North Carolina Cabbage Collards

Recipe

Sep 6

Written By Fresh

Collards are a true staple in any Southerner’s recipe collection. Nearly a requirement when there’s BBQ or fried chicken on the table. But if you’ve lived in North Carolina, especially around Ayden, then you might prefer the lesser known variety of the vegetable known as Cabbage Collards (or yellow cabbage collards). This milder tasting collard is rarely found outside of our state but it makes for one heck of a side. In fact, no other place in the country commercially produces this variety. This region is proud of that fact, hosting a Collards Festival in Ayden every year.

Cabbage Collards are yellow or light green with thinner leaves and finer veining than found in traditional collards. Flavor peaks in late summer but can be better after going through a frost.

You can buy cabbage collards in NC grocery stores but you’ll find the specialists at The Collard Shack. This long-standing establishment sits next to Skylight Inn and is run by Sam Jones’ first cousin’s husband, Benny affectionately known as Uncle Benny. And it's here where we get our supply to make our Collard Greens you find at our restaurants. The origin of that particular recipe has a bit of a backstory. Here’s how Michael tells it…

“Your standard collards are the larger, tougher cousin of our regional cabbage collards. If you’ve had collard greens anywhere in the South, you likely didn’t eat cabbage collards, and they probably had the stems mixed in. We wanted just the leaves because they take far less time to cook than the stems. If you buy cleaned collards from a food provider, they’ll come with the stems cut up into the mix. We brought in some bulk collards and timed two people in our kitchen cleaning them. The labor costs just weren’t feasible. We reached out to Samuel’s Uncle Benny Cox at The Collard Shack, and he agreed to clean the collards for us. He brings them to us a few times a week.

“We use bacon ends and pieces to make the stock. This stock provides a bold flavor to the dish. The rest of the seasonings we do as well, which is the point. You don’t need to add hot sauce or vinegar to the finished product because the collards are already seasoned. They’re on the spicy side, and the flavors are all savory. We’re proud of them because they’re so good, and also because they were our first side that we developed specifically for Sam Jones BBQ. We created and developed this recipe. These collards are ours.”

And there you have it - that’s how we took a North Carolina secret and made it into the original recipe we serve at Sam Jones BBQ. If you’re looking for a recipe to make at home, take a look below. And if you’re looking to make a big batch, you’ll find Hog Head Collards and more recipes in Sam’s cookbook, Whole Hog BBQ: The Gospel of Carolina BBQ.

Cabbage Collards RECIPE

Serves 10-15

Ingredients:

2 quarts water
1-pound piece of slab bacon or 2 ham hocks
10-ounce piece of salt-cured pork side meat (unsmoked bacon), cut into chunks
5 pounds winter cabbage collards, stems removed and leaves roughly chopped
½ cup bacon grease or other animal fat, such as lard
1 red bell pepper, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil the water in a pot that holds at least 8 quarts. Add the bacon and pork. Simmer, covered, for 90 minutes.

Wash the collards thoroughly, two or three times, in a clean sink full of water. Add them to the pot along with the bacon grease and the bell pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Boil for about 30 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the collards are tender. Serve.