Never had Mississippi Mud Pie in my entire life. Don't even know what it is. And if a Pork Chop Dinner is a floured and fried chop with pan gravy served with rice, I guess that would do. To me, real southern food would be collard and turnip greens instead of spinach. Field peas, crowder peas, corn on the cob, baked sweet potatoes, new potatoes in the spring, and of course, grits. Real grits, not the kind they serve up north that's made by soaking the corn in lye water, (that's hominy grits) but the kind where the father would take the dried, mature corn to the mill, grind it, and bring it back home. None of that fancy-smancy soaking. Takes too long. I can see that if a person lives in an area where there is a lot of ethnic cooking (think about Italians, Greek, Mexican, Scandinavian, etc. )he/she might be looking forward to something a lot different than what they are used to. Vegetables would be cooked long with a big hunk of fat back or a ham bone. Rice would be used more often than potatoes because they didn't have the cool vegetable cellars to store produce in either. Potatoes rot very quickly.

I always used the lye method and have canned hominy with great success. Hickory King (cane) corn makes the best hominy but any field corn variety is good. I have used yellow feed corn and my kids loved it. If you use the other methods the flavor will be slightly different. I use the same processing times for hominy as I do with dried beans. Hominy (Lye Method) In a large kettle, bring 1 1/2 gallons of water and 3 tablespoons of lye to a boil (take care not to inhale steam from the lye water). Add 1 gallon of clean dried shucked corn. Simmer 10 minutes (no need to stir). Remove from heat and let sit for 25 minutes. Drain off the lye water and add clean water. Wash with repeated changes of fresh water until the black ends of the corn kernels are loose. Remove the black ends and hulls. Then either soak overnight and follow the "hominy canning" recipe below, or dry and store in a cool place. Hominy (Soda Method) Use 2 tablespoons of baking soda and 2 quarts of water for each quart of corn. Follow remaining directions for the lye method, above. Hominy (Lime Method) Substitute household (hydrated) lime for lye, following directions for the lye method, above, except cook for two hours or until the hulls loosen. Hominy Making Hints o Always use stainless steel, iron, or enamelware for making hominy. o Stir with a wooden spoon. o The black ends may be removed by rubbing kernels over a cloth on a washboard, or by using a churn. o It's OK to miss a few of the hulls and centers. o Hominy may be used in meatloaf. o Do not inhale the steam from the lye water.

Field, sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide were both considered lye a couple years ago when I was making soap. Did I misunderstand something? Just curious. I thought caustic soda was lye. At least Webster and all the soapmakers I know say so. It is made now by running an electric current through brine instead of running water through wood ashes. I am asking to find out if I am thoroughly misunderstooding the whole process which is entirely possible. Also, Lauriefbq, can cornstarch powder really replace deodorant? That sounds extremely interesting. Can it be pure cornstarch as for cooking or does it have additives to make it a cosmetic type 'powder'? Sounds worth trying, especially if you have been doing it for some time. Hard to argue with success. I have skin problems and I think I'll give this try. Kiki

Here's another take on cornmeal, grits and hominy grits. Cornmeal = ground corn. Grits = corn ground a little courser than cornmeal and cooked like cornmeal mush. Hominy grits = ground hominy cooked like cornmeal mush. Confusingly, hominy grits are often (usually?) referred to simply "grits". If that isn't confusing enough, there is also corn flour, masa harina (hominy ground fine as flour), fresh masa, polenta, etc. There is much debate (not just here) over the meaning of the names and the correct or tastiest way to prepare each of these. I have my own strong preferences and am still experimenting and learning. Feel free to correct me. Can we at least agree that it's all corn? Jim