Collard Greens

Method

1. prep15 min
   cold water, two changes
   collard greens: fold each leaf along the rib and cut the stem away, stack the leaves, roll them into a cigar and slice crosswise into half-inch ribbons. Then swish in a sink of cold water and lift them out rather than pouring off — collards grow low and hold sand in the crimped veins, and grit that stays in now stays in for two hours
2. simmer45 min
   bare simmer, lid ajar
   ham hock + chicken stock + water, until the skin loosens and the liquid turns cloudy and faintly sticky — this is the pot likker, and it is being made before the greens arrive because gelatin and smoke need time that tender leaves do not have
3. saute6 min
   medium, in the rendered fat
   bacon rendered first, then + onion + garlic + red pepper flakes, until the onion is translucent and the garlic has lost its raw edge but taken no color — browned garlic turns acrid over a long braise
4. braise60 min
   low, covered, liquid halfway up
   + collard ribbons pushed down in handfuls as each batch wilts + the hock and its likker + salt + black pepper. Keep it at a lazy simmer, never a boil: collard leaves are held together by tough cell walls that only soften with long moist heat, and a hard boil agitates them into shreds before the fibers give. They are done when a ribbon collapses with no spring left against the tooth — squeaky greens are undercooked greens, not a matter of taste
5. season5 min
   off heat
   pull the hock, strip the meat from the bone and return it. + apple cider vinegar + sugar, then taste. The vinegar goes in at the end because acid tightens plant fiber and would fight the braise from the start; the sugar is not for sweetness but to blunt the mustard-oil bitterness the long cook concentrates. Serve the greens in their likker, not drained = the liquid is half the dish