Talk:Polenta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Food Portal
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Food and drink, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of food and drink articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance scale.
Uruguay Portal
This article is part of WikiProject Uruguay, an attempt to expand, improve and standardise the content and structure of articles related to Uruguay

If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of objectives.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.


Oppose. It seems that there are already a half dozen articles on specific cultural preparations of boiled cornmeal mush, from Europe, Africa, and South America. As they are all interlinked with "see also," I don't see it as particularly necessary that they all be included in one huge article entitled "Cornmeal mush" (or, worse yet, that the Italian term be used as the title of an article which also discusses southern African sadza and Romanian mamaliga).

What's wrong with having an article on cornmeal mush? It wouldn't be "huge" if properly merged because much of the content is redundant. I think it's much more ridiculous to have a half dozen articles on different names for cornmeal mush. —Keenan Pepper 14:16, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
They're more than just names - they go with different preparations of maize meal, different resulting textures and different accompaniments. BarryNorton 22:34, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I should have guessed: a member of the mergist society!  :) Badagnani 18:00, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

If they had a card, I'd carry it. =P —Keenan Pepper 20:39, 16 December 2005 (UTC)


Polenta it's yuppie for Grits. They are the same thing really!

Contents

[edit] Grits vs Polenta

Yes, grits and polenta are extremely similar, but polenta is made with ordinary cornmeal (used for bread in the US). Grits are made from hominy, which is white corn that has had the outer hull of the kernels removed by disvolving in sodium-hydroxide. Grits are NOT gritty in texture, except before cooking. Please do not alter the article to include statements like "grittier still," which is inaccurate. Thank you

This is incorrect. I've purchased many varieties of Italian and North American-produced polenta, and the grind and color are not the same as "ordinary corn meal." Badagnani 05:53, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll take your work for this, then. But as a Southerner, I can assure you that grits are made from hominy. Does polenta include the hull?

As a descendant of northern Italians, ;) I'm sure it doesn't include the hull. But I don't think hominy does either; posole doesn't either. Badagnani 06:05, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Although grits may be made from ground hominy and polenta made from ground (non-nixtamalized/hominy-ized) corn, I think they taste fairly similar. Although the grits I usually get at places like Denny's or Perkins are white in color and polenta is usually yellow. Badagnani 06:10, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Without anymore knowledge about the hull issue, let's leave the article as is. I agree that grits do indeed look different from polenta, but the taste (or lack thereof) is very similar. Most of the flavor comes from what you add of course. Hominy is white.--Drsjmitchell 06:23, 15 May 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Gruel/porridge

Why did someone add gruel/porridge as synonyms? These are thin in texture, while polenta is quite thick. Please explain here. Badagnani 06:07, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey, I did that (Mitchell). Gruel is usually thinner, but porridge is thick. The porridge article (the same article as gruel) lists grits and polenta as types of corn porridge. The polenta article should link to porridge.--Drsjmitchell 06:23, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

My mistake, but I'm still not familiar with a thin, gruel-like version of polenta, at least not in the conventional sense of the term. Or are you referring to the original non-maize-based food as eaten by the Romans? Badagnani 06:43, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I meant that polenta is related to the roman dishes and gruel. Gruel is an ancient dish. --Drsjmitchell 20:21, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

Is a picture of deep fried cornmeal really reprentative of a traditionally boiled, peasant dish? Does anyone out there have a better picture? If you do PLEASE remove the current picture and add your own. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.88.59.219 (talk) 21:16, 24 December 2006 (UTC).

I agree that this picture does not represent European polenta. I'd propose deleting it, even if there is no replacement. - David Bürge, Switzerland 83.76.51.140 20:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
I have removed the picture, please someone replace it with a new one. I will try to make polenta this week and take a picture of it to post. - tvinniet, 17 March 2007 --—Preceding unsigned comment added by Tvinniet (talk • contribs)

[edit] Christopher Kimball/Cook's Illustrated citation

at least one authority (Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated magazine) has asserted that cooking polenta using modern ingredients should take only seven minutes.

Where does he say this?
I use the Cook's Illustrated polenta recipe—in fact I made the Parmesan and butter variation just the other day—and the listed cooking time is "about 30 minutes".
JFD 15:59, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Never mind. Found it. It was in an article about microwave cookery as opposed to an article primarily about polenta. JFD 01:44, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 05:57, 10 November 2007 (UTC)