I’ve been posting about this since I started this blog nearly five years ago. It’s not an issue of preference: I know people who don’t like grits either and I know a person who loves grits and polenta.
My intent isn’t to convert anybody, but rather to point out the gulf in taste that exists between these two recipes and to highlight what I think makes them different.
What is Grits?
No matter how much you love grits, there is one thing that will keep you from loving them — the grits I talked about earlier: I think there’s no sense in calling grits if they’re totally plain. It’s not grits if you’re just adding water, salt, and whatever fat you want.
I think the grits I’ve made recently have been completely unsatisfying, but when I look back on my recipe from years ago that called for only a cup of milk with a half cup of cornmeal, it’s easy to get excited about them.
I think what changed was that I got smart about what I’d be adding. I switched to using my polenta instead of cornmeal, which keeps the consistency more like polenta than grits (and a bit gummy in my opinion).
Polenta — The Good
The two things that seem to make polenta good are that it has a texture that’s similar to grits (a soft, fluffy polenta pancake) and that it has a nutty, buttery taste.
Polenta seems to be largely beloved by lovers of cheese and sauces — I don’t have any examples of polenta people hating cheese or sauce, but I have found that cheese and sauce alone don’t usually win over the grits lovers, so if you’re looking to make polenta good for people who are going to eat it because they like grits, you need to add some starch and something salty (which you’ll get by adding meat, vegetables, and a vegetable puree).
Polenta is the key difference that allows you to create a crust-free quiche. I tried one of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s crust-free quiches (the quiche for when you’re using a cream cheese crust) at a restaurant and was extremely disappointed: it tasted like a solid, good-but-not-great quiche.
At home, however, I made a crust-free quiche that I love and that tastes just like a buttery quiche. Polenta is the key to this, and if you’re going to make any pie or tart or quiche with polenta or grits, you need to try my crust-free pecan pie or my crisp-cream-cheese tart.
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What Is the Main Distinction Between Grits and Polenta?
For me, the main difference is that polenta has a discernible grit flavor, and grits don’t. Polenta isn’t a grits, but it is cornmeal mixed with milk.
The grits I’m talking about are the sort that you add a little flour to and mix with cornmeal. The grits my friend Rose loves are ground cornmeal mixed with milk.
She thinks the difference in grits comes from the specific way you cook the cornmeal. She thinks they should have a little bit of shortening added to cook them evenly.
To me, grits just taste like cornmeal and milk — or wheat flour and milk. It’s nothing special, nothing that distinguishes them from a pan of grits.
(Actually, I’ve had grits with beans and cornmeal and browned the milk and cooked it all together and it was pretty good, but it had more of a distinctive cornmeal taste than anything.)
Ease of Thought:
Grits are the potato pancake. If you want to make them good and have grits with grits, you have to add polenta. Or grits with polenta. Or grits with polenta.
Potato polenta is the grits you’re trying to make good. Or the grits that you’re trying not to ruin. Or maybe the grits you want to take a long time to make well, the grits you want to avoid altogether. Discover our website for more food recopies.
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