- Sep 25, 2020
- 202
- 162
A while back, I posted a thread, asking for suggestions for low-carb BBQ vegetable sides. For some reason, I didn't feel like beans or greens. I think now this was a mistake.
Today I fixed something my mother used to fix. Green beans, collards, cornbread, a sliced Vidalia, and a sliced tomato. For a beverage, I had full-fat buttermilk. It was really nice.
Yesterday, my friend who is staying here fixed BBQ chicken, and I made the greens then. I was going to use neckbones, but the grocery was out. I grabbed some salt pork instead. I didn't have time to use it, so I made the greens with half a pound of partially-fried bacon. I threw the salt pork in the smoker with the chicken so I would be able to use it for something later. When it came out, it was gorgeous. Today, when I tried a tiny piece, I learned that you can eat smoked fatback as if it were brisket.
We screwed up the timing of the meal, so the greens had to be served before they were wilted correctly. They had not released their flavor. My friend is not a Southerner, so he thought they were fantastic. Northerners like undercooked greens. After we ate, I put the greens back on the stove until they were boiled down to perfection. I would say it took another 90 minutes.
I still had a lot of greens, plus the unused fatback, so today I sliced the fatback and put it in a pot of fresh green beans. Pole beans would have been better, but they are impossible to find. I boiled the daylights out of them with a garlic clove, salt, MSG, butter, and a little sugar. Because regular green beans fall apart too early, I removed them from the pot when they started to break down, and I boiled the pork and pot liquor until I got a magnificent reduction. Then I threw the beans back in.
I made the cornbread from Martha White self-rising meal, full-fat buttermilk, two eggs, bacon grease, salt, a small amount of sugar, and a little butter. Ordinarily, I use two cups of meal and 1/4 cup grease, but I was low on grease and had to add butter. I baked in a #6 skillet at 450. I served the cornbread with butter along with the beans, greens, tomato, and onion. I could not get a decent tomato, so I used whatever nice-looking beefsteak hybrid I found at the store.
It was truly wonderful.
My problem is that my friend thinks cornbread is supposed to be sweet, which is a sinful and degenerate point of view, so when I make cornbread, he takes a squeeze bottle of grape jelly and unloads on it. I can't even get him to use Oberholtzer's sorghum, which is the only sweet thing that should go near cornbread. He thinks I'm crazy for wanting to dip buttered cornbread in the juice from beans and greens.
I think mental illness is involved.
I'm wondering if anyone else here has had problems trying to get Northerners to eat vegetables prepared correctly. Greens that aren't boiled until they die have no flavor at all, and the same is pretty much true of beans. The difference between stiff, undercooked greens and proper greens is indescribable. The flavor is completely different, but these days, people are so convinced everything has to be crunchy and firm, you can't get them to eat good food.
Now that I've ranted, here is my cornbread recipe, to make amends. My family is from Eastern Kentucky, so it's cornbread, not cake.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Martha White corn meal with Hot Rize (scientifically proven to be pea-pickin' good)
1-1/3 full-fat buttermilk, or more if the batter seems too stiff
2 eggs
1/4 cup bacon grease
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
Preheat oven to 450. When it gets hot, put your #6 seasoned skillet in. When the skillet is hot, add the bacon grease.
Warm the milk up so it won't harden fat. Beat the eggs in it. Mix into the corn meal and other dry ingredients.
The grease in the skillet should be smoking. Pour it into the batter and stir it in. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for around 22 minutes, give or take.
You can do really great things with this cornbread if you have cream cheese and blueberries, but that's a recipe for another day.
There was nothing to the greens and beans. Just simmer with bacon, fatback, neckbones, ham hocks, jowls, or some other type of pork, plus a little garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, and butter. You only want to add enough sugar to make the vegetables seem suspiciously ripe and tasty. A very small amount of hot sauce will be good in the greens.
You want greens that are completely limp and wrinkled. If you haven't simmered them for at least three hours, they are probably not done. The beans should not disintegrate, but they should be pretty soft. The liquor should be a strong green with powerful pork flavors. It should be acidic and aromatic. You don't want the vegetables swimming in bland fluid. You want a reduction. Pork with bones is good because they will thicken it.
Today I fixed something my mother used to fix. Green beans, collards, cornbread, a sliced Vidalia, and a sliced tomato. For a beverage, I had full-fat buttermilk. It was really nice.
Yesterday, my friend who is staying here fixed BBQ chicken, and I made the greens then. I was going to use neckbones, but the grocery was out. I grabbed some salt pork instead. I didn't have time to use it, so I made the greens with half a pound of partially-fried bacon. I threw the salt pork in the smoker with the chicken so I would be able to use it for something later. When it came out, it was gorgeous. Today, when I tried a tiny piece, I learned that you can eat smoked fatback as if it were brisket.
We screwed up the timing of the meal, so the greens had to be served before they were wilted correctly. They had not released their flavor. My friend is not a Southerner, so he thought they were fantastic. Northerners like undercooked greens. After we ate, I put the greens back on the stove until they were boiled down to perfection. I would say it took another 90 minutes.
I still had a lot of greens, plus the unused fatback, so today I sliced the fatback and put it in a pot of fresh green beans. Pole beans would have been better, but they are impossible to find. I boiled the daylights out of them with a garlic clove, salt, MSG, butter, and a little sugar. Because regular green beans fall apart too early, I removed them from the pot when they started to break down, and I boiled the pork and pot liquor until I got a magnificent reduction. Then I threw the beans back in.
I made the cornbread from Martha White self-rising meal, full-fat buttermilk, two eggs, bacon grease, salt, a small amount of sugar, and a little butter. Ordinarily, I use two cups of meal and 1/4 cup grease, but I was low on grease and had to add butter. I baked in a #6 skillet at 450. I served the cornbread with butter along with the beans, greens, tomato, and onion. I could not get a decent tomato, so I used whatever nice-looking beefsteak hybrid I found at the store.
It was truly wonderful.
My problem is that my friend thinks cornbread is supposed to be sweet, which is a sinful and degenerate point of view, so when I make cornbread, he takes a squeeze bottle of grape jelly and unloads on it. I can't even get him to use Oberholtzer's sorghum, which is the only sweet thing that should go near cornbread. He thinks I'm crazy for wanting to dip buttered cornbread in the juice from beans and greens.
I think mental illness is involved.
I'm wondering if anyone else here has had problems trying to get Northerners to eat vegetables prepared correctly. Greens that aren't boiled until they die have no flavor at all, and the same is pretty much true of beans. The difference between stiff, undercooked greens and proper greens is indescribable. The flavor is completely different, but these days, people are so convinced everything has to be crunchy and firm, you can't get them to eat good food.
Now that I've ranted, here is my cornbread recipe, to make amends. My family is from Eastern Kentucky, so it's cornbread, not cake.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Martha White corn meal with Hot Rize (scientifically proven to be pea-pickin' good)
1-1/3 full-fat buttermilk, or more if the batter seems too stiff
2 eggs
1/4 cup bacon grease
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
Preheat oven to 450. When it gets hot, put your #6 seasoned skillet in. When the skillet is hot, add the bacon grease.
Warm the milk up so it won't harden fat. Beat the eggs in it. Mix into the corn meal and other dry ingredients.
The grease in the skillet should be smoking. Pour it into the batter and stir it in. Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for around 22 minutes, give or take.
You can do really great things with this cornbread if you have cream cheese and blueberries, but that's a recipe for another day.
There was nothing to the greens and beans. Just simmer with bacon, fatback, neckbones, ham hocks, jowls, or some other type of pork, plus a little garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, and butter. You only want to add enough sugar to make the vegetables seem suspiciously ripe and tasty. A very small amount of hot sauce will be good in the greens.
You want greens that are completely limp and wrinkled. If you haven't simmered them for at least three hours, they are probably not done. The beans should not disintegrate, but they should be pretty soft. The liquor should be a strong green with powerful pork flavors. It should be acidic and aromatic. You don't want the vegetables swimming in bland fluid. You want a reduction. Pork with bones is good because they will thicken it.
