Hey Grandpa, What’s for Supper?

Bob White quail roasted over an open fire, taters and onions with peppers, you can eat all your heart’s desire, turnip greens with fat back too, hot cornbread and some ‘Mountain Dew’.

I grew up in the backwoods of Northwest Alabama. I can remember my mom, Aunt Dot, and Bill (the only name we ever called my maternal grandmother) standing at my aunt’s porcelain sink with a mess of collard, turnip and mustard greens. It seemed to my little kid’s eyes to be mountains of greens. There they washed, stripped, and chopped in a little assembly line. Let me tell you as kid this meant only one thing … the worst day ever!!! The only redeeming thing was that there would be cornbread and if we were lucky, cracklin’.

Yes, unfortunately I didn’t understand their outright delight in the harvest of these green fiends as a child, but fast forward 30 or oh my 40 years (time does fly doesn’t it) and I can’t get enough of them. Today, if I have greens and cornbread, I don’t need one other thing to complete the meal. Give me a glass of sweet tea and get out of the way.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

I bunch turnip greens
1 piece of fatback, 2” square
1 tsp white vinegar
1 ½ tsp sugar
Tabasco (added at the table)
Salt to taste

Instructions

Soak and rinse the turnip greens. Tear the leaves from the stem and chop into 2” pieces.

Place in a pot and cover with water. Add the fatback and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for 2 hours.

Remove the fatback and add vinegar and sugar. Taste the greens and adjust salt and seasonings. If it is too bitter add more sugar. If it tastes flat add more vinegar. Season with Tabasco at the table.

¡Que aproveche!