A lot of people do say "grits" meaning only hominy grits, and you can get both corn grits and hominy grits at grocery stores, but if they're not popular in your area, you might have to ask the manager to order them.

According to About.com, corn grits are made from dent corn and polenta is made from flint corn, and the harder flint corn remains firmer. I do remember a guy who was in France lamenting that there were no grits to be had and a girl shoving a box of polenta into his hands. :)

Food52.com has a less technical, more experiential, take on the subject, and includes masa in the list.

Wikipedia has a more historical bent.

I called a website--Barkleysmill.com--and was told that their highly praised grits was very coarsely ground corn from a heritage breed of corn. They don't do hominy. I see that some on the grits on the link from pillog includes that kind of grits with the hominy type (both the Palmetto and Bob's Red Mill, for example). Following the other link and following the links on there, it appears that southerners use the term interchangeably--sometimes meaning real hominy grits and sometimes just ground corn.

How would you know which to use in a recipe calling for "grits" and would it affect a recipe substituting one for the other?

Lacey, I think that the choice is almost always one of which flavor you prefer. I like cornmeal for fried mush but prefer hominy grits for most anything else.

But I've never eaten fried hominy mush....might be that I would prefer hominy for that application, too.

I regularly use a locally stone ground coarse, unbolted cornmeal for anything that's called polenta. But I'm still totally confused about what a recipe might mean when it calls for "grits"--hominy or just very coarsely ground corn.

My guess, linguistically, would be that "grits" means hominy grits unless there's a reason to think it might be corn. Unless you're trying to do an historic recreation, at which point there might be supporting documentation as to which was more prevalent in the region, or on the stores list of the farm or whatever, if you can't figure it out, why not just try it both ways?

Or...recipe. I was thinking like shrimp and grits. If it's a dry ingredient, like putting masa in chili, we might be able to figure it out based on the recipe.

Well, apparently both Anson mills, generally considered to be growers (and grinders) of highest quality heirloom corn, rice, beans call plain coarsely ground corn "grits", just like Barkleys Mill. They sell a range of grits, but none of them are hominy grits. So, clearly, "grits" does not generally mean hominy grits, an entirely different product.

As far as I can tell, the terms are used completely interchangeably, with no way at all to determine which product is actually meant, unless the site (or the recipe) specifies.

And, pillog, is shrimp and grits made with "grits" or hominy grits?

While I don't live in an area where grits are as common as they may be in in other parts of the country, any that I have seen or eaten look and taste exactly the same as soft or creamy polenta.........I just assumed they were the same thing. They are prepared almost identically and seem to be served with the same sort of saucy, savory toppings. Feeling the need to research now that my curiosity was piqued, the blog thekitchn.com has a very good synopsis. But I really liked the final take: "But in reality, the differences are relatively slim. Buy coarse cornmeal
at the store and call it a day. And if you're out on the town and you
like polenta, try ordering grits next time (and vice versa)."

The only hominy I have ever had was unground kernels in Mexican posole!

Corn that has been nixtamalized is better nutritionally so that would be one reason to opt for hominy grits over corn grits.

Nutritional Benefits of Nixtamalization

Hm... I haven't spent much time in the South, and I didn't see a lot of grits there, so I have no feel for authenticity. Every time I've seen shrimp and grits, both in person and on TV, the grits are white, so I assumed hominy. Then they put yellow cheese in them, so it could be hard to tell if it were corn. So I tried looking at Southern Living's recipe, figuring it could be definitive and I see your point. :) It doesn't say.

Which goes back to try both and figure out what you like. :)

There's a lot more traffic in Kitchens. You could post an OT there and see if you get some better responses.

Hominy can be either white or yellow depending on the corn used. And yes, hominy should be better nutritionally. Also, it should be more shelf stable--that is, not needing to be refrigerated to keep the germ from going rancid since it's been so treated.

And where's Grainlady? I would think she would have something valuable to say on this subject.

Grainlady left. :(

Wow, that's terrible! Why? When did she leave?

Grainlady left? She was certainly knowledgeable but her frugality was a bit over the top.

Not many people would want to be as frugal as grainlady, but her knowledge and her willingness to share it was phenomenal. I, for one, will really miss her.

I very much miss her too.

Does anyone know why she left?

Lacey, there was some disagreement on her advice on saving money. Her frugality frustrated some people,(she teaches courses on it) and she decided not to post anymore.