Boiled

For the longest time, cooking polenta or grits was my least favorite kitchen task. Inevitably throughout the process I was burned by molten hot porridge spitting from the pan. Said porridge, flung from the pot, would adhere to the kitchen wall (sometimes the ceiling). More often than I like to admit, the bottom of the pot would scorch, rendering the whole process futile.

To avoid all this, I devised a way to cook corn porridge with very minimal active heat, minimizing the potential for burning ourselves or the grits. Bring a pot of salted water four times the volume of grits you want to cook to a rolling boil, whisk in the ground corn, turn off the heat, and let the hot water hydrate the grits over the course of an hour or so. It worked perfectly and continues to be my preferred method to this day.