Skillet Fried Cabbage

Name: Skillet Fried Cabbage
Ingredients: 6 pieces bacon ((or 8 or 10 or a pound. You decide.)); 1 medium sweet onion (thinly sliced); 1 medium head green cabbage (cored and thinly sliced); 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1 cup water; 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

October 26, 2013 by Jackie Garvin 51 Comments

Skillet Fried Cabbage is supreme po’ folks food. It’s about as down home as you can get. When it’s cooked in bacon grease in a cast iron skillet, it doesn’t retain a large amount of its green color. In fact, Skillet Fried Cabbage isn’t the prettiest dish you’ll ever eat. There’s not one thing fancy about it. But is sure does taste good.

I understand that you eat with your eyes and food should look appealing. But there’s no getting around the fact that some foods are more photogenic than others. Baked goods are the most photogenic. They always look good in pictures. Cooked vegetables can be some of the most difficult to photograph, especially the way Southerners are prone to overcook them. And , as mentioned in the previous paragraph, our cooking vessels sort of cover up the prettiness, too. Cast iron and bacon drippings turn things dark. That’s part of our culture. And it’s real cooking.

I recently found myself lamenting food styling trends of a well-know Southern lifestyle magazine, for which I have been a subscriber longer than I’ve know some of my children. Their food photos are starting to look too made up. Vegetables are placed in serving dishes raw so as to photograph them with all the color and shape retained. A raw pod of okra and a cooked pod of okra look different. They are supposed to look different. A recent edition displayed a fruit pie with a lattice top that showed perfect dry pecan halves popping out from the lattice-work. If I ever take a lattice top pie from the oven with pecan halves floating on top of the lattice after they were supposed to be baked in the filling, I’d be scared to death! Just as soon as I could get over being scared, I’d get rid of my oven and buy a new one.

All the fussing and fuming to make Southern food look like anything but Southern food, doesn’t appeal to me. Our food is fine and full of character just the way it is. I see no reason to be shamed of it and every reason to be proud. It was part of our ancestor’s lives. It’s part of our lives.

Y’all come see us!

Skillet Fried Cabbage with Bacon and Lacey Cornbread

Skillet Fried Cabbage

Fried doesn’t always mean deep-fried. In this case, it means cooked in a cast iron skillet in some bacon grease.

6 pieces bacon, (or 8 or 10 or a pound. You decide.)

1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 medium head green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 cup water

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

Fry bacon in a 12 inch cast iron skillet until crispy. Remove from skillet and drain on paper towel.

Cook onion in bacon drippings 3 to 4 minutes or until soft.

Add cabbage to skillet and stir. Continue cooking and stirring until cabbage starts to cook down. Make sure it’s coated with bacon drippings. FLAVOR!

Add salt and water. Stir well.

Leave uncovered and cook on medium for 15 minutes or until cabbage is tender. Stir occasionally. Add more water if necessary. Taste for seasoning and adjust.

Add red pepper flakes and crumbled bacon, if there’s any bacon left, and stir.