My Mom and Dad always had a garden as long as they were alive. One of my favorite things from the garden was wilted lettuce with bacon grease poured over it along with sliced radishes and onions stalks chopped up in it and bacon bits. Alas the last wilted lettuce I had was in the spring of 1987, because in Dec. of 1987 I had a double by-pass at 47 years old and the family says well no more lettuce like that as it will kill you. Believe it or not I can still smell it and still remember how good it tasted. Jeff

We also do the same with spinach.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Try it with dandelion leaves early in the spring! Almost, better than Black Seed Simpson lettuce.

Checking my math - bypass at 47 - in 87 - your are approaching 79/80

How about your going away dinner (aka After Funeral Meal)

Request that there be a Vacant Chair with this specific meal placed on "your" plate In Your Memory ...

Got the idea from hearing long ago about a memorila dinner at an America Legion post where all dined on C Rations. or might have been K Rations.

Bekeart
See that you are located Rogers AR
I worked in Fayetteville 73-79.
Knew that long gone scoundrel, Jackson G. Byrd and his shop in Springdale.

My wife loves it. I’ve not tried it.

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Who are those guys?

Back in the 40's and 50's, Mom used to make that bacon grease and lettuce too. Sometimes she added some vinegar. We really liked it.
Now, I have to ask. What DOES your family allow you to eat? Do you really think that eating wilted lettuce with bacon grease once a year is going to kill you? I can't imagine that would give you a heart attack. Maybe a gall bladder attack! But I guess you got to do what you think is right.

Wilted lettuce, wilted polk salad, yep!

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

I have a faint memory of trying the wilted lettuce / bacon grease dish many years ago; perhaps it enjoyed some popularity in the '50s. Certainly wouldn't want to try it now - sounds incredibly unhealthy.

"...incredibly unhealthy."

And what is the point of living if you can't enjoy yourself?

Anything associated with bacon in any form is a gift from The Gods!!!

Fearing death from bacon is one burden I am glad that I don't carry.

I grew up in a home that always had a jar of bacon grease on the back of the stove and lard in the larder. Ambrosia!

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Ones I had had vinegar in them too-de-lish!

Wilted lettuce and bacon? I think not. I believe you people would eat bacon wrapped Toads.

Funny you should mention that.................

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

Yep!!! Wilted lettuce with bacon grease, bacon and vinegar. Was a summer favorite growing up.
As for the spinach? Never had it wilted like the lettuce, but growing up in a basically German household, we did eat potatoes mashed with spinach and bacon grease mixed with it. Sounds terrible, but it is very good. I used to serve it to my kids, but had to give it another name to hide the fact it had spinach in it. They loved it.

Frog legs and bacon... Yum!!!

Make sure to add some hot sauce. It give them a little extra kick!

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"I also cook."

My mom was born and raised in Arkansas and her cooking was heavily influenced by old Southern traditions. We also had the bacon dripping can by the stove and those drippings took the place of most other cooking oils.

There was a can of Crisco in the pantry, but I'm thinking for most of us in that culture bacon drippings took the place of butter (which was relatively expensive), olive oil (who was Popeye's girlfriend), and lard (which you had to purchase).

The glory of the flavor was enhanced by it being a free by-product of the food staple, bacon, and who didn't eat bacon? I can't think of anyone in my childhood circle who didn't eat bacon!

I swear you guys can find a picture of just about anything.

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Who are those guys?

I could make a meal on wilted lettuce, Black Seed Simpson, onions, radishes plus a little vinegar. My mom made two pans because my
dad did not like vinegar on his wilted lettuce.
I still eat wilted lettuce, but, use olive oil instead of bacon grease.
It doesn't have quite the flavor but is good.
If I knew I only had a week to live I would eat a bale of wilted lettuce,
5 pounds of corn bread with real butter, a couple gallons of home
made ice cream with Arkansas strawberries on top. My dad always
said he did not want to die in debt to his stomach.

My mom used to make that stuff. Delicious. And really, after a certain age, almost anything will get ya’. Live a little . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

I love it. If someone told me it would kill me, I’d get a second opinion.

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Halfway and one more step

Wilted lettuce with bacon grease sounds so gross. When I have bacon my b/p goes way up so this is out for me to even try it. Wilted lettuce...oh heck no. I throw that yuck away.

C'mon JR. Casting your own bullets will kill you faster than a little bacon grease now and then...live a little.

IIRC my wife makes it with leaf lettuce, bacon grease, vinegar, and some sugar. Sound right?
Just doesn’t sound appetizing

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Who are those guys?

Seems to me that there are two general views on food and diet: the first is that food is just fuel; the second is that food is a fundamental life pleasure.

I adhere to the second school of thought.

Those that adhere to the ‘food is fuel’ school - the twigs and bark for dinner types - seem to follow the food fad of the moment in the shifting ideas of what’s healthy and live in a bleak world of misery and deprivation.

Those that recognize the fundamental life pleasure of eating well live rich , rewarding, well rounded lives.

They eat butter, not margarine; leave the skin on the chicken; enjoy fine cheeses and prime rib and put sour cream, butter and real bacon along with chives on their baked potatoes.

They don’t imagine that free range eggs or grass fed beef are somehow better. They don’t pay a premium for food marked ‘organic’ just because ‘organic’ food is trendy.

They eat wilted lettuce with bacon grease dressing!

So long as it isn't wilted BEFORE you cook it up!

Few vegetables can make you as sick as brown/old lettuce.

Lettuce in soup is good too.

Used to get a hot salad at the local Mexican place, loaded with vinegar. Mmmm!

My Mom had a bacon grease cup type thing at the back of Her stone. It was copper, maybe three inches in diameter and four inches high. Had a fitted lid and a removable strainer inside. Used to take out the grease and use instead of margarine or butter. I'd like to find one for Me. Wilted lettuce in the summer, spinach in the winter. Yum.

Growing up on a small dairy/beef/hog operation (40 dairy, 40 beef cows
and 10-20 sows) we always had plenty to eat. Smoke house for the
pork products so bacon, ham, pork chops, tenderloin and all other parts.
Mom would make real butter, cottage cheese, butter milk and sweet
cream. Who would eat that artificial stuff, yuck? Corn bread and milk
garden raised vegetables home grown meats, oh yeah, chickens and
fresh eggs.
As per wild foods, every spring my grandmother would come and we
would walk the fields and woods gathering almost everything green,
poke, dandelion, wild lettuce, wild onions, lambs quarter, sorrels, later
in early summer all kinds of berries, black berries, huckleberries and
grapes. After my grandmother moved to California to be near a couple
of my aunts she would come in the spring and fall. Fall when we butchered she always used part of the fat to make lye soap which she
cut into 2 inch squares and took a box full back to the west coast. She
claimed her friends loved it, I'm not so sure. BTW she lived to be 99.
All the family hunted and fished so another food source from nature.
I almost forgot, black walnut trees that provided all the Christmas candies with nut meats.
I still try to raise a lot of our vegetables and gather some wild plants and
berries, I grow organic and will pay more for organic produce and fruits
in the stores, just not a fan of pesticide, herbicide, corporate big ag
culture. Thanks JRM53 for bringing back these good memories of the
good old days.

Never saw the sugar bowl around the stove, but the rest is correct. My mother is living in a retirement community with lunch provided, and one of the top ten running arguments here is the about of vinegar and grease on the wilted lettuce. Half says too much, half says not enough . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

This is how we do wilted spinach:
(Sometimes we add red onions and mushrooms)


And, of course.....

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Two years ago I had open heart surgery. Tonight I'm havin sticks, twigs and tree bark on brown rice, with prune yogurt for desert. I'm now a believer.

My theory is that now you’re good for at least as long as you made it the first time on the same diet. Drive it like you stole it . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

In 2014, at age 63, I had 100% blockage in my widowmaker. It had been building for years and my heart had developed a workaround. A single stent got me back in business. I was lucky.

No damned way I'm living on twigs and berries. I'm right with God and don't fear the reaper. More biscuits and gravy please and I'll have a side of that wilted lettuce salad with extra bacon.

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God spelled backwards is dog.

It has been 15 years since I was re-sleeved and I haven't altered my diet much at all.

I can't imagine going through the remainder of my days ordering from a one page menu.

Damn them torpedoes!

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

There's the old joke about the guy that goes to the doctor.


Doc he says "I am XXyo. I only eat health foods, mostly vegatables, I quit drinking, quit smoking, quit having sex, and I exercise for at least two hours daily. What else can I do to ensure I will live longer?"


The Doctor replied "Why?"

On this morning's tv show that we watch..........
they stated less BACON and RED meat, as a way to better health, c/o moderation.

I will have three plates of moderation, please.

Where can I get one of those mugs?

<<<<rimshot>>>>

"Beer, Bar & Beyond" or "Beer 1 Imports".

They also double as swine snifters.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Took the words right out of my mouth. The key word with any food or drug is moderation. Besides, there has been some rethinking on the whole cholesterol, clogged arteries thing in more recent years. I'm no expert, but I'd say the real problem are the processed fats, the added stuff like "partially hydrogenated" whatever. Naturally occurring fats from fresh meats and eggs...when consumed in moderation...aren't as bad as they have been made out to be. I say go ahead and enjoy your wilted lettuce recipe every now and then.

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Smith. And Wesson. And Me!

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Music/Sports/Beer fan