"Phil(NM)" wrote in message =
...

Go look at your local hispanic market, or maybe even that section of
your supermarket for an item called chico's. It's dried sweet corn, =
and
pretty inexpensive. May break your grinder tho.... dried corn is hard =

as a rock. maybe harder...

I am not sure where those are. Some supermarkets in this area have a
Portuguese flavor, and Goya foods are stocked by most. But I do not=20
think that Chico is know to them.

"Phil(NM)" wrote in message =
...

Forgot.. aren't grits before they're cooked essentially dried corn?

They should be. Grits should be hominy grits. Hominy is whole corn
kernels processed with alkali, which softens the hull, and degrades the
kernel content. Corn is deficient in a couple of essential amino acids,
notably tryptophan and lysine. The alkali processing levels the playing =

field by degrading some of the others. So many generations of native
Americans grew up without suffering nutritional deficiency on that=20
account.

There are two continents of America, so "native Americans" in the=20
sense that I have used it, refers to several ancient civilizations. =
(Decades=20
ago, there would be a considerable clamor when a politician referred to=20
the U.S. of A., as America.)

The alkali processing does also change the flavor of corn products, in
a way that some, including me, regard as desirable.

There is hardly a cheaper food than corn, and alkali abounds in our =
world.
One would expect that hominy and hominy grits would be cheap, in 25 and
50 pound bags. But the only grits I can find locally are by Quaker, and =
they
are priced as a specialty food, sold in little canisters of one pound, =
maybe
less. So far, it seems that the Internet does not offer much better.

In earlier times, one could buy canned (ready to eat) hominy, under the=20
Van Kamp's label. Fried with sausage and served with eggs, it made a=20
fine breakfast. I wonder if it still exists anywhere.

Jimmy Carter likes hominy grits, and he is a good person.

---
DickA