Fall Greens
Fall Greens, such as kale and collards; turnips are a little different in that you take the root
and cut it up into the turnip greens waiting to be cooked:
Take as much seasoning meat** as you want and cover it with water. Cover and cook, for
most seasoning meats, about an hour and a half. Meanwhile, stem and wash the greens.
When the seasoning meat is done, put the washed and stemmed greens into the broth,
place the cut up seasoning meat on top of the greens, cover, and cook ‘til done. Modern
cookbooks say cook about twenty minutes. I say cook until they are done. Some of the
stems can remain quite tough, plus the flavor needs to be brought out by longer, slower
cooking. Some things just are not meant to be cooked when you are in a hurry. If you add
too much water the flavor will be less; if you add too little water, the greens will burn, so you
need to add just enough water. Now the pot likker is meant to be eaten with broken up
cornbread in it, you know? So never, ever, discard pot likker!!!
A note about turnips. Roots are different than greens as regards their cooking requirements.
Perhaps it might be well to cook up some turnip roots prior to cooking up your Fall greens,
just to know how long to cook the roots when they are mixed with the greens. Also turnips
seem to be more delicate and require sometimes less cooking time than either collards or
kale.
**My choices for seasoning meat are in order of preference: side meat; country ham; ham
hocks; regular ham and then fatback or streak-o-lean. Some folks use fresh pork for turnips.
Not for collards.
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