John's GRITS Sculpting

This page is devoted to eating GRITS.

You must have fun with your GRITS before you woof them down like a hungry dog.

This fun is called GRITS sculpting. (GRITS molding is not nearly as fun and I cover molding on a separate page.)

Before laying out a formal definition of sculpting, it is important to note that cooked GRITS has the habit of congealing. This makes sculpting possible. As the GRITS cool on your plate, they get stiffer and stiffer, and can be arranged in different ways.

GRITS sculpting is the entertaining process of rearranging GRITS on the plate from which they are eaten, carried out while the GRITS are cooling.

By definition then, if sculpting is to be carried out, GRITS must be eaten from a plate, not a bowl.

Plates are the preferred container from which to eat GRITS. Only on rare exception will I eat GRITS from a bowl, and then do so in complete defiance of proper GRITS eating protocol. (Afterwards, I always wish I had used a plate.)

You can sculpt GRITS in any way you chose, but I have my favorite way. Keep in mind that the underlying functional purpose of sculpting is obviously to cool the GRITS. So efficient sculpting involves spreading the GRITS over the largest possible surface so as to aid cooling.

 

FAVORITE SCULPTING METHOD

Place a serving of GRITS on a circular plate. Slowly and deliberately, start spreading the GRITS over the entire surface of the plate except for the very edge of the plate. (We may be crazy, but don't want to be messy.) If the plate has a raised area around the outer edge, it is good to stop the GRITS spreading where the plate edge goes up.

Smooth the GRITS evenly around the plate, then use the tines of your fork to make a criss-crossing pattern on top of the GRITS.

By this time, your GRITS should be cool enough to eat. Use the fork to sever off a bite size piece of your sculpture. If the GRITS were cooked correctly and they are cool enough, this bite-size tidbit of your sculpture should be a cohesive strip of GRITS that you can now fork up and enjoy. Start at the edge of the sculpture and work towards the middle.

 

Last revised: 4-30-97 It's 10:00 PM. Do you know where your are?