Another week, another new recipe from Russ Crandall, author of The Ancestral Table and known throughout the Paleo world as The Domestic Man. This dish was one of those that I didn’t plan. It happened on accident when I found myself with half a smoked Boston butt from a fundraiser and a huge bag of collards that needed to either be devoured or buried in the backyard. I remembered seeing something about smoky greens or smoky collards or something along those lines in the Ancestral Table so I quickly found the page, check my cabinets, and planned to get up a little earlier to get the slow cooker loaded and ready.
As they say, sometimes the best things happen without a plan. This is a prime example.
When I came home to a house that smelled like heaven in a BBQ joint, I wrote the page number to this recipe in the back of the book. That means it is not only a keeper, but in a regular rotation. I took the rest of the Boston butt and divided it into 2 more servings so I can make this again AND I bought and froze some pork neck bones yesterday when Publix was practically giving them away. Russ doesn’t know it, but in my kitchen, a recipe gets the highest honor when I write the page number and title in the back of the book. I learned that from my momma and she wrote down only the best tried and trusted recipes.
Meaty Collards
- 2lbs smoked pork or turkey(butt, neck bones, ham hocks, or smoked Turkey legs)
- 2 cups of water
- 2 cups of chicken or ham stock (ham bone stock is FABULOUS in this recipe)
- 2-3 lbs of greens. Use collards, turnip, kale, mustard or a combination of any. Coarsely chop with stems intact.
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- Place the meat in the bottom of a slow cooker.
- Add greens and and the rest of the ingredients.
- Cover and cook for 6 hours on low.
- Using forks and or tongs, tear apart meat in the slow cooker and combine with greens.
