If you’ve never had fried grit cakes, then you probably are not from the South. In fact, if you’re not from the South you may not even know what grits are – much less how to fry them.
Frying grits likely was one of those recipes where someone’s Grandma cooked too many grits for breakfast and didn’t want to waste them. Wasting food is definitely frowned upon in the South. Warmed over grits are hard to get to the right consistency and usually do not taste so great. But, chilling and frying grits makes an entirely different dish that is more often served up at dinner time due to the chilling required.
As for the ham, again this is one of those recipes where leftovers probably came into play. Plus, many Southern dishes feature meat. You’ll find some vegetarians in the South, but especially in small towns, you will not find many.
Fried Ham Grits Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup quick cook grits
- 4 cups water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 to 2 cups finely chopped ham (any type including Southern salt cured country ham)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- ¼ cup plain flour
- Crisco or vegetable oil
- Syrup (optional)
Directions:
- Bring the water and salt to a boil – a soft boil versus a hard rolling boil.
- Carefully stir in the grits and stir
- Reduce heat to low and put lid on pot of grits.
- Cook grits until thickened but not dried out. Stir occasionally and check consistency. This should take from 3 to 5 minutes depending on the heat level.
- Add the ham and butter and stir well.
- Have an 8 inch square cake pan greased ready, and pour the grits and ham mixture into the pan.
- Let the grits cool a while and then put them in the refrigerator to chill. To set up well, they need to chill 4 hours or more.
- Use a fork to beat the egg and water.
- Cut the grits in squares around 2 inches square in size.
- Dip the grits squares in the egg mixture and then in the flour.
- Put enough Crisco or vegetable oil in a skillet to cover the bottom, but do not have a lot of grease in the pan.
- Heat the oil to medium hot. The grits cakes should lightly sizzle when added.
- Fry and flip each grits cake until golden brown. This takes around 5 minutes per side but again varies depending on the heat level.
*Ham Grits Cakes are often served with syrup like pancakes.
Other Yummy Southern Recipes
Southern Cheese Grits - If you're looking for other ways to serve your grits, then one of the most popular grits recipes in the South is Southern Cheese Grits.
Black Eyed Peas - Beans are popular in the South, and a pot of pintos or black eyed peas are a common dinner meal served with Southern cornbread.
Southern Fried Frog Legs - Sounds strange. But, frog legs are absolutely delicious. They taste like very delicate white meat chicken legs.
Sweet Potato Casserole - Southerners serve this as a side dish, but sweet potato casserole is so yummy, it could easily be dessert.
Collard Greens - Serving collards on New Years Day is said to bring luck and money for the coming year, but Southerners enjoy greens any day of the year.
Cyndi Allison - Southern born and fed, Cyndi Allison is a college lecturer and newspaper advisor as well as being a freelance writer. She writes on ...
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