Grits
What's the difference between stone-ground, old-fashioned, quick, and instant grits?
The short answer: The biggest difference is how they're made: stone-ground grits keep the germ and the corn flavor, and mechanically processed grits don't. After that, it's how fine the grind is and how much of the cooking is already done for you.
The most important distinction is between stone-ground and mechanically processed grits. Mechanically processed grits have the germ removed so they'll keep on a shelf. Stone-ground grits keep the germ and more corn flavor.
America's Test Kitchen also sorts grits by cooking time. Instant grits are precooked and ready in about a minute. Quick grits are ground fine and cook in about 5 minutes. Slower grits take 25 to 90 minutes, depending on the brand.
Don't let the name fool you. America's Test Kitchen says stone-ground and old-fashioned grits "are the same thing," and that's not correct. "Old-fashioned" on a supermarket can doesn't mean stone-ground. Quaker Old Fashioned, the one on most shelves, lists "degerminated white corn grits" on its label, with vitamins added back in, since the germ is deliberately removed by mechanical processing in order to make them shelf stable. In ATK's own tasting, Anson Mills stone-ground beat Quaker Old Fashioned: tasters called the Anson Mills "sweet," "rich," and "creamy" and found Quaker "less flavorful, though pleasant."
We draw one more line, and for good reason: stone-ground comes in two types. Stone-ground quick grits are ground finer and cook in about 15 to 20 minutes with no soak. Stone-ground coarse grits are the long-cooking kind, 50 minutes or more, that do better after an overnight soak. Both are stone-ground, but they are not the same cook.
Keeping the germ has a cost: stone-ground grits need to be stored in the freezer.
You can see the two side by side in What is a grit, anyways? on The Standard.
Grits
Which grits are best?
The short answer: The pros keep landing on stone-ground from a real mill.
“No self-respecting Southerner uses instant grits.”
America's Test Kitchen picked Anson Mills Colonial Coarse Pencil Cob over Quaker Old Fashioned. Tasting Table ranked 13 grits from 10 brands, worst to best. Quaker Instant landed last, and Palmetto Farms Stone Ground, Charleston Favorites Stone Ground, and Marsh Hen Mill's Sea Island Blue took the top three. Their list covers store-bought grits only, so Anson Mills, which is sold on its own website and not in stores, isn't on it. Their write-up doesn't say how the tasting was done.
Our picks so far are Anson Mills coarse white grits and coarse blue grits. Both were outstanding, and we used no milk or cream.
Not every ranking is judged by tradition, and some favor flavored or fancy grits. Here, the standard is plain stone-ground grits, made the way the Lowcountry has always made them.
Grits
Do coarse stone-ground grits need an overnight soak?
The short answer: They don't need it, but it helps. A soak roughly halves the cooking time and lets you skim the hulls off before they end up in your bowl.
This question is for coarse stone-ground grits. Quick grits, stone-ground or not, don't get soaked. Anson Mills, which mills grits the stone-ground way, says its coarse grits cook in about 50 minutes after an overnight soak and about 90 without one, and that they "benefit enormously" from the rest.
The soak has a second job. Stir the grits into the water, let them settle for a minute, and the chaff and hulls float to the top where you can skim them off. Tasting Table points out that hulls left in turn into hard, straw-like bits, and that the shorter cooking time keeps more of the corn flavor.
Southern Living's Test Kitchen Director, Robby Melvin, calls covering the pot while the grits simmer the game-changer. He says it cuts the cooking time in half.
Then the pros split. Anson Mills warns that if the grits boil, "their aromatic oils will emulsify, coat the larger particles of corn" and keep them from softening, so they take even longer to cook. America's Test Kitchen's shrimp and grits recipe, a members-only page, toasts the grits in butter for about 3 minutes before adding any liquid, which they say brings out the most corn flavor. It doesn't call for a soak: the grits simmer covered for about 25 minutes, with 25 more for fresh-milled grits like Anson Mills. Cooks don't always agree on grits, and that's part of the fun.
- ReadAlways skim the chaff and hulls out of the water when soaking grits
- WatchHow to Make Perfect Grits: Mastering a Southern Classic
- WatchHow to Cook Stone-Ground Grits on Your Stove-Top
Dusty Miller cooks his without a soak. Soaking overnight can save up to half the cooking time; without it, medium and coarse stone-ground grits just take longer.
Grits
Should you toast quick grits in butter before cooking them?
The short answer: Yes. Two to three minutes in butter brings out more corn flavor, and we wouldn't make quick grits without it.
America's Test Kitchen toasts its grits in butter for about 3 minutes before any liquid goes in, and says it brings out the most corn flavor. Most recipes, and most package directions, skip it.
We tried it on Quaker Old Fashioned, a quick grit, side by side with the directions on the can. Toasted for two to three minutes in butter until fragrant, the grits had a corn flavor that was clearly stronger. The pot cooked the can's way tasted plain by comparison. The toasted pot finished in about the same time.
Keep going and it turns into something else. Toasted 7 to 8 minutes in butter, stirred constantly, until dark and smelling of buttered popcorn, the same grits taste like an almost entirely different dish, closer to dinner than breakfast. That's our Dark-Toasted Grits.
So far we've only toasted quick grits. Coarse stone-ground grits can't be soaked and then toasted, since the dry grits have to hit the butter first, so they're a separate question.
- CookDark-Toasted Grits
How we toast them dark, as a side or to go under shrimp and gravy.
Shrimp
Shrimp Stock: Heads, Shells, and Timing
The short answer: Simmer the heads for 20 to 30 minutes, add the shells for only the last five, and don’t let it boil.
A shrimp stock should suit the dish it is going into. Vegetables can provide a useful foundation, and roasting them first can bring darker color and roasted flavor. But they are optional. When the goal is a direct, concentrated shrimp flavor, heads, shells, and water can be enough.
Our recommended method gives each ingredient its own time in the pot: prepare any vegetable base first, simmer the heads for 20–30 minutes, and add body shells for only the final five minutes.
Build the vegetable base, if using
Choose vegetables and aromatics with the finished dish in mind. Roast them first if you want a darker stock, then cover with water and simmer for 20–60 minutes, depending on the ingredients and the intensity you want. Outer onion skin and paper should not be roasted, as they can burn, but they definitely improve the onion flavor and darken the stock.
Complete this stage before adding the shrimp parts. The vegetables may benefit from a longer simmer; the shells do not need to accompany them through it.
Give the heads 20–30 minutes
Add shrimp heads to the gently simmering liquid. Press or lightly crush them with a sturdy spoon or potato masher to help release their contents, and simmer for 20–30 minutes total.
Heads produce a substantially different stock from body shells alone. In our kitchen, the result has been richer, cloudier, and much more intensely shrimp-flavored, with fine material that settles as the stock stands. The brown material commonly called “shrimp fat” contributes to that character, although the head contains more than fat alone.
We like 20 to 30 minutes.
Add shells for the final five minutes
When using heads and body shells together, add the shells for the final five minutes of the heads’ simmer, then strain.
For a shell-only stock, first sauté the shells in a little oil until fragrant and lightly browned. Add water or the prepared vegetable broth, bring to a gentle simmer, and cook for five minutes. This brief extraction follows America’s Test Kitchen’s shell-stock approach: in their test, tasters found shell stocks simmered 5 and 10 minutes shrimpier than those simmered 15 and 30, because the aroma that makes shrimp smell like shrimp is delicate and escapes with long cooking.
Strain and portion
Strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove shells and larger fragments. For a rich stock destined for shrimp and grits, we keep the fine material that passes through. Clarity is not the objective here. If you do want a clear broth for soup, strain it through cheesecloth.
Cool promptly and stir thoroughly before dividing into small freezer portions so the settled material is distributed evenly. Those portions put concentrated shrimp flavor within reach when heads and shells are not available. We like 1-cup portions for shrimp and grits, and thaw more as needed for other dishes like she-crab soup, gumbo, shrimp perloo, and Lowcountry bog.
The Standard’s method
Vegetables and aromatics first, if wanted; heads for 20–30 minutes; body shells for the final five. For shells alone, lightly brown them before the five-minute simmer. Try not to boil your stock.
- ReadHow to use shrimp shells to make stock
- WatchWhy Frozen Shrimp Is Fresher and the Magic of Shrimp Shells
- WatchShellfish Stock
This is a general shellfish stock. If shrimp shells go in, America's Test Kitchen's testing points to adding them for only the last 5 to 10 minutes.
Shrimp
Local shrimp or store-bought?
The short answer: Unless you live where shrimp live, the "fresh" shrimp at the store aren't fresh. They were frozen first and thawed at the counter.
America's Test Kitchen's Cook's Illustrated article "You Should Be Buying Your Shrimp Frozen" says nearly all the shrimp at a fish counter was frozen and thawed by the store. They recommend buying frozen, thawing at home just before cooking (the meat starts to go mushy within a day of thawing), and choosing shell-on when you can. It costs less, holds together better, and the shells make stock.
The Takeout says shrimp bought right off the coast, never frozen, is often noticeably sweeter and more tender. That is one writer's opinion, not a test.
A blind side-by-side of boat-fresh shrimp against grocery shrimp is still waiting for someone to run it.
Coming up
On the test list
These are the questions we'd like to settle ourselves, in an ordinary kitchen with ordinary pots. Results will land here as we finish them. If you get to one first, we'd love to hear how it went.
- Soaked or covered: which saves more cooking time with stone-ground grits?
- A hard boil or a gentle simmer for stone-ground grits?
- White, yellow, or Sea Island Blue: can anyone taste the difference? So far, we couldn’t tell Anson Mills coarse white from coarse blue in an informal tasting that wasn’t blind. Yellow, and a blind round, are still to come.
- Boat-fresh shrimp, store "fresh" shrimp, and store frozen shrimp, side by side.