Is Polenta and Grits the same?

Question

I live in Australia and we can't buy Grits but can get Polenta. I have a tasty sounding recipe that requires Grits and wonder if Polenta would be the same?

Answer 1

They are not the same at all. Polenta is a mixture made from corn meal that is stirred and stirred until its the consistancy of mashed potatos. Grits are also made from corn however, they are processed differently at the mill and have a thicker and grainer texture. You may be able to purchase grits online. If not try preparing the polenta the way you prepare grits, it may not be exactly the same but you could be surprised.

Answer 2

Not the same. . . Polenta is made from corn meal. Grits are a corn product, but not the same flavor at all. Although I can see along the line you were thinking, since the texture is the same.

Answer 3

No they are not. Grits are made from hominy, white corn. Polenta is made from yellow corn, aka corn meal. It is a white corn vs.yellow corn difference. They call the white corn grits, in the south. And they call the yellow corn...(cornmeal) Polenta, which is mixed usually with Parmesan cheese. And I'm a Norwegian, uffda!

Answer 4

No, Polenta and Grits are two different things, and come from different origin. The former is made of corn and is widely used in Eastern European culture (as well as other parts of the world), and latter is widely used in the Southern states in the US.

Answer 5

Polenta and grits are not the same but they are cooked in the same way and you can use recipes for the two fairly interchangeably.

Answer 6

Grits is a type of maize porridge and a food common in the Southern United States and southern Manchuria (where it is called gezi in Mandarin) consisting of coarsely ground corn, traditionally by a stone mill. The results are passed through screens, with the finer part being corn meal, and the coarser being grits. Many communities in the Southern U.S. had a gristmill until the mid-20th century, with families bringing their own corn to be ground, and the miller retaining a portion of the corn for his fee. Grits aficionados still prefer stone ground grits, although modern commercial milling companies prefer other methods. In South Carolina, state law requires grits and corn meal to be enriched, similar to the requirements for flour, unless the grits are ground from corn where the miller keeps part of the product for his fee.


Polenta is made with either coarsely, medium or finely ground dried yellow or white cornmeal (ground maize), depending on the region and the texture desired. As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier forms of grain mush (known as puls or pulmentum in Latin or more commonly as gruel or porridge) commonly eaten in Roman times and after. Early forms of polenta were made with such starches as the grain farro and chestnut flour, both of which are still used in small quantity today. When boiled, polenta has smooth creamy textures, caused by the presence of starch molecules dissolved into the water.


Polenta is very similar to corn grits, a common dish in the cuisine of the Southern United States, with the difference that grits are usually made from coarsely ground hominy (see nixtamalization, which is the process of removing the hull from the kernel of the corn before grinding). When properly cooked, grits and polenta have similarly smooth textures, "grit" referring to the texture of the dried corn before cooking. Polenta's similarity to boiled maize dishes of Mexico, where both maize and hominy originate, may be a coincidence, as polenta is not a part of Spanish cuisine.