How to Get Northerners to Stop Eating Undercooked Vegetables and Putting Jelly on Cornbread?

[Count Porcula]

The stuff I fixed was transcendental. Apart from using real pole beans, changing it would be like putting a Briggs & Stratton in a Ferrari!

 

[noboundaries]

There isn't just one catfish. There are mud cats, channel cats, blue cats, etc, they all have a somewhat different flavor. Some are better than others.

Yep. We used to throw the mud cats back. Ugly and disgusting.

 

[bbqjefff]

Oh Lord! The jelly on the cornbread had me cringing. You need to teach them. I'm from california but I have lived in the south and it is way better down there.

 

[Count Porcula]

I'm afraid some people will take my remarks too seriously or personally.

I don't care what people eat. I don't actually have anything against firm vegetables, in recipes where firm vegetables are appropriate. Sometimes firm is the way to go. I will not eat limp broccoli, and I have had firm green beans that were more or less okay.

The thing is, it can be very hard to get people to try these things any other way. When it comes to green beans and greens, the difference between bouncy and steamed and simmered and compliant is enormous. At a certain point when you're boiling them with pork, the flavor changes completely. It is literally impossible to get the same flavor without a lot of cooking.

It's hard to get some people to believe this or even try what Southerners cook. When they do try it, they freak out because it's so good.

My buddy's dad was from Pittsburgh, and his mother was from Miami, which was a Northern city in her day regardless of its location. He can't comprehend cornbread that isn't yellow, extremely sweet, and full of flour. Unsweetened Appalachian cornbread made with bacon grease has delicate, subtle flavors corn cake lacks, and if you pour jelly all over it, you defeat the purpose of making it.

He also does not understand why I would suggest Kentucky sorghum instead of jelly or crummy molasses. There is a world of difference.

He thought my greens were incredible when they were only half cooked. It was as though he drank a bottle of expensive wine a month after it was bottled. I tried to tell him he needed to try them later.

He put vinegar all over them. When greens are really good, you won't want to ruin them with vinegar.

It's frustrating to make something really excellent and have people turn it down or serve it in ways that kill the flavor. I could have given him sandy-tasting Jiffy from a box, and he would have been just as happy, because all that cheap jelly covered up what he was eating.

I don't know if I could ever get him to eat shucky beans, a dish almost no one outside Appalachia has even heard of. They're fantastic, but a lot of people can't understand why anyone would eat beans with brown pods.

Then there are pickled beans. And fried apple pies, which are hand pies made from dried apples.

My grandmother used to can sausage in grease in Mason jars. I thought it looked disgusting, but then I tried it. I wish I could reproduce it now. It was amazing.

I do make my own sausage sometimes, but I don't make the canned type. Homemade sausage makes you understand how bad the stuff you buy is.

 

[bbqjefff]

I'm afraid some people will take my remarks too seriously or personally.

I don't care what people eat. I don't actually have anything against firm vegetables, in recipes where firm vegetables are appropriate. Sometimes firm is the way to go. I will not eat limp broccoli, and I have had firm green beans that were more or less okay.

The thing is, it can be very hard to get people to try these things any other way. When it comes to green beans and greens, the difference between bouncy and steamed and simmered and compliant is enormous. At a certain point when you're boiling them with pork, the flavor changes completely. It is literally impossible to get the same flavor without a lot of cooking.

It's hard to get some people to believe this or even try what Southerners cook. When they do try it, they freak out because it's so good.

My buddy's dad was from Pittsburgh, and his mother was from Miami, which was a Northern city in her day regardless of its location. He can't comprehend cornbread that isn't yellow, extremely sweet, and full of flour. Unsweetened Appalachian cornbread made with bacon grease has delicate, subtle flavors corn cake lacks, and if you pour jelly all over it, you defeat the purpose of making it.

He also does not understand why I would suggest Kentucky sorghum instead of jelly or crummy molasses. There is a world of difference.

He thought my greens were incredible when they were only half cooked. It was as though he drank a bottle of expensive wine a month after it was bottled. I tried to tell him he needed to try them later.

He put vinegar all over them. When greens are really good, you won't want to ruin them with vinegar.

It's frustrating to make something really excellent and have people turn it down or serve it in ways that kill the flavor. I could have given him sandy-tasting Jiffy from a box, and he would have been just as happy, because all that cheap jelly covered up what he was eating.

I don't know if I could ever get him to eat shucky beans, a dish almost no one outside Appalachia has even heard of. They're fantastic, but a lot of people can't understand why anyone would eat beans with brown pods.

Then there are pickled beans. And fried apple pies, which are hand pies made from dried apples.

My grandmother used to can sausage in grease in Mason jars. I thought it looked disgusting, but then I tried it. I wish I could reproduce it now. It was amazing.

I do make my own sausage sometimes, but I don't make the canned type. Homemade sausage makes you understand how bad the stuff you buy is.

Umm. We need more of that here in California. I totally agree with you.

 

[cal1956]

when i saw this thread i laughed out loud because it reminded me of a couple of years ago when a friend of my wifes invited us for supper , she is from Ohio . and while i don't remember all that she served , the ONE thing i will always remember is the corn on the cob, to my dying day i will swear i could have taken that corn straight from the table and planted it ,and it would have come up and grown more corn, that just how raw it was , she thought it was fine the way it was haha..i still joke with her about it to this day haha

 

[chilerelleno]

Boy I tell ya what, I could cause a ruckus here
Now first off, down here folks laugh at them Yankees in Tennessee and Kentucky referring to themselves as Southerners.
Y'all just too far North, period.
Hell most Bayou and Cajun folks think anyone born North of I-10 are a bit blue blooded.

But talking about how to go'bout properly fixin beans, peas, greens, okra and cornbread.
Well there's more than one way to skin each of those cats, and they're all good if done right.

One thing that gets me going is Yankees thinking Kale is an eating green.
Kale is an ornamental plant, it's not for eating, end of story.

Mamas calling I got's to run, y'all takes care now.

 

[Hijack73]

Not all lakes and rivers produce edible catfish......
The best catfish is flathead. I prefer larger ones myself - over 10 lbs. Most folks swear by smaller catfish. I've had more than 1 person swear that I wasn't feeding them fish because flathead is so clean tasting.

I won't eat blue cat. I will eat channel cat but it depends on where it was caught. 2-3 lb channels are better than bigger ones IMO. Perfect fillets on a 2-3 lb channel cat.

Food is so regional. Especially in the South. If I drive 50 miles south, pulled pork sauce is mustard based. Locally and basically to the ocean it's all about cider vinegar, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. That is it. 3 ingredient BBQ sauce. I find it repulsive....

50 miles NNE - it's cider vinegar, red pepper flake, and tomato. Better than the 3 ingredient - but not by much!

Wars have been started locally about BBQ. Entire generations of Carolinian soldiers have done battle over this subject for a hundred years. There are actual laws in NC regarding BBQ and those 2 finishing sauces.


Kale is disgusting in any form.

 

[TNJAKE]

Boy I tell ya what, I could cause a ruckus here
Now first off, down here folks laugh at them Yankees in Tennessee and Kentucky referring to themselves as Southerners.
Y'all just too far North, period.
Hell most Bayou and Cajun folks think anyone born North of I-10 are a bit blue blooded.

But talking about how to go'bout properly fixin beans, peas, greens, okra and cornbread.
Well there's more than one way to skin each of those cats, and they're all good if done right.

One thing that gets me going is Yankees thinking Kale is an eating green.
Kale is an ornamental plant, it's not for eating, end of story.

Mamas calling I got's to run, y'all takes care now.

Woah now lol

 

[DougE]

Woah now lol

I believe I'd rather been called a SOB lol

 

[Fueling Around]

One thing that gets me going is Yankees thinking Kale is an eating green.
Kale is an ornamental plant, it's not for eating, end of story.

This Yankee has never considered Kale as an edible green. It is bitter as whatever same as I consider greens. Taste is not only a regional thing, but also what you market to the masses (idiots)

 

[Steve H]

I don't know if I could ever get him to eat shucky beans, a dish almost no one outside Appalachia has even heard of.

Leather britches you say? My aunt used to make them. And your beans with bacon isn't cooked long enough!

My favorite way of doing them. And if someone passes me a bowl of just wilted greens. Then I'll pass them back. Though. I must say. I do like them with a splash of spicy vinegar though.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

I'm wondering if anyone else here has had problems trying to get Northerners to eat vegetables prepared correctly.

I think mostly it's what a person grows up eating, what they know and have been taught.

On a different note, for us fatback is heavily salted pork fat, with the skin on, from the top of the loin or back and has no lean meat in it. There was a time when I could buy it from a grocer and it would be 3"-4" thick, not anymore. Heavily salted pork fat with lean meat streaks in it was what we referred to as streak-o-lean or streaky fat and comes from the side or belly area. Looks similar to bacon, just not smoked, and usually has the skin left on.

The best catfish is flathead.

And not to derail, but I absolutely agree with this...

 

[yankee2bbq]

Damn Yankees

But, they have a purdy mouth…

 

[Count Porcula]

Yankees in Tennessee and Kentucky

Until today, no one ever told me Jefferson Davis and Loretta Lynn were Yankees! And Duane Allman and Carl Perkins! Wow!

My great-grandfather fought for the South. He may have been confused.

I intentionally avoided using the Y-word in my original post, but it looks like the internal pressure got to be too much for someone.

 

[zwiller]

Boy I tell ya what, I could cause a ruckus here
Now first off, down here folks laugh at them Yankees in Tennessee and Kentucky referring to themselves as Southerners.

I thought the same thing. LOL.

BTW thanks for the idea! Jelly on corn bread. Might make the stuff edible LOL. When you Southerner's call it sweet tea YOU AIN'T JOKING!!!

 

[Count Porcula]

Don't lump me in with the sweet tea people. Tea with sugar is fine. "Sweet tea" is like pancake syrup, and it generally comes from a factory.

 

[Plinsc]

Grew up in the North, moved to Morehead Ky for a couple years but still had to shovel snow, so on further south it was!
I can eat mushy or steamed vegetables, pretty much whatever I feel like that day.
I’m always learning how to properly cook the regional food, when in Rome…
But jelly? Cmon now

 

[SherryT]

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 know this was posted back in April, but I simply CANNOT stop laughing!

(The Count is right, by the way! )

 

[Buttah Butts]

I think it depends on where you were raised and the traditions and culture of your surroundings. Taste is subjective and what’s wonderful for one person may be disgusting to another. I grew up in New England to Portuguese immigrants. I remember friends coming over as a kid and being shocked that my mother was serving either octopus or say blood pudding. I moved to NC about 8 years ago and some of the food here isn’t my thing like vinegar bbq or say hush puppies.