It’s a d— shame that every food good for the Appalachian soul is bad for the heart. Creamy sausage gravy over buttery biscuits. Fried chicken. Buttermilk and cornbread. Chicken livers and onions cooked in butter. And wilt sallet. Read more of this essay…
Ingredients: A “mess” of leaf lettuce (or other young green such as baby spinach or mustard)
A small bunch of spring onions, white and green parts sliced
Pan drippings from several slices of bacon, fat back or pork belly
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional ingredients: Sugar, vinegar, all-purpose flour
Instructions: Toss the fresh greens and sliced onions in a heat-proof bowl, set aside. Fry the meat over medium heat until crisp. Remove meat from the pan and drain on paper towels. Continue heating the pan drippings, add salt and pepper and stir. At this point, a tablespoon or so of flour or vinegar or sugar (or all three) can be added to the drippings. Cook briefly.
Pour the mixture over the greens and toss. Serve immediately with cornbread and the meat on the side. Fried potatoes go well with this dish.
Niki wrote,
I wonder how many names there are for this meal. My family calls it kilt lettuce. At friends homes growing up I heard it referred to as several other things including kilt greens and wilted lettuce.
Link | February 19th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
tonia wrote,
Since writing the column, friends who grew up in the midwest tell me they ate a version of this dish, only it was made with spinach with a warm bacon-mustard dressing. Even Applebee’s has a salad served in the midwestern style. It’s nothing like wilt sallet, though. We use hot bacon grease and really cook those greens. I love it with lots of salt and pepper, too.
Link | February 20th, 2008 at 12:30 pm