Shrimp and grits

American Southern stone-ground hominy porridge with pan-seared shrimp: the dish that took corn from Indigenous staple to the defining comfort food of the Carolina low country

Origin: Carolina Low Country, American South

From the journey of Corn.

Grits are ground hominy: dried nixtamalised corn kernels milled to a coarse porridge. The dish has Indigenous roots: the Muskogee (Creek) people of the Southeast prepared a hominy porridge called 'sofkee' that European colonists encountered and adopted. Grits became the daily starch of the American South, eaten at breakfast with butter and salt, at lunch as a side dish, and combined with shrimp for a simple supper in the coastal communities of South Carolina, Georgia, and the Gulf Coast. For much of the 20th century, grits were considered poor food: the food of rural Black Southerners and fishing communities. The revival of shrimp and grits as a restaurant dish in the 1980s, particularly after chef Bill Neal at Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, elevated it to a celebrated menu item, is one of American food culture's great reappraisals. Today it is the signature dish of South Carolina, the cuisine of a landscape: Low Country shrimp from tidal creeks, stone-ground corn from inland mills, rendered pork from tradition.

Ingredients

Grits

  • 240 g stone-ground white or yellow grits (not instant)
  • 1 litre water or chicken stock
  • 250 ml whole milk
  • 60 g unsalted butter
  • 100 g sharp cheddar cheese, grated
  • 1.5 tsp fine salt

Shrimp

  • 500 g large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 100 g smoked bacon or andouille sausage, diced
  • 1 small white onion, finely diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small green pepper, diced
  • 150 ml chicken stock
  • 1 tbsp hot sauce (Tabasco or Crystal)
  • 2 stalks spring onion, sliced, to serve

Method

  1. Bring the water (or stock) and milk to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Gradually whisk in the grits. Reduce heat to the lowest setting and cook, stirring every 3–4 minutes and scraping the bottom, for 30–35 minutes until thick, creamy, and cooked through. Stone-ground grits take time; do not rush.
  2. Stir in butter, cheese, and salt. Taste; they should be rich, savoury, and deeply corny. Keep warm on the lowest heat, adding a splash of milk if they stiffen.
  3. In a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, render the bacon until crisp. Remove and set aside, keeping the fat in the pan.
  4. In the same pan with the bacon fat, sauté the onion and green pepper for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Increase heat to high, add the shrimp in a single layer and cook 1–2 minutes per side until pink and just cooked. Remove shrimp.
  5. Deglaze with chicken stock, scraping up any browned bits. Add hot sauce and reduce for 2 minutes until lightly saucy. Return shrimp and bacon to the pan and toss to coat.
  6. Spoon the grits into wide, warm bowls. Ladle the shrimp and sauce over the top. Scatter with spring onion.

Notes

Grits on their own, buttered, salted, eaten for breakfast, are the purest form of this dish and just as essential. Instant grits (pre-cooked, dehydrated) cook in 5 minutes but sacrifice everything that makes stone-ground grits worth eating. In South Carolina, cheese grits topped with a fried egg and sliced tomato is a classic breakfast. In Georgia and Alabama, grits are sometimes served as a side dish alongside fried catfish, braised short ribs, or simply with butter and honey.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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