2009
Southern Style Green Beans
I was probably 20 years old before I realized that there was more than one way to make green beans. That is not even the slightest of exaggerations. In my family – and nearly every family around here, not to mention south of the Mason Dixon line cooks green beans similarly. With four main ingredients for several hours until nearly every last speck of vitamin and nutrient is leached right out of the poor thing, but we still feel good because we’re eating vegetables, and green ones at that!
The four necessary items:
Green beans – Fat, skinny, long, short. It doesn’t matter, really.
Onion – You can dice it up finely, or if you don’t like bits of onion in your beans, just plop a whole onion in for flavor and remove just before serving.
Salt – My husband always says to add as much as you think you need and then add a little more. This holds true for the beans.
Pig – Whether you prefer bacon, ham, ham hock or bacon grease, you gotta add some pig. My family was particularly fond of the bacon grease method.
Here’s how I made mine last night.
Southern Style Green Beans
Wash, string, and snap your beans into 1″ lengths. Place in large pot. I had about a pound and a half of beans.
Dice one small onion and add on top of the beans.
Throw in two slices of bacon .
Cover with water.
Cook. Cook some more. Cook a little more.
Add salt throughout until it tastes right.
Feel good about yourself for eating your veggies.
Only two slices of bacon!! For shame!
They were thick-cut – so maybe that counts as three?
Well, I know for more than 20 years I have never added any pig in my beans. I add crisco oil for healthier reasons and cook down. Yours do sound good though. You can get down from the table when you eat your veggies.
Mom