What Kind Corn to Plant for Grits?

Cornmeal was once ground on a stone, but now you can use a coffee grinder.


Most people who plant corn at home choose sweet corn to eat fresh off the cob or can. Sweet corn has too much sugar to be properly dried and ground into grits. You will need another form of corn that is typically grown for grain, called dent or field corn.


Grits is a Southern porridge dish that is served as an alternative to potatoes or rice. It is made from cornmeal that has been coarsely ground. Another form of grits, known as hominy grits, is ground from corn that has soaked in an alkaline solution until the germ and hull loosen and fall off. The resulting hominy is dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.

Corn for Grits

Grits should be made from a type of corn that dries well. Dent corn is usually used to make cornmeal grits or hominy grits. California corn growers plant two crops of dent corn each year, one in the spring and one in the summer. Dent corn gets its name from the indentation at the top of each kernel that appears after drying the corn. This happens because the hard sides of the kernel push the soft interior when dried.

Grinding Corn

Dent corn needs to be dried completely while still on the cob. Then you need to remove the kernals from the cob before grinding them. Plucking the kernels off by hand works for small amounts of corn, but a corn sheller is better if you need to remove the kernels from several cobs for grinding. Use a grain mill -- used for making flour -- and set to a coarse grind to make cornmeal grits. If you do not want to buy a grain mill, use a clean coffee grinder, set to a coarse grind and grind the kernels into grits. The freshly ground, whole-grain grits must be refrigerated to prevent spoilage and you can store them for up to four months.

Making Grits

Prepare grits by slowly cooking the grits in milk or water until the desired thickness is reached. Some people use more liquid for a porridge consistency, but other people reduce the liquid so the grits can be poured into a pan and cut into squares after serving. You can also use the grits in any recipe calling for coarsely ground cornmeal or polenta, which is the Italian name for cornmeal with a coarse grind.

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