Okay, for all of you who don't know the right way to eat greens, listen up: FIRST, respectfully forget Brad's recipe above this one -- YOU DON'T PUT SUGAR IN COLLARD GREENS. I am from Georgia and I know. Turnip greens maybe, but not collards! SECOND, you MUST eat collard greens with chopped raw tomatoes and chopped raw onions sprinkled on top (plus pepper sauce if you like it, but if you don't know what this is, forget it, I'm not going into it. Well, okay, I'll try. Suffice it to say it's peppers stuffed into a bottle of white vinegar and left to sit either on a shelf (how the oldens did it) or in the fridge for a few months, then you sprinkle the juice on the greens -- but don't ask me what kind of peppers. I just know they're green, medium hot, and I know them when I see them). THIRD, if you don't want the fat of hamhock or salt pork, you can use smoked turkey wings and the flavor is still quite good. But whatever you do, DON'T try to cook collard greens without some kind of salted meat.

This is how I was taught to make collards by a dear friend from North Carolina, with 2 changes - no oil, and a splash of cider vinegar is essential. When the greens are fully cooked, I remove the ham hocks, shred the meat, and add it back to the greens. One tip for when you're prepping - I wash the cut collards in my sink 3 times, adding baking soda to the first wash. This helps remove some of the bitterness.

Just a little note from another "Southern Belle", suger is sometimes used in greens(even collards)to cut the bitterness. Greens only sweeten after the first cold weather gets to them. My grandparents and parents farmed greens for years and this is what they taught me.

This recipes turns our collards as good as my grandmother's. I have cooked collards according to this recipe several times and always get rave reviews.

Great recipe! I used this recipe to make collards for the first time. At the suggestion of a native southern woman (my boyfriend's mother), I skimmed the fat off of the top of the water before I added the collard greens. She said that this would keep the greens from being too greasy. Apparently, a lot of the flavor is in the water, because the collards turned out great with a wonderful, smokey flavor. One note for novice cookers (like myself): be careful with the red pepper flakes. They can overpower the greens if you accidentally add too much.

I only cook Collards once a year - on New Year's Day - so I've never had a favorite recipe .... well, I do now! Salt Pork (or Fat Back) can be used to season the greens but after simmering for two hours what ever meat you use will be falling to pieces so I recommend using ham hocks which have less fat. I didn't have any red pepper flakes on hand so I used some southwest seasoning which contained cayenne. I wasn't sure about adding the vegetable oil at the end but I don't think the final product would have been as good if I hadn't.

If you need to leave out the meat like one review suggested (by using olive oil) you will be missing the much needed saltly, smokey flavor. You can try adding salt and liquid smoke or even better chiptole jalapenos for a little spice.

I made these for New Year's. They were great! My mother always made delicious Collards. Since she passed, I decided to give it ANOTHER a try (I made them once before, the results were disasterous.) Since I do not have much cooking experience, I was very pleased with the results. Thank you Tina.

I used this recipe with mustard and turnip greens and the meal was delicious!

I used smoked pork but it was still excellent!