Polenta

[Anna Blume]

Has anyone seen polenta in bins in the bulk section of any of the stores, lately?

I've already griped about selections made in this part of the store (ginger snaps and candy-coated pretzels in various flavors, amaranth seeds, etc. but fewer and fewer staples for cooks), so I won't go on and on.

However, WFM used to sell polenta at a very reasonable price, if changing the name of the bright yellow, coarse grain to "grits" some time ago.

In a recent quest in Tenleytown and Silver Spring, all I've found are the plastic-wrapped logs of prepared polenta, and in the former, an 8-oz. box of organic polenta from Argentina for $3.99 or $4.99. The price of corn has gone up recently, but we're talking peasant food...

Trader Joe's only has plastic logs, too. Rodman's has Italian stuff, 8 oz. for $3.19. Any superior sources? Bulk at Yes, for example?

Thanks.

[zoramargolis]

Trader Joe's only has plastic logs, too. Rodman's has Italian stuff, 8 oz. for $3.19. Any superior sources? Bulk at Yes, for example?

Rodman's also has sacks of Goya brand coarse and medium grind cornmeal, as do many regular supermarkets. Same thing, much cheaper.

[porcupine]

I've already griped about selections made in this part of the store (ginger snaps and candy-coated pretzels in various flavors, amaranth seeds, etc. but fewer and fewer staples for cooks), so I won't go on and on.

It's a little scary, isn't it? Just like it's getting impossible to buy a car that doesn't do the driving for you, some day all grocery stores will carry nothing but prepared foods. "Cornmeal? What would you do with that? Only restaurants buy that stuff anymore!"

[slarochelle]

In a recent quest in Tenleytown and Silver Spring, all I've found are the plastic-wrapped logs of prepared polenta, and in the former, an 8-oz. box of organic polenta from Argentina for $3.99 or $4.99. The price of corn has gone up recently, but we're talking peasant food...

Thanks.

At least a few weeks ago, we got "Bob's Red Mill Corn Grits AKA Polenta" at the Silver Spring Whole Foods.

http://www.bobsredmill.com/product.php?pro...=107&page=1

It is in the cereal isle, with many other Bob's Red Mill products. I haven't bought it in bulk at SS WF in some time, or at the Rockville My Organic Market either.

Steve

[goldenticket]

This is certainly not a bulk answer and it's definitely not a cheap answer, but I saw 3 lb tubs of polenta at La Cuisine in Alexandria - for $15. It may have been India Tree brand, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

And to echo Zora's comment - I just looked at a recipe for polenta that called for "yellow corn meal" which should be easy to find (and hopefully cheaper).

[ol_ironstomach]

Anson Mills has completely revamped and expanded their website since I last visited (a little too long ago) and now has an excellent discourse on the differing foodways of grits and polenta, and the regional preferences that belie the notion that they are the same.  They note the predominant use of flint corn in polenta versus dent corn in Southern grits, but more interestingly there is a discussion of how polenta cooking changed as the Italians adopted multiple-pass reduction milling techniques which produced a highly uniform product, while their American relatives stuck with the cruder mush necessitated by the haphazard grain sizes produced by single-pass milling through the antebellum period.

http://ansonmills.com/grain_notes/13

[Anna Phor]

I shop frequently at Yes and I don't believe they sell polenta in their bulk bins. I bought a package of Bob's Red Mill polenta there recently. Over a pound for probably about 3.99? I don't remember the price off the top of my head but if it had been more than that, I would have!