Ingredients :History:Instructions:
- Butter, for greasing the casserole dish
- One 30-ounce can hominy, drained and rinsed
- 1 large can of Ortega green peppers, chopped
- 1 ½ cup Monterey Jack cheese, cubed
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Kosher salt (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the casserole dish. Combine all other ingredients and place in the casserole dish. Bake until the casserole is hot and bubbling, about 20 minutes. Let sit for about 10-15 minutes before serving. Great as a side dish or a main dish with salad and bread.
The Amerindians were already eating a boiled, soft, mashed corn (or maize) when the English and European explorers first arrived in this continent. Corn was a year-round staple for both Native Americans and Colonists. Each tribe called the staple by a different name. Different tribes of Amerindians may have taught early Colonists in different areas up and down the East coast how to thresh the hulls from dried yellow corn and thus create both hominy and grits.
In fact, there seems to some confusion of what the terms, “hominy” and “grits,” mean—unless someone is eating or cooking them—because everyone uses either of them knows exactly what she or he meant when she or he said either “hominy” and/or “grits.” Besides--generally speaking--grits are eaten at breakfast, and hominy can be eaten at other times.
Others may explain that hominy is a food produced from dried kernels of corn or maize (Zea mays). The corn is treated is with lime (or another alkaline product) to remove the hull. Grits, on the other hand, are ground up dried kernels of corn, aka maize (Zea mays), and they are called “grits” because they are gritty and coarsely ground. Or may be not.
SouthernLiving.com, Taste of the South: Grits, 2017, agrees with me about this confusion:
Yet confusion abounds over what grits actually are. Commercially produced grits are made from ground, degerminated, dried white or yellow corn kernels that have been soaked in a solution of water and lye. The only grits for purists are produced by the old-fashioned method of stone grinding with a water-turned stone. These grits retain a more natural texture and rich flavor. Stone-ground grits are sometimes labeled as “speckled heart,” because the remaining germ–or heart of the kernel––looks like a tiny black fleck.
I asked my mother about this conundrum once in a grocery store while studying a can of hominy. I thought we should buy it and taste some to see if it was like grits. Her answer was, “Put it back. I cook regular grits; I don’t cook canned hominy.” Perhaps she held it in disdain as “poor folks food.”
Fortunately, SouthernLiving.com also provided a “Grits Dictionary” which explains:
Hominy: Dried white or yellow corn kernels from which the hull and germ have been removed. It’s sold dried or ready-to-eat in cans. When dried hominy is ground, it’s called hominy grits. Grits are available in three grinds—fine, medium, and coarse.
Whole-ground or stone-ground grits: These grits are a coarse grind. You’ll find stone-ground grits at gristmill gift shops and specialty food stores.
Quick and regular grits: The only difference between these types is in granulation. Quick grits are ground fine and cook in 5 minutes; regular grits are medium grind and cook in 10 minutes.
Instant grits: These fine-textured grits have been precooked and dehydrated. To prepare them, simply add boiling water.
Now, I have heard the claim that word, “hominy,” is derived from the “Indian name” rockahomine, which was later shortened by the English colonists to “hominy”. Alas, that claim doesn’t seem to be true.
The Online Etymology Dictionary explained that the term “hominy” was first recorded in 1629 by Captain John Smith, and that “hominy” is probably “from Powhatan (Algonquian) uskatahomen, or a similar word, ‘parched corn,’ probably literally ‘that which is ground or beaten.’” In American English, the terms of grits and hominy for these corn foods were used interchangeably during Colonial times. Later, hominy meant whole kernels that had been skinned but not ground, BUT in the USA South, hominy meant skinned kernels that could be ground coarsely to make grits.
Copyright 2017, Myth Woodling
Sources:
Janet Rausa Fuller, The Difference Between Cornmeal, Corn Flour, Polenta, and Grits, 9/27/16, accessed 8/14/17.
hominy - Online Etymology Dictionary, 2017, accessed 8/14/17.
grits - Online Etymology Dictionary, 2017, accessed 8/14/17.
SouthernLiving.com, Taste of the South: Grits, 2017, accessed 8/14/17.