Foolproof Grits

Deep Run Roots

If you haven't had grits, or if you've only had them from a fast food place or a diner, these might just be the grits that make you fall in love. They are the creamiest grits I have ever had, and taste mostly of dairy. They certainly make a great canvas for other flavors, so I can't wait to make another recipe from the book with these as a base!

This recipe isn't actually difficult, but it is definitely the most complicated recipe I've seen for grits. I also don't think I know anyone with an actual double boiler, but most decently-stocked kitchens have the tools to rig one up. So find a heat-proof bowl that fits into your pot just right, and get cooking!

You can find the full recipe here: https://www.vivianhoward.com/gorging-on-life/thanksgiving-sides

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we're going to be
[00:08]: making something that we haven't made
[00:09]: yet from deep prone roots
[00:11]: we're going to be making foolproof grits
[00:14]: now i'm making it
[00:15]: for a different recipe so i'm making a
[00:18]: double batch but method is still the
[00:21]: same i just needed to use
[00:23]: my largest pans and bowls to fit
[00:26]: everything in
[00:28]: so i've got a rigged up double boiler
[00:31]: here
[00:32]: this is a my largest pan with a couple
[00:35]: inches of water on the bottom
[00:37]: and then a heat proof bowl set on top
[00:41]: um where the
[00:45]: water does not touch the bottom of the
[00:46]: bowl
[00:48]: and she does this because she cooks
[00:50]: grits entirely in milk
[00:52]: uh which means that they're more it
[00:54]: would be more likely to burn
[00:56]: um more likely to boil over if you
[00:59]: you used another method but with this
[01:03]: hopefully won't but it's going to take a
[01:05]: while so
[01:07]: um we're going to go ahead and get
[01:08]: started i have
[01:11]: the milk measured out in my bowl already
[01:13]: i have my
[01:15]: water coming up to a boil underneath
[01:18]: at medium high on my stove
[01:22]: and all i have to do right now is add my
[01:25]: grits so i'm going to add all the grits
[01:27]: right now
[01:27]: and just into this and
[01:31]: i'm going to stir them in with
[01:35]: my whisk just to get them
[01:40]: mixed in and
[01:43]: she says okay so
[01:47]: vivian says to um
[01:52]: buy grits that only have like one or two
[01:55]: ingredients the fewer ingredients the
[01:56]: better
[01:57]: i found some stone ground white corn
[02:00]: grits at
[02:01]: or at least echo stop
[02:08]: so i found some stone ground or at least
[02:10]: my husband found some stone ground white
[02:13]: corn grits at the grocery store
[02:15]: and they only have corn that's
[02:18]: one ingredient so this is perfect um but
[02:21]: she says now that we have
[02:24]: um the grits in here we should skim off
[02:27]: these holes that are on the top i've
[02:29]: never done this in my life
[02:31]: but
[02:34]: um i'm sure that will make it a nicer uh
[02:38]: maybe
[02:38]: prettier i don't know but so i'm using
[02:41]: just a
[02:42]: fine strainer and just trying to get
[02:45]: this stuff
[02:45]: off the top as much of it as i can
[02:52]: i usually don't bother
[02:53]: [Music]
[02:56]: and it's fine but we're gonna do it the
[02:59]: way she says
[03:02]: today get as much as i can out of there
[03:04]: at least
[03:06]: but most of the grits are um on the
[03:08]: bottom still because it's not warm and
[03:10]: it's not starting to thicken up yet but
[03:13]: so this must be just the hulls is what
[03:15]: she says
[03:38]: all right that'll be enough for me can't
[03:41]: get
[03:42]: all of them but i've gotten most of it
[03:45]: so i'm just going to put this to the
[03:46]: side
[03:48]: and not trip over my dog
[03:54]: she bought the camera earlier but it's
[03:55]: fine okay
[04:03]: all right so basically this is just
[04:06]: going to be
[04:07]: a really long process
[04:11]: of whisking this occasionally until
[04:15]: just to keep it from clumping up too
[04:18]: much
[04:18]: um until it's done which will be
[04:21]: anywhere
[04:22]: from 20 to 35
[04:25]: minutes i think she says let me check
[04:29]: um yep 25 to 40 minutes
[04:35]: of whisking this occasionally and just
[04:37]: making sure
[04:38]: that it doesn't i don't know stick burn
[04:42]: that it's cooking evenly so
[04:45]: this is going to be going for a while
[04:47]: and uh
[04:49]: we're probably going to get started on
[04:50]: the rest of our meal
[04:53]: because we are making this to go with
[04:55]: shrimp and grits
[04:57]: so hopefully you'll come back and watch
[04:59]: me make that
[05:00]: but i'll show you what these look like
[05:02]: when they're done we there is another
[05:03]: step to this
[05:05]: grits are not good unless they are
[05:06]: salted and preferably
[05:09]: buttered so we'll be doing that later
[05:12]: when they are cooked so
[05:15]: we'll be back in 25 to 40 minutes
[05:21]: okay my grits are pretty much
[05:24]: done they're nice and thick the um
[05:29]: it has taken on almost all of the milk
[05:31]: because she says the grits are nice and
[05:33]: swollen and have taken on all of the
[05:35]: milk
[05:36]: and now we need to add salt butter and
[05:38]: pepper and that is it
[05:40]: for this recipe
[05:43]: i'm gonna turn this off for a second
[05:45]: because it's just very loud
[05:48]: okay so i need to remember i'm doing a
[05:50]: double batch because
[05:51]: grits really need a lot of salt
[05:60]: i know that seems like a lot but grits
[06:02]: grits are not good unless they're salted
[06:04]: enough
[06:05]: some pepper
[06:14]: and then we have some butter and i'm
[06:17]: going to get a
[06:20]: this point your bowl is hot i'm gonna
[06:23]: turn this
[06:23]: down a lot so it's warm but not
[06:27]: boiling and
[06:30]: now i use unsalted butter so i put some
[06:32]: unsalted butter in there with our salt
[06:34]: so that you know
[06:36]: we don't have to account for the salted
[06:40]: butter with our salt that's usually what
[06:42]: chefs do
[06:45]: now if these are too thick
[06:48]: for your liking uh you can always add a
[06:51]: little bit of water
[06:52]: a little bit more milk a little bit of
[06:54]: cream whatever you like to
[06:55]: thin them out it really just depends i
[06:58]: like my grits
[06:59]: kind of thick um
[07:02]: but they thicken up really quick as they
[07:05]: cool off
[07:05]: so what i'm gonna do
[07:09]: is probably put some foil over this
[07:13]: put it on my back burner maybe if i can
[07:17]: make it fit there
[07:18]: and um just let it sit until we are
[07:21]: ready to eat them
[07:22]: in fact but let me taste it real quick
[07:24]: to see if i think there's enough salt
[07:26]: one second
[07:28]: this is the the taste
[07:35]: pretty good i think they're salty enough
[07:37]: especially since we're gonna be putting
[07:38]: a sauce on top of them
[07:40]: um i might go ahead and add a little bit
[07:44]: of water here
[07:45]: because they are pretty thick and i know
[07:47]: that they will thicken up as they stand
[07:50]: so that's something that you probably
[07:51]: want to adjust
[07:53]: right before you eat them adjust them to
[07:55]: the um to the thickness that you prefer
[07:57]: just add a little bit more water or milk
[08:00]: or whatever
[08:01]: i think i neglected to say i use whole
[08:03]: milk for this you can probably use
[08:04]: whatever
[08:05]: milk you prefer um
[08:08]: and you can always cook them in just
[08:10]: water usually i cook them in half milk
[08:12]: half water
[08:13]: and i don't bother with the whole double
[08:14]: boiler method but these are really
[08:16]: creamy
[08:17]: really delicious dairy flavor um
[08:22]: and and just cook them to the way you
[08:24]: like them if you haven't had brits
[08:26]: before
[08:26]: try it exactly the way she says she does
[08:28]: have a good description of
[08:30]: um when the when they're done
[08:33]: the way they should form on the plate
[08:38]: so you know if they're too thick or too
[08:39]: thin but uh yeah i'm just gonna add a
[08:41]: little bit more water and let them sit
[08:43]: until we are ready
[08:50]: on this episode of cooking the books
[08:51]: with heather you watched me make
[08:53]: foolproof grits from vivian howard's
[08:56]: deep run roots cookbook
[08:58]: and i actually had to make a
[09:02]: double batch for the other recipe that i
[09:04]: was making honestly it was
[09:05]: probably a little bit too much
[09:09]: for what we had but we made it work
[09:13]: we made it work but the problem with
[09:17]: making a double batch of this is that
[09:18]: you need a
[09:19]: really big bowl because you make these
[09:22]: in
[09:22]: a double boiler which i don't have and
[09:26]: i i am guessing that a lot of people
[09:28]: don't own an actual double boiler
[09:31]: it's easy to rig one up um with a
[09:34]: heat proof bowl over a pot that will
[09:37]: hold it
[09:39]: as you saw me do
[09:43]: it was it was fiddly it's this is
[09:46]: much a much more difficult grits recipe
[09:49]: than i think grits have to be
[09:53]: but i understand why she did it this way
[09:57]: because she cooks them in just
[09:60]: milk and milk will boil over and burn
[10:04]: very easily if you just do this in a
[10:07]: standard pot
[10:09]: that said i don't think we preferred our
[10:12]: grits made with just milk i
[10:14]: when i make them myself we are southern
[10:16]: i do make grits regularly
[10:18]: i'd never use a recipe
[10:20]: [Music]
[10:22]: whatever i but i make them with half
[10:24]: water
[10:25]: and half milk and that is that makes
[10:28]: them creamy
[10:29]: but not overly
[10:32]: heavy i felt like these just they were
[10:36]: they were very dairy forward they tasted
[10:39]: a lot like milk and
[10:41]: less like grits in my opinion
[10:44]: um a lot of recipes for shrimp and grits
[10:46]: will have you add
[10:48]: cheese and a lot of butter there's a
[10:50]: little bit of butter in this but we'll
[10:52]: have you
[10:52]: add cheese and butter and those kinds of
[10:54]: things
[10:55]: um into the grits to give them a little
[10:57]: bit more flavor
[10:59]: this didn't need that this has a lot of
[11:02]: flavor on its own
[11:03]: um and it is very dairy forward
[11:07]: so as a recipe it's not that difficult
[11:11]: but for grits i think it's much more
[11:13]: fiddly than it has to be
[11:15]: and the result is not what we generally
[11:18]: prefer
[11:18]: our grits to be now if you've never had
[11:20]: grits before i think you would
[11:23]: love these grits
[11:27]: don't try them from a diner
[11:30]: or a greasy spoon or a place that
[11:32]: doesn't put a lot of
[11:34]: cream in them cream and butter and
[11:36]: enough salt because you won't like them
[11:38]: because grits
[11:39]: need salt and in my opinion they need a
[11:41]: little bit of milk a little
[11:42]: bit of cream to make them nice and
[11:44]: creamy
[11:45]: and this definitely has that so if
[11:48]: you've not had grits before this is a
[11:50]: great starter recipe
[11:52]: it's just a little bit more fiddly
[11:53]: because of the double boiler
[11:55]: so i probably won't make these again
[11:58]: but it's nice to know that this works
[12:01]: and if i
[12:02]: decide that i'm looking for this
[12:04]: particular flavor profile
[12:06]: i will turn to this method
[12:10]: there are better ways in my opinion to
[12:12]: make grits
[12:14]: that we like so if you enjoyed watching
[12:17]: me make this please give me a thumbs up
[12:19]: hit the like button same thing
[12:23]: hit the subscribe button and come back
[12:25]: and watch me make something else