Can't get much more traditional Southern than this!

This wasn't just a beloved staple in my own family, but for many, many old-school southerners. Gotta have this with a pan of savory cornbread to sop up the addictive pot juices with. It's also a star player alongside the ham and turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wouldn't be the holiday spread without it.

This is a recipe for a large family get together, so get out the biggest stockpot, you'll need it. Have on hand at least 3 whole, uncut slabs of smoked jowl or smoked salt pork (at the least). In a pinch use slab bacon or smoked ham hock, but it's at it's finest made with smoked pork jowl. We used anywhere from 3 to 5 whole pieces of smoked jowl to one stockpot full of greens.

Heat the stockpot on medium high temp initially. It'll cool off as the ingredients are added. First lay in a slab of smoked pork jowl in the bottom of the stockpot. Let this begin to render out while washing the collards and dicing up 2-3 large onions. (brown, yellow or white types).

Toss in a handful of chopped onions on the jowl and flip the jowl over. Let that sizzle about 2-4 minutes, then flip it back to fattiest side on bottom.

Collards needs to be sliced or diced, but it's also traditional to leave the leaves whole. Lay in about 2-3 inches of fresh, clean collards over the jowl.

Now lay in another jowl over those greens, toss in some onions, then more collards. Keep layering the pot in this way until the stockpot is full to the top. The collards will cook down lots by the time this is finished cooking, but right now the collards will likely be sticking up above the pot.

Carefully fill the pot about 3/4 of the way full of water. Salt isn't needed at this point as the pork is usually well salted, and seasons the entire pot. Put on the lid even if it's perched atop the collards. The lid will still help trap steam and heat, and the collards will reduce down as it cooks.

Bring this to a boil. Let that boil about 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium, push down the jowls and collards, which should be reduced a bit at this stage, make sure the jowls are under the water, add more water if needed, and put the lid back on. Let this cook about an hour. After that, reduce the heat to medium low and let it simmer until the jowls are tender and beginning to fall apart.

Don't stir the pot right now, the slabs of smoked pork jowls need to cook until they're tender, melty pieces that fall apart. And those will flavor the collards incredibly well. Add a little more water if needed. Once the jowls have cooked to tenderized pieces, then the pot of collards can be stirred some. There should be a bunch of dark colored, delicious pot juices by now, which our family called "pot-liquor" or "pot lekker". That's the extremely delicious goodie everyone wanted (some would fight over, oh my!), so have plenty of bread or cornbread to sop it up with.

This is cooked until it's all tender, there's no set time as everyone's stove heats differently, stockpots can be heavy or thin, large or smaller, dry low humidity days cook different than rainy days, and I've no idea how to advise people to cook this at another altitude than the Southern US. So cook till it's all tender, hours.

We always began cooking this in the morning just after breakfast. It would usually be cooked tender by a little past noon. But it was typical to serve the holiday meal around 2 to 3 pm. Once it was fully cooked and tender, we kept it covered and warm on the back burner until everyone was ready to eat.

Yes, of course you can halve or quarter this recipe for a smaller entree portion. But when you're feeding 22 aunts and uncles, about that many cousins.. and extra relatives popping in to visit, then a stockpot full of collards and jowls disappears kinda quick like.