THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280543
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
If there is but one thing that I have done to make this old world a better place in which to live - and there is no evidence whatever to suggest that there might be more than one; indeed quite a few soreheads would insist that I have done hundreds of things to make the world a worse place to live - it lies in my having spread the word of grits cakes coast to coast as a breakfast delicacy, ne plus ultra.
(Precisely what ne plus ultra means escapes me, but it is resounding and might well apply to grits cooked with cheese.)
I have been the Johnny Appleseed of leftover grits that reappear, transmogrified, as cakes fried in egg batter. I watched my mother fry them in a skillet bigger than the harvest moon.
By coincidence, word of this sole contribution surfaced separately from three different sources hereabouts within a week.
The first was from Margaret D. Mitchell of Chesapeake, who recalled my having dropped the recipe on the public 20 years ago.
``I read it to my small daughter at the time, and we both thought it sounded great,'' Margaret writes.
``We've been cooking them ever since, and they are a family favorite. She is away in Chapel Hill in law school now, but still gets grit cakes for breakfast every time she comes home.''
Word of grits cakes also came from Elizabeth Ball of Chesapeake. She mentions having heard Buck McGregor, a North Carolinian, recall from his childhood in South Carolina that his mother referred to them as hominy cakes.
That, of course, goes to the very origin of grits. When the English colonists settled at Jamestown in 1607, the Indians introduced them to a soft, steaming mass, or mess, of maize seasoned with animal fat.
The Indians called it rockahominie. The settlers shortened it to hominy. Today hominy refers to dried, hulled corn kernels that have been ground finely to produce grits.
To turn leftover grits into cakes, grease the inside of a drinking glass with butter. Pour the grits into the glass and let them sit and solidify overnight in the refrigerator. Next morning, upend the glass and out will drop the column of grits. Slice it into disks, dip them in egg batter and drop them into a frying pan greased with bacon drippings or butter or whatever.
It is the best way to introduce grits or eggs to those who don't care for either of those viands.
Blanche Summers of Virginia Beach relayed the recipe to kin on the West Coast, including her niece, Juanita, who happens to be an admirer of Sergeant Maypop.
Fifty years late, I realize that when grits overran our mess hall, Maypop, instead of having us eat our way out, should have stored the grits in glasses for cakes next day.
He was capable of doing that or anything else to save any day - and us, as Juanita would tell you. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
GUY'S GRITS CAKES
To turn leftover grits into cakes, grease the inside of a drinking
glass with butter. Pour the grits into the glass and let them sit
and solidify overnight in the refrigerator. Next morning, upend the
glass and out will drop the column of grits. Slice it into disks,
dip them in egg batter and drop them into a frying pan greased with
bacon drippings or butter or whatever.
by CNB