Grits
A Cultural and Culinary Journey Through the South
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Grits is a fascinating cultural history and examination of the current role of grits in Southern cuisine.
For food writer Erin Byers Murray, grits had always been one of those basic, bland Southern table necessities—something to stick to your ribs or dollop the butter and salt onto. But after hearing a famous chef wax poetic about the terroir of grits, her whole view changed. Suddenly the boring side dish of her youth held importance, nuance, and flavor. She decided to do some digging to better understand the fascinating and evolving role of grits in Southern cuisine and culture as well as her own Southern identity.
As more artisan grits producers gain attention in the food world, grits have become elevated and appreciated in new ways, nationally on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line, and by international master chefs. Murray takes the reader behind the scenes of grits cultivation, visiting local growers, millers, and cooks to better understand the South’s interest in and obsession with grits. What she discovers, though, is that beyond the culinary significance of grits, the simple staple leads her to complicated and persisting issues of race, gender, and politics.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nashville food writer Murray (Shucked) brings depth and flavor to the background of this quintessential Southern dish. She notes that tracing the history of grits, as with many other Southern dishes, "will uncover stories of theft, slavery, appropriation, and loss." She describes grits as cheap and simple nourishment during the Civil War years, when "people in every class were eating grits and enslaved Africans were usually the ones preparing them." Murray then brings the story to the 20th century, when the "mass-produced, flavorless" corn porridge goop of the postwar years was revitalized by "true grit-slingers" such as Glenn Roberts, who developed heirloom grit varieties, and Delta Grind, a Mississippi grit-grinding operation now run by a 26-year-old woman named Julia Tatum, who worked at a marketing firm during the day, but milled at night until her business took off. Murray anchors much of the book around vivid portraits of these scrappy entrepreneurs, and includes grit-based recipes throughout, including creamy grits, black skillet corn bread, and scrapple. By the 1990s, Murray writes, grits started showing up on menus served with high-end ingredients, "due to the reinterpretation of the dish by a handful of affluent, white, male chefs." Murray's enlightening culinary tour will be of great interest to foodies and students of Southern history and culture.
