favourite restaurants does a native lobster drizzled with just a small amount of hazlenut butter, and it's fantastic. Too much butter and you're doing a massive disservice to the lobster :/ If  just eating butter and you might as well just do it with bread.

It does depend on the quality of the lobster, if you've got over cooked frozen lobster tails or cheap farmed lobsters then you need the butter to get around the texture/lack of taste. I think a lot of restaurants, especially chains do this.

Also lobster is fantastic in dishes as ingredients, such as lobster curry or pasta dishes, which don't have any butter in them

I think lobster has it's own lovely sweet flavour.  It's not just a vehicle for butter to me! 

I've found Indian shops a great source for the various types of Polenta.