Grits

Grits are basically cornmeal. Yellow, white, medium grind, course grind, instant, quick and hominey. All can be made into grits.

Grits in the South mostly refers to white or hominey grits.

You've got your yellow, made from yellow corn, white from white corn and hominey which is made by a process using yellow corn and lye which turns it white. You can make good grits out of any type of medium to course stone grind cornmeal. Mostly the difference is slapping a label that says "GRITS" on cornmeal.

The quick and instant types are processed to reduce cooking time. I'd avoid those. Go with real stone ground grits. It's not like the real stuff takes any time or special effort anyway. Grits are on the plate in about 10 minutes using real unprocessed stoneground grits.

It all really comes down to personal preferrence. Me? I'm not a big fan of lye or other stuff you use to unclog toilets in my food, so I went with this yellow corn grit variety. The only real difference between grits and polenta is method of cooking and ingredients. If you really are concerned about color you can track down white corn varieties but yellow grits don't bother me. It's all cornmeal. You could make grits out of standard shelf cornmeal. The only difference really would be in texture since most stuff labeled cornmeal is a finer grind than what's labeled grits.

The cooking? Nothing could be simpler.

Basic Grits:
1.5 cups water
A couple pinches of salt.
.5 cup stone ground grits.
Tbsp butter

Bring the water to a boil in a lidded saucepan. Add the salt. Reduce heat to medium and slowly stir in the grits. Stir the grits constantly for 5 minutes, remove from heat , stir in the butter, put the lid on, and let sit for 5 more minutes while you fix the rest of your b-fast.

Fluff it up and serve. If you prefer it runnier, add more moisture. You can also use milk for a creamer version.

This is all really going to come down to personal preferrence and what your own experience is. I imagine that many people just are fine with Quaker Oats Quick Grits or that's what Mom used to make, so that's "grits" to them. And that's fine. But it's all just cornmeal folks and there's alot of different ways to cook 'em up and types.

There's no such thing as "true grits" really.