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Can't find grits. Help! Please!

I'm currently holed up in New England (queue the blustery snow squall and sleet against the window sounds). There's currently 2 feet of snow out there and temps haven't broken 28F in four days. To make matters worse, they only have instant grits in the stores here. No wonder they hate grits.

This has left me befuddled to the point that I don't even know which type of Jim Dandy grits I always buy; were they 'Regular' or 'Quick'.

Do Jim Dandy grits come in Regular (long cook time) Quick (shorter cook time), and Instant????
Or do they just offer Quick and Instant?
Where can I order these online????
Since I'm shopping online, what other brand would you recommend, excluding Quaker?


Thank you thank you thank you.

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  1. I love the stone ground grits you can order online from Early's Honey Stand in Spring Hill, TN.

      1. Really the best in regular (long cooking) grits; as one poster put it, "The High Temple of Grits"


        Jim Dandy makes regular and quick grits, and they are available at most Walmart stores.
        Here's a website that sells their grits, although you do have to buy multiple bags, but Jim Dandy grits are cheap. My Brands ships by UPS and shipping costs are based on weight and zipcode.


        And another site that sells both quick and regular, no need to buy more than one bag, although the site has a $10 minimum:


        1 Reply
        1. re: bushwickgirl

          Not sure what brand of grits you are looking for, but on the packages of Quaker grits the cooking instructions for the instant packets are the same as for the quick that comes in the 5 pound bag. I never buy the instant packets when the 5 pounds cost almost the same as 1 instant packet. If all you can find are the packets, just cook them in a small pot and simmer slowly (or microwave at a lower setting for 1 or 2 minutes longer) - they will come out fine. Of course adding butter & cheese or bacon bits always helps!

          1. Can you find any coarse grind cornmeal? It may be labeled polenta.

            7 Replies
            1. re: paulj

              That may approximate CORN grits, but not HOMINY grits, a difference which has been addressed, argued about, and chewed to doll-rags on at least three CH threads. Assuming that the OP is looking for hominy grits, there is a big difference between quick and instant, the latter being awful (IMO) and the former being quite adequate. The Quaker brand is decent; I am not familiar with Jim Dandy, but I've actually never found any brand that was notably bad. Out here in SoCal I get Albers.

              1. re: Will Owen

                Yes, I am referring to HOMINY Grits.

                Oddly enough, Anson Mills, a supposed authority, blurs the line further by offering CORN grits (?) (please), and HOMINY 'QUICK' Grits. So, given the confusion re. grits in general, I should phrase my question more clearly;
                - I'm looking for HOMINY grits
                - I have zero interest in INSTANT grits
                - I'm not looking for CORN grits nor Cornmeal
                Any help is appreciated, and thanks very much to those above.

                Foodnetwork/Alton Brown, if you're listening, I see an episode opportunity to end this maddness.

                1. re: Stuart C.

                  If you can't find Jim Dandy regular or quick grits, go with the Anson Mills whole hominy (quick) grits, either white, if you prefer, or yellow.

                    1. re: alanbarnes

                      Here AB claims that with (true) hominy grits, 'the resulting gruel never becomes smooth', so they 'are grittier than nonhominy grits'.

                      Note that the bag he holds in the grocery store is Bob's Red Mill Stoneground Polenta/Grits.

                      That is what I use for polenta, i.e. the mush that cook for dinner and serve with a stew like peposo or fry and top with grated Italian cheese. I also have Quaker quick grits, and tend, more out of habit than anything else, to cook for breakfast and eat with fried eggs. My impression is that the Quaker grits remain looser (not smooth/grittier was AB's word), but I haven't tried to cook the two side by side, aiming for the same consistency and smoothness.

                      If the grits are labeled as stone ground, they probably are not made from treated corn. If labeled 'hominy grits' they might be, or they might just be ground from a white 'hominy type' of corn. Note that the Quaker grits are enriched. And I haven't noticed any difference between quick Quaker grits, and WhiteLily quick grits (without the word hominy anywhere on the package).

                  1. re: Will Owen

                    Can you point me to a processor who speaks clearly about grinding dried nixtamalized corn into grits? I can no long simply assume that every use of 'hominy grits' means that.

                    I don't, for example, see that on this Anson Mills page
                    Their 'hominy grits' are ground from Henry Moore Yellow Hominy Corn. This is a strain of corn, not nixtamalized 'Henry Moore Corn'.

                    1. re: Will Owen

                      Nixtimalzation, lye coursed to it''s grit of ingestion
                      is somehow an enigma on iternet found.

                      My queries to Anson's
                      about fit of their grits
                      as to nixtimalation
                      remain, sadly, unanswered.

                      So I stand with Cousin Vinny
                      in his role in the movie
                      in search of the singular grit