Forget the Mason-Dixon Line. Today`s divider between North and South is a gloppy corn mush that just about everyone would agree looks as bad as it sounds: grits.
The feuding starts when talk turns to the taste of this mealy meal:
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Northerners hate `em. Southerners love `em. And never shall the two sides meet. It`s a tradition.
''Northerners don`t like grits because they expect them to have a lot of taste,'' says Carl Allen, owner of Allen`s Historical Cafe in Auburndale, Fla.
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''And as anyone who has eaten them knows, grits don`t have much taste. They`re just kind of blah, very bland tasting.''
For those whose mush is called oatmeal, grits, also known as hominy when ground, are made from yellow or white corn that has been a staple in the Southern diet for generations.
Like noodles and potatoes, grits are chameleons of the kitchen, a neutral food whose character changes depending on what is served with, or on them.
Traditionally, the grains of corn were soaked in a weak lye solution, causing the kernels to puff up and the skins to come free. The kernels then were washed and cooked.
These days, those putting on the grits usually just open a package, add water and voila! Instant downhome cookin`.
But time hasn`t changed the most important aspect of grits: They can be served in 1,001 ways, from the traditional side dish served with red-eye gravy or whatever, to the newer, trendier Gritsicles and grit souffles, said to be the chichi goat`s cheese of Dixie.
''It used be just plain grits, served with gravy or eggs or meat, but the fancier people get, the fancier grits get,'' says Judy Peiser, executive director of the Center for Southern Folklore, in Memphis.
''Now at the fancy Southern parties they`re serving up cheese grits souffles and dishes like that.''
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While grits have successfully climbed the Southern social ladder, partly because of former President Jimmy Carter, who, like any other self-respecting Southerner, scarfed them down regularly, they still remain strangers to most Yankee lips.
But apparently not to their curiosity.
''Northerners wonder why we like grits so much,'' says Peiser, who answers their questions with a 30-minute film on grits. The folklore center also has one on `possum, another popular Southern dish that has ruined many a Northern appetite).
Adds Allen: ''Northerners are always coming into my cafe to try grits. But they usually don`t like `em.''
But some things, it seems, are more important than taste.
''It`s not so much the taste that makes grits popular; they are kind of bland,'' Peiser says. ''It`s just that we Southerners grew up eating grits. Even today they are still a staple of a Southerner`s diet, a tradition. I guess you could say that grits are the cement that holds the South together.'' Well, Peiser is in the folklore business. But this much is clear: More than 140 million pounds a year of this stick-to-the-ribs food is sold in the United States, most of it in the Land of Cotton, where old-time ways are not forgotten.
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Marci Kaminsky, a spokeswoman for Quaker Oats Co., which makes seven varieties and is the nation`s largest manufacturer of grits, says that ''in excess of 50 percent'' of the company`s 85 million pounds a year is sold in the South, but she would not be more specific. Northern sales figures are
''confidential information,'' she adds.
Other companies, such as the R.H. Hammond Co., of Hialeah, Fla., makers of Dixie Lily brand grits and the only grits mill in the nation that still makes the coarse-ground variety--those ground by a 5-ton stone that aficionados swear are the best-tasting--do not even bother selling their wares north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
''Northerners just aren`t used to them,'' says company president R.H. Hammond Jr.
''Ever since the Indians, Southerners have used a lot of corn in their meals. So people in the South were raised eating grits and other corn products at every meal. Folks up North weren`t.
''It`s all environment. If you were raised eating apples, you can move somewhere where they sell oranges, but you`re still gonna be eating apples.'' These recipes are from ''American Food: The Gastronomic Story,'' by Evan Jones (Vintage Books, out-of-print).
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HOMINY PUDDING WITH APRICOTS
Four servings
Soaking time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 to 50 minutes
3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
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2 tablespoons butter
2 cups milk, hot
1 cup cooked hominy grits
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup slivered almonds
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2 eggs, well-beaten
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Soak apricots in water to cover for 30 minutes, or until soft. Melt half the butter in hot milk in large bowl; stir in cooked grits.
2. Combine sugar, salt, almonds and apricots with eggs. Add cinnamon, then stir slowly into milk mixture. Butter a 1-quart casserole with remaining butter, fill with mixture, then set casserole in a pan of hot water and bake for 45 to 50 minutes.
BAKED HOMINY GRITS WITH CHEESE
Four servings
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Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour
2 cups cooked hominy grits, cold
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese, plus 1/4 cup additional, optional
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1 cup milk
4 eggs, well-beaten
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Break up cold grits with a fork. Melt butter with minced garlic. Add cheese, milk and eggs; stir well and combine with cold grits until mixture is very smooth. Taste and add salt if needed and make a few turns of pepper grinder.
2. Pour into buttered 2-quart casserole and bake for about 45 minutes. Sprinkle additional cheese if you want, and bake for another 15 minutes.
