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Is Anson Mills Organic?
Anson Mills is proud to provide America's finest chefs with fresh native stone-ground organic ingredients milled from new crop heirloom grains, legumes, and oil seeds.
What is Anson Mill grits?
With particles of corn ranging in size from 1/6 to 1/26 of an inch, Anson Mills coarse grits are produced from field ripened Carolina Gourdseed White or John Haulk Yellow dent mill corns, each prized historically for exceptional flavor and texture—and each, until recently, nearly extinct.
What is Bennecake?
Anson Mills emulates this process by pressing low-oil heirloom benne to draw off a small amount of oil. This makes compressed benne seeds called “bennecake.” We stone-mill fresh pressed bennecake to medium-fine bennecake flour with extraordinary flavor diversity.
What is pencil cob grits?
Anson Mills Pencil Cob Grits get their "pencil cob" name because the cob is very skinny and narrow. These grits have a great texture and a savory corn flavor. These are the old fashioned, real flavor grits that our colonial ancestors ate.
Which is better yellow or white grits?
White corn makes white grits, and yellow corn makes yellow grits. There is a very slight difference in flavor between the two. The yellow variety has a stronger taste and a gentle hint of sweetness that their white counterparts lack. White grits are milder.
Should you soak grits before cooking?
Soaking grits in water overnight and cooking them in their soaking liquid reduces their cooking time by about 50 percent. In real terms, this means 1 cup of grits, unsoaked, cooks in about 90 minutes; soaked overnight, they cook in about 50 minutes. Either way, don't rush these grits.
What are Benny seeds?
Benne is simply the African name for sesame (Sesamum indicum). In fact, many plant historians believe benne was brought to the New World in slave ships. The name is largely a regional preference and sesame seeds are still known as benne in certain areas of the deep south.
Whats the difference between benne and sesame?
But for the rest of us: what the heck is benne? It's essentially the heirloom ancestor of sesame seeds--sesame and benne are the same species, but sesames have been bred to maximize oil output, which unfortunately has cut down on flavor.
Where did benne wafers originate?
Lowcountry of South CarolinaHistory of the Benne Wafer Benne wafers are delicate, crispy sesame seed cookies originating in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. You can find them today at the outdoor market downtown Charleston, as well as in local Charleston specialty shops and grocery stores.
What are heirloom grits?
Grits, Heirloom White, “Pencil Cob” Coarse Grits. These come from an heirloom corn variety known as pencil cob (which is a very thin ear of corn, hence the name). Native South Carolinians consider this the ideal variety for classic low country shrimp & grits.
Is polenta similar to grits?
Yes, both grits and polenta are made from ground corn, but the main difference here is what type of corn. Polenta, as you can probably guess from the color, is made from yellow corn, while grits are normally made from white corn (or hominy).
Are grits rice?
The grits, a.k.a. shorts, brokens, or middlins, are a by-product of milling Carolina Gold rice, the fragile long-grain rice that's been cultivated in the Low Country for centuries. The broken pieces of rice take on a creamy, risotto-like texture when boiled, making them the perfect canvas for a rich sauce.
Are grits porridge?
Grits are a porridge made from boiled cornmeal. Hominy grits are a type of grits made from hominy – corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization, with the pericarp (ovary wall) removed. Grits are often served with flavorings as a breakfast dish.
Who was Anson Mills?
Battle of Rosebud. Battle of Slim Buttes. Anson Mills (August 31, 1834 – November 5, 1924) was a United States Army officer, surveyor, inventor, and entrepreneur. Engaged in south Texas as a land surveyor and civil engineer, he both named and laid out the city of El Paso, Texas.
When was the Anson Mills building completed?
While still a member of the commission, Mills constructed the reinforced concrete Anson Mills Building in El Paso, which was completed in 1911. Anson Mills at 58 with his son, Anson Cassel Mills. Mills married Hannah Cassel of Zanesville, Ohio in 1868; they had three children, only one of which, a daughter, survived to maturity.
How did Mills improve the cartridge belt?
Shortly after the Civil War, Mills began to improve the regulation cartridge belt by attempting to weave the whole belt in one piece without sewing. The improved belt was adopted by the U.S. Army, but the numbers needed by the frontier army were small.
Where did the corn grown by Anson Mills come from?
The corn for Anson Mills Native Coarse Blue Corn Grits belongs to the Cherokee Nation in the mountains of the Carolinas.
What was the name of the stone mill that was used to make pencil grits?
A small, round, horizontal hand-driven stone mill called a quern mill was the front-yard tool of choice for this food.
Is Anson Mills wheat extinct?
The particular cultivar Anson Mills grows, extra long and possessing superior flavor and a firm al dente character, is associated with ancient Italian varieties, now extinct. From antiquity, all double-hulled wheats (of which farro is one) were threshed by passing shocks of the freshly harvested grain over fire.
