Can you make polenta with just regular old corn meal?

Can you make polenta with just regular old corn meal?

Yea. It comes out fine, maybe a little coarse

pretty sure that's standard practice.

you can make tamales with regular corn meal too. as they do in the mississippi delta.

People who call it "polenta" instead of corn meal are french sympathizers

Technically one is made with dent corn and the other with flint. But if you are the type of person that watches fox news and uses terms like french sympathizers, you weren't born smart enough to remember facts... so... enjoy your shitty life and instant grits cletus.

What exactly to the French have to do with it? Because Cajuns or something?

I always associated it more with Italian food. Grits are better, though.

You mean it the only way to get it isn't purchasing it in a tube shaped log like cheap ground meat?

It's much cheaper and really quick to make it from scratch. When freshly made it's like a porridge, but you can stick it in a pan and it will firm up and you can slice and fry it like your tubes.

>you weren't born smart enough to remember facts...

Stop being mean to niggers. They can't help it and you're not being politically correct.

Polenta is better using cornmeal.

LOL. Flyovers, amirite?

It's not polenta if it's made with corn meal, those are grits.

You should read up on your history more. Polenta originally referred to numerous kinds of thick ground grain porridge.

But polenta IS corn meal...

I remember first making polenta with blue cheese and it turned out green.
That's when I remembered yellow and blue make green.

polenta is italian

Italian living in America here.
Polenta is just boiled cornmeal. American-style cornmeal tends to be a little more coarsley ground than what is used back home, but is a decent substitute at less than a third the price (24oz of Goya or Quaker cornmeal is $1 while 24oz of anything called 'polenta' will be at least $3). If it's a staple, stick to Quaker/Goya. If it's for special occasions, get the good stuff.

>prefer grits to polenta
The two are more-or-less identical, really. It's what you serve it with and/or the cheeses you choose to add (if any) that make the difference.
My ex, an American southerner, used to cook grits from time to time. When we had shrimp and grits, it was fucking glorious but I wasn't much a fan of cheese grits because I don't much care for the American cheddar the bitch would use.

Not just grains. My part of the country traditionally made polenta from chickpea flour and Sardinia traditionally used chestnut flour, but when maize arrived, we switched over because maize is cheaper and easier to grow and harvest.

>more-or-less identical
I disagree on two small points. The texture is different both because of the kind of corn and how they are typically cooked. That's splitting hairs because typical doesn't mean out of the realm of possibility, nor does it mean it's a truly traditional thing. Also, that was mainly a shitpost in the interest of maintaining Burger superiority.
>chickpea flour and Sardinia traditionally used chestnut flour
That I wasn't aware of. Chestnut porridge sounds wonderful.

Oh, and as a nod to Italo-Murcan relations. We used to make cheesy grits with fontina in one of the restaurants I worked for. They were awesome.

I've never actually had the chestnut one, so I don't know if it was sweet or savoury but I have had a sweet chestnut flour pudding that's basically vegan pannacotta. It's really easy to make, too:

Milk, 250ml
Chestnur flour, 100g
Plain sugar, 2tbsp
Vanilla sugar, 2tbsp
Bitter cacao powder, 4tbsp
Pinch of salt
Optional: chunks of nuts, 30g (about 4tbsp)

Boiled chestnuts and/or roasted pine nuts are traditional, but peeled walnuts, hazlenuts or almonds are fine, too.

Heat the milk over gentle flame until it just starts to bubble; meanwhile, whisk the chestut flour with the sugars, cacao powder and salt.
Lower the heat to maintain a very, very gentle simmer and whisk in the flour mixture.
Keep stirring until well dissolved then up the heat to medium, still stirring.
Cook five minutes or so then, when it starts to sputter and bubble, off the heat and pour into a pudding mould. Use a rubber/silicone spatula to get every bit of it out.
Set the mould in an ice bath to chill it more quickly then place into the fridge for an hour.
When serving, sprinkle with nuts, if using.
Makes four portions.

I would imagine the savoury version tastes more like chestnut bread, which is only mildly sweet.

Our chickpea version:
100g chickpea flour
50ml olive oil
500ml water
Pinch of salt

Just combine everything, bring to the boil, lower to maintain a simmer and allow to cook, stirring constantly, until reduced and thick.
Serve as-is or allow to set then slice, fry and serve with stewed dishes.

Also
>cheesy grits
My ex bitched at me for calling it that. "It's cheese grits!" Similarly called scrambled eggs with cheese in them "cheese eggs." Maybe it's just a southern thing.

It's water, salt, cornmeal, and heat. It's not hard to make and cheap. Cook some up and spoon on some bolognese and enjoy.

Nice. I have some pecan flour that I think I will try something similar with.

I spent my early childhood in Georgia and we called them cheesy grits. Southerners can get a little peculiar about their food.

My father is French and like most French people he refuses to consume corn no matter what.
French people dislike corn, for short, yeah.