Linda, I usually prepare the water or chicken broth by putting in some sort of smoked meat-- tasso, sausage, ham hocks, bacon or even smoked turkey legs. Add the cleaned greens. Then I add onion, lots of garlic,olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a dash of red pepper flakes, 4 or 5 squirts of Louisiana hot sauce (tabasco) and let it go for about 35-40 minutes on simmer. Yummy! I would make this for New Years except my family would not be happy! They look forward to the cabbage and black eyed peas with ham...

Enjoy! Looking forward to how your "greens" turn out.

We are having Collards with out dinner tomorrow evening.. I cooked mine with a bit of bacon pieces, and some Louisiana hot sauce...salt and pepper...yummmm.. already ate a few... got to make sure they are fit to eat yannow...lol

Carolyn

Yup, don't forget the hot sauce!

I have to laugh here because my German born Mother must have been a "Southern Soul Sister". I grew up eating "greens" of all kinds. Mom could never understand why the markets in our area didn't carry them. Dad would buy them when he went Gary and the steel mills. Her recipe was teh same as those above minus the hot sauce. Low, slow and smoky.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to cook some up for New Years Day along with some pork.

Here's one topic where pressure cooker owners have an advantage. I don't have Lorna Sass's book in front of me, but here's the essence:

Cut up six or eight strips of bacon into small pieces and fry them in the bottom of the pressure cooker. While the bacon's cooking, wash the greens, cut out the stems and any bad spots, and cut up the greens into strips. Rinse them well and leave them wet. Take the bacon out of the cooker but leave the fat in the cooker. (Allow the bacon bits to crisp on a paper towel.) Put the wet collards in the cooker. If your cooker is one of the newer ones that doesn't need much liquid, you may have enough liquid just from the wetness of the collards. However, to be safe, add about a half cup of chicken broth, close the cooker and bring it up to pressure. Pressure cook on high for six to eight minutes, depending on the toughness of the collards. Release pressure.

Toss the cooked collards with the bacon bits. Serve with pepper vinegar.

Now one traditional way to serve greens is to serve a savory (i.e. non-sweet) cornbread along with it to soak up the pot juices. Those juices are known as 'pot likker'. Wonderfully nutritious stuff, it'll raise the dead. During a particularly long filibuster in the US Senate in the thirties, the late Louisiana politician/dictator Huey Long talked about all sorts of stuff, including the restorative powers of pot likker.

Collards can be a little bitter, so adding just a little sugar (maybe a teaspoon or two) helps cut that taste. After they're cooked, Harry always sprinkles the juice of Texas Pete hot pepper sauce on his. He's from Georgia, where they love their greens! I like kale better.

Emeril's Southern Braised Greens is absolutely the best I've ever tasted. I think this recipe has all of the flavors you are looking for.

Here is a link that might be useful: Emeril's Southern Braised Greens

I cooked them in bacon grease and chicken broth, with garlic and some hot pepper flakes....
they were lousy...I couldn't believe greens actually took 1 1/2 hours to cook....and didn't cook them long enough. But my guests ate them.
Linda c

Never have tried them . This thread was convincing me to try but now I'm not so sure! LOL

I pressure cook mine because I don't agree they are good cooked in a regular pot for an hour or so. No sugar in mine either please.

I am making a version of the Emeril recipe linked. I try to watch the fat calories so I used smoked chicken sausage instead of bacon/bacon grease and used cooking spray to cook the onions and garlic. No beer in the house so I used some dry white wine. Cider vinegar instead of white. Otherwise the recipe is the same. They are still cooking but the flavors are very nice. These collards were not bitter to speak of. I've never eaten collards before today to my memory. I can't say I'd put them on the menu regularly but these are quite edible.

Although do like kale better, it's New Years Day so we are having the requisite collard greens, fresh black eyed peas, ham hocks, and corn bread. It's the first thing DH asked this morning--"when are we having collards?".

Nothing fancy for the collards, just smoked hocks, bacon fat, chicken broth, garlic. And pepper vinegar is a must on the table.

We had collards today too, along with cornbread and black eyed peas.

The collards were well cooked because I canned them last year, so that hour or so in the pressure canners is a help. If we make them fresh, we cook them for a couple of hours.

I simmered mine in chicken broth, some bacon and onion, salt and pepper and Elery always adds a spoonful of sugar so they aren't bitter. I love 'em, no hot sauce on mine but Elery uses copious amounts of hot sauce on his.

Annie

This is the way I prepared my 2010 New Year's Day greens. As I stated below, I did a lot of research into this matter. They were absolutely the best greens I have ever had. This was my first time of using neck bones; I was quite surprised at the nice flavor they added to the dish. I know not everyone agrees with long cooking times, but that is the old southern way and it sure works for these greens.

Adeline's New Year's Greens

I reviewed many recipes in an attempt to find the "perfect" one for greens that I wanted to cook for January 1, 2010. I finally decided that I was not going to find the "perfect" recipe, so took some of my ideas and what sounded like the best parts from quite a number of recipes to create this. These were absolutely the best greens I have ever cooked. We couldn't stop eating them.
~ Adeline, January 1, 2010

1 or 2 large smoked neck bones
3 1/2 quarts water
1 bunch collard greens
1 bunch turnip greens
1 bunch mustard greens
1/2 pound salt pork
1 T sugar
1 dried red pepper (I found dried red peppers in packets in the Mexican food area of my grocery store.)

Bring the smoked pork neck bones to a boil in 3 1/2 quarts water, then simmer for 1 hour. Do not drain. (I thought of this as a pork stock.)

Place greens in cold water with one teaspoon of salt. Let set for about 10 minutes. Wash greens by swishing in a sink full of water, then let them sit a few minutes so that any dirt will drift down to the bottom of the sink - repeat this until you see no more dirt (approximately 3 times). Just make sure you wash greens thoroughly, so they are cleansed or any sand or soil. Then put in plain cold water, picking out any pieces that are bruised or broken. Break off all very large stems.

Once the smoked neck bones have simmered for one hour, add the greens, then sugar, dried red pepper, and salt pork. Simmer for 3 hours or until tender. Taste to see if salt is needed.*

The secret to perfect greens, and especially collards, is to cook until very tender.

Serves 6 to 7

*These did not need any salt.