Grits substitutes

Mechanically almost the same ingredient: coarsely ground dried corn cooked into porridge. Italian polenta is usually flint corn while Southern grits are usually dent corn, so polenta tastes a shade sweeter and brighter and holds a slightly firmer, grittier bite, while grits go softer and creamier. Yellow polenta will also make the bowl noticeably more yellow than white grits.

Best for

shrimp and grits, cheese grits, breakfast grits, grit cakes

Buy coarse, not fine or instant. Fine cornmeal turns pasty and slightly slimy rather than creamy. Cooking time is similar to stone-ground grits, around thirty to forty minutes, so do not trust a quick-grits timeline.

The same corn, ground finer and in the instant case pre-cooked and dried. They give you grits on the table in one to five minutes instead of forty. What you lose is real: the texture is smoother and gluier rather than pleasantly grainy, and the corn flavour is much fainter because the germ is removed and the grind is fine.

Best for

fast weekday breakfast grits, cheese grits where cheese carries the flavour

Instant grits in particular go slack under a wet topping, so they are the weakest choice for shrimp and grits. Rescue them with more fat and salt than you think you need: a tablespoon of butter and a splash of cream per serving, plus sharp cheddar, closes most of the gap.

Masa harina is nixtamalized corn flour, meaning the corn was cooked with lime, which is the same treatment that makes hominy grits taste the way they do. So this is the one substitute that captures the slightly tangy, earthy, tortilla-like flavour of true hominy grits, and in that specific sense it can taste more authentic than polenta. The catch is the grind: it is flour-fine, so the result is smooth and soft like a loose tamal batter rather than grainy.

Best for

shrimp and grits, hominy grits flavour, soft corn porridge

Whisk the masa into cold liquid before heating or it lumps instantly, then cook fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring often, and add liquid as it thickens. It thickens far more than you expect and sets very firm as it cools.

Hominy in a can is whole nixtamalized corn, the exact same starting material as hominy grits, just already cooked and left whole. Drain it, rinse it, and pulse it in a food processor with a little milk or stock, then warm it through. Flavour is genuinely excellent and very true to hominy grits. Texture is chunkier and slightly skin-flecked no matter how long you pulse it.

Best for

shrimp and grits, hominy grits flavour with no long simmer

Do not over-process into a gluey paste. Pulse to a rough porridge, then stir in butter and cheese off the heat. This is also the fastest way to get real hominy flavour, since there is no simmering to do.

Right physics, wrong grain. Farina is coarsely ground wheat and it makes a smooth creamy hot porridge that behaves like grits under butter, cheese and a saucy topping. It just does not taste of corn at all, so shrimp and grits made with it reads as shrimp over a savoury wheat porridge: pleasant, but the sweet corn note that ties the dish together is missing.

Best for

a creamy savoury base when there is no corn product in the house

Use the unsweetened plain version, not a flavoured instant sachet. Cook it savoury from the start with salt and a bay leaf in the milk, and lean hard on sharp cheddar and black pepper.

The honest last resort when you have no corn and no wheat porridge. Neither tastes remotely like grits, but both do the structural job grits are hired for: a soft, mild, well-salted, buttery bed that absorbs a pan sauce. Loose mashed potato thinned with warm milk is the closer of the two in texture; mashed cannellini beans with olive oil is closer in savouriness.

Best for

shrimp and grits reinvented as shrimp over mash, sauce-soaking base

Keep it looser than you would serve mash normally, close to pourable, so it spreads under the topping the way grits do. Call it what it is on the plate rather than promising grits.