This is finely ground white cornmeal known to southern American cooks as grits. So then, this is breakfast grits with the elements of a regular breakfast mixed into it.
I must say, it is extraordinary. And I can safely bet that you've never tasted anything like it. I would proudly serve this to anyone, any connoisseur at any station of life, any class of person, for any occasion whatsoever. Except an American politician because none of those people deserve anything this great. It would be especially practical for camping because the entire breakfast is right here. And it will not leave you hungry again within a few hours.
It's success is due to a few key factors.
* Great ground corn. Do not use standard grits or mass produced cornmeal. You will not get these results. This ground corn is from
Anson Mills but it needn't be this particular. They sell only corn that is ground the day of departure and from heirloom grain that is sent to you and at home it is stored frozen to keep its freshness. All that makes a gigantic difference. There is simply no way for larger commercial mills to be this particular, this persnickety, about their massive amounts of corn that they process and send off by various means that encounter various forms of storage for various lengths of time. They cannot control time and what happens to milled corn over time. It is not possible.
You can come very close to this by grinding popcorn seeds yourself at home using an electric coffee mill each time you make this. It is a fine second choice and much less expensive. Try it, you'll be astonished at the difference it makes.
* The bacon is top quality, frozen for storage and torn into pieces with each use. It fries quickly and separately and held to add at the end. You can actually use the same pot. Any compromise will be noticeable. Just forget all those packages of regular bacon, skip the entire row, and go straight to the deli section. You'll never go back to the regular stuff. You'll never be standing there deciding.
* I used Hatch chiles that are marketed around here this time of year while fresh poblano or jalapeños are fine. Roasting them first will enhance the chile experience considerably. It's how Mexican cooks treat their chiles and you must admit they know a thing or two about handling chile peppers. No other country's cooks come close.
* Butter. If you taste-test as you go then you'll realize immediately how much butter affects polenta. It's like putting butter on corn on the cob. In southern states white grits come to the breakfast table blank as a pile of white sludge or in a little ramekin and the first thing that customers do is pop a pat of butter smack in the middle and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. If I served southern customers this breakfast grits it would blow their southern minds. And I mean it. No exaggeration here, just natural and honest fact.
* The cheese is very good quality. Again, deli cheese brought here from Wisconsin. Honestly I think nearly anything will do, even the creamy cheese used for tortilla dips seen in jars. This cheddar cheese is outstanding. Added off the heat so that residual heat causes it to melt without separating.
* Parts of an egg cook at different temperatures. The white of an egg is two types. The first more liquid portion of opaque white denatures at 140℉ and begins to harden turns solid while the yolk begins to denature and harden at 160℉, now, these temperatures are well below the temperature of boiling water. So the egg is stirred in rapidly disallowing it to solidify. The longer it's stirred at higher temperature then the stiffer the entire contents will become. And you don't want that. You do not want the egg to solidify. Keeping it liquid while thickening is key. You stand there and control how stiff your want your creamed egg to become. That means stand there and stir it and make sure that it doesn't reach boiling temperature, you watch it thicken as you go. At this point the entire pot should not be boiling.
Those are the tricks. No tricks at all, actually, just advanced food knowledge. But nobody ever listens. And that's why nobody comes close to how fantastic this is. It's why people who come around here regard me food genius when I'm nothing of the sort. I've just mastered a few key techniques. Evident here. And that's all.
This is actually sweet because of the corn. It's smooth and soft by long cooking on low heat. It's like the best pudding ever. And I do not understand so I cannot explain why its excellence has not already swept the entire world craving for something simple and great.
