Savoring the Flavors: A Tale of Shrimp and Grits Mastery

My lord. Um,
y’all want me to eat this? Please. Whoo!
I know I was on Fear Factor.
Hi, my name is Jordan,
and I’ve been making shrimp and grits with my grandmother
since I was 7. I am Phil Duckett.
I have been making shrimp and grits for 12 hours.
My name is Jamie, and I’ve been making shrimp and grits since yesterday.
But I’ve been making grits in general since childhood.
Those little Quaker instant butter flavored grits.
My grandmother has taught me how to make everything I’ve ever eaten.
I didn’t have an interest in it.
She kind of coaxed, slash,
forced me into it. So usually if you’re doing it with the shrimps,
you know,
you’re going out to eat somewhere that’s kind of like a brunch dish.
At home, you really just kind of make the grits as, like,
a side. It would be lying if I said I’m self taught.
I actually have my mother on Facetime
walking me through the process of it.
But it is our family secret recipe for low country shrimp and grits.
Flavor, flavor, flavor.
That is the essential part.
The last thing you want, it’s just a bowl full of mush with no flavor.
I’ve lived in Georgia, Florida,
Louisiana, so I bring flavor palettes from all over the southeast, baby,
and put it into one just heartwarming bowl of goodness.
Okay.
Oh, wow.
I’m just loving the coloring.
Like, it just doesn’t look how I would expect The plating is very nice.
They left the tails on, which does present very well.
Oh, my gosh,
this looks like bacon bits.
Oh, there’s bacon on it.
Okay, it’s gonna be interesting.
I don’t eat bacon, but I’m about to eat this shit.
It’s well seasoned. I do see some parsley flakes on top.
So let’s see how the grits are.
I’m not crazy about this one.
The one very small criticism that I have of the dish is
I find the roux to be a little darker.
When you’re making a roux,
you can almost over brown the roux.
And I can sort of taste a depth of flavor
that maybe I would want in a stew,
but maybe not necessarily in a shrimp and grits.
I think the shrimp is flavored pretty well.
I’m not crazy about the texture of the grits.
Maybe it’s the taste, but I like the shrimp a lot
and I think it’s doing a lot of the work.
The best part about this dish is that they went above and beyond
to make sure that they would have all the flavours that you’d want
when you’re eating a shrimp and grits.
They’ve added extra meat just to,
you know, bring, like,
a richer, more umami flavour to their shrimp and grits.
Oh, wait,
hold up. The aftertaste is yummy.
The sauce is really good. Hold on.
Okay, maybe I just need a little more sauce on the grits.
That was the problem. I think I would give this one
a 9. I would rate this a seven and a/2.
I think having perfect shrimp,
that is just the cherry on top,
but obviously the shrimp on top.
I like to put a little bit of lemon zest on my shrimp
to give it that kick. I was cooking
with the intention of bringing them a meal that they would enjoy.
Haha.
Nice, nice.
Alright. This is a very dainty portion of shrimp and grits.
These little shrimps. Are these crawfish?
This is crawfish etouffee.
The first thing that I noticed with this shrimp and grits
is the size of the shrimp.
These are little mini baby shrimps.
Whoo! Look how the grits is coagulate.
My lord. Looks like plasma. Whoo!
I know. I was on Fear Factor.
These grits are also looking nice and thick.
They are yellow, so this could be from a cheese source.
Or it could be a ton of butter,
but this would be an excessive amount of butter.
That’ll be it for me.
Whoo!
Like a game of roulette.
The grits have something in them.
It almost seems like maybe flour or something
to try to thicken the grits.
I don’t know if they spilt the salt,
but y’all really could have gave me a water
if I was going to have to eat this.
I’m not getting a lot of whatever spices were used.
Listen, I.
I can feel my hypertension acting up,
and my blood pressure is Rising.
The best part of the shrimp and grits
is definitely the seasoning on the shrimp.
So I commend this, uh,
chef for how they season their shrimp.
What’s the worst part of the day?
The entire thing. It is, um.
This is. This is incredibly crazy.
I don’t. I don’t know what to do with that.
Knowing that shrimp cook very quickly,
a smaller shrimp is gonna cook through even faster.
And I can tell that these shrimp have been fully cooked
all the way through.
What could this person have done to improve their dish? Start over.
I’m gonna have to say the five.
I like the seasoning of the shrimp,
but the thickening agent, my palate was not used to it.
And because of the size of the shrimp,
they were a bit tougher than maybe I would have preferred.
I’m telling you, I would deduct points for the amount of sodium in here,
but honestly, I’d give it
a two.
The most essential thing to making a really good shrimp and grits
are your ingredients. I love, like,
a Cajun Creole style shrimp and grits.
I do think that New Orleans flavors are the best.
Alrighty. This is plated like a restaurant.
Ooh,
okay, okay.
I like how this looks. Got a nice little look to it.
Somebody knows what they’re doing.
It’s kind of giving mashed potatoes.
The sauce looks incredible.
There’s intention behind that sauce.
I. I can see it already.
But the key to A tasting. You got to get all the elements into it.
Wow.
Hmm. Damn.
I might have some competition in this old race.
It’s really good.
Um, I’m shook has a very real Cajun seasoning to it.
And this tastes like something from Louisiana,
Mississippi, or something like that.
The person who made that is from Louisiana.
You see the palette on me?
Oh, my goodness. Yeah,
I know that. There’s so much flavor.
The shrimp is delectable. I have no idea what it was seasoned with,
but there’s a story there.
The grits are actually really well done.
It’s the proper amount of seasoning,
and it’s the. The rue when it comes to shrimp and grits.
I mean, you don’t want to try shrimp and grits.
You don’t want overcooked shrimp with just some instant grits on top.
That’s prison food. This is the good stuff right here.
This is just so damn good.
And the texture is perfect.
The shrimp are just, like,
almost melting, but they’re still firm enough,
and the grits are just so soft.
Wow. This is probably the best shrimp and grits I’ve ever had.
Sorry, grandma.
It’s a 10. I’ll give it a solid eight.
Yay! I always knew the Creole flavors would prevail.
It’s before I just,
you know, use what I knew,
use my favorite flavors
to create a dish that everybody knows and loves.