Simple Pencil Cob Breakfast Grits
- Total Time
- 35 minutes after an overnight soak
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1cup Anson Mills Colonial Coarse Pencil Cob Grits
- About 4 cups spring or filtered water
- Fine sea salt, to taste (½ to 1 teaspoon)
- 2tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
196 calories; 6 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 31 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 442 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
The night before you wish to serve, place grits in a heavy, medium saucepan (Ms. Rentschler recommends a type called a Windsor saucepan; I used a Le Creuset). Add 2 cups spring or filtered water and stir once. Allow grits to settle a full minute, then tilt the pan and, using a fine tea strainer or fine skimmer, skim off and discard chaff and hulls. Cover and allow the grits to soak overnight at room temperature.
- Step 2
Heat 2 cups water in a small saucepan to a bare simmer and keep hot. Set saucepan with grits over medium heat. Bring mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the first starch takes hold (see above – it means that the mixture will begin to thicken and you will no longer have to stir constantly). Reduce heat to lowest possible setting. The grits should not be bubbling, they should be sighing, or breathing like somebody in a deep, comfortable sleep, rising up lazily in one big bubble, then falling as the bubble bursts. Watch carefully and each time they are thick enough to hold a spoon upright, stir in about ¼ cup of the hot water. Stir in the salt after the first 10 minutes of gentle cooking. It should take about 25 minutes for the grits to be tender and creamy and by this time you should have added ¾ to 1 cup water (perhaps a little more) in 3 or 4 additions.
- Step 3
When the grits are done – tender, creamy but not mushy, and able to hold their shape on a spoon – stir in the butter vigorously, add pepper, taste (carefully – don’t burn your tongue after all that care) and adjust salt. Serve immediately.
- You will want to serve these right away but if you do need to heat them up, stir in some hot water to make them creamy again.
Private Notes
Comments
Leftovers are also good (great) fried. Pour warm leftover grits into a pan and chill. Slice into even pieces the width of tomato slices, and fry in ghee or half butter, half oil. Cook until brown on the edges, salt and serve hot.
A recipe to save, if only for the explanation of what happens when the heat is too high. Thank you.
I just received some Anson Mills pencil grits which I will try with this recipe. Anson Mills grits instruction emphasizes that it is important to add butter at the end as adding it during the cooking process coats the particles inhibiting the grits from hydrating (taking up water). Also adding salt early in the cooking process is important as the grits absorb the salt, adding it later is not good. So salting early to YOUR taste is needed.
I didn’t cover these while cooking and they took about three times as long to cook as the recipe suggested they would, despite having been soaked overnight. I’m tempted to use a pressure cooker for the next batch.
I sometime use my instant pot for inexpensive grit when I am in a hurry and can't soak overnight, but these pencil grits are too expensive to make anything but the slow way.
I wonder how these grits would turn out in an Instant Pot?
Wouldn't work. Too much attention--and low, gentle heat--is needed.
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