First, you need the right corn. We’re not talking sweet corn on the cob here. We’re talking dent corn—a tough, starchy, field-variety beast. It’s the kind with a tiny dent on each kernel’s crown, hence the name.
Why dent corn? Because it has the perfect balance of hard and soft starch, which gives grits their signature texture. Think of it as the workhorse of the corn world, not the show pony.
These giant trucks haul tons of it to the mill. And I mean tons. The silos there look like alien landing pods filled with golden promise.
The Great Cleaning (No, Seriously)
Before anything fun happens, the kernels must be aggressively cleaned. We’re talking magnets to pull out stray metal, air classifiers to blow away dust, and shakers to remove rocks. (You really don’t want a crunch in your grits that isn’t butter-related.)
