Southern Collard Greens

"Okay, for all of you who don't know the right way to eat greens, listen up: FIRST, respectfully forget Brad's recipe above this one -- YOU DON'T PUT SUGAR IN COLLARD GREENS. I am from Georgia and I ..." See moreknow. Turnip greens maybe, but not collards! SECOND, you MUST eat collard greens with chopped raw tomatoes and chopped raw onions sprinkled on top (plus pepper sauce if you like it, but if you don't know what this is, forget it, I'm not going into it. Well, okay, I'll try. Suffice it to say it's peppers stuffed into a bottle of white vinegar and left to sit either on a shelf (how the oldens did it) or in the fridge for a few months, then you sprinkle the juice on the greens -- but don't ask me what kind of peppers. I just know they're green, medium hot, and I know them when I see them). THIRD, if you don't want the fat of hamhock or salt pork, you can use smoked turkey wings and the flavor is still quite good. But whatever you do, DON'T try to cook collard greens without some kind of salted meat."

"This is how I was taught to make collards by a dear friend from North Carolina, with 2 changes - no oil, and a splash of cider vinegar is essential. When the greens are fully cooked, I remove the ham..." See more hocks, shred the meat, and add it back to the greens. One tip for when you're prepping - I wash the cut collards in my sink 3 times, adding baking soda to the first wash. This helps remove some of the bitterness."

"Just a little note from another "Southern Belle", suger is sometimes used in greens(even collards)to cut the bitterness. Greens only sweeten after the first cold weather gets to them. My grandparent..." See mores and parents farmed greens for years and this is what they taught me."