They’re used to manufacture breakfast
cereals, snacks, and beer, and are cooked into
a kind of porridge that’s especially beloved in
the American South. Grits were once made
from alkaline-treated hominy, but this is now
rare.
Cornmeal is finer than grits, with particles
down to 0.2 mm across, absorbs water and
cooks faster than grits, and provides a subtler
graininess. It’s used to make unleavened
mush, polenta, and johnnycakes as well as
corn breads, muffins, and other baked and
fried foods that include some wheat flour and
leavening for lightness.
Popcorn Blossoms
Leave it to Henry David Thoreau to see
popcorn with fresh eyes. In midwinter of
1842 he wrote in his journal:
I have been popping corn to-night, which is
only a more rapid blossoming of the seed