Brown cabbage with smoked hog jowls.

You need:

1 head of regular cabbage
1/2 cup of regular white sugar
1 stick of butter
2lbs of smoked hog jowls (preferably with the skin still on)
Salt + pepper

You can substitute the jowl with a similarly sized side of bacon or pork belly, as whole as you can get, no thin slices allowed.

If you're not into the whole "candied cabbage and pork" thing, you might not want to try this, but you can also alter the flavor profile a bit by adding a bit of apple cider vinegar at some point during cooking and still stay traditional.

Preparation instructions:

Slice up the cabbage into 1 inch wide ribbons. Easiest to just cut it into 1 inch slices and break them apart with your hands. Make sure you rinse it well, but you can't have a lot of water left on it or you will have a sugar explosion <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Melt the sugar in a cast iron pot big enough to accommodate all the ingredients, medium heat probably, take care to not burn it (look for a light caramel color). And be careful, this stuff is like napalm on your skin.

When the sugar is melted add the butter, stir it up until its melted and foaming and add the cabbage, keep stirring and frying it up until it starts to brown all over.

Turn down the heat and add the meat. If mostly whole pieces, put it in the middle and pack the cabbage around it, if cut into thick slices or chunks, just mix it into the cabbage.

Add a bit of water and let it cook under a lid for an hour and a half or so on low heat. You might want to stir it around a little as it cooks or add more. water to keep it from burning. When done it should not have any real liquid to speak of left in the pot though and the cabbage should have an even brown color to it.

Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

Serve with whole grain bread, mustard and pickled slices of red beets.

This is probably an acquired taste, congrats, you're now Danish <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />