Name: Appalachian Cabbage and Bacon Pudding
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper; Freshly ground black pepper to taste; ¼ teaspoon dry mustard; 1 teaspoon salt; 3 large eggs; 2 cups milk; 1 dried red pepper pod; 2 ounces slab bacon; 2½ quarts water; 1 medium head of cabbage (about 2 pounds); 1 cup small bread cubes; ½ teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled; 2 tablespoons butter, melted; ¼ cup fine white bread crumbs

Preparation info

Makes
4 to 6
servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Glory of Southern Cooking

By James Villas

Published 2007

About

It’s said that the vast cabbage fields found along the Appalachian borders of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee were started by the region’s original Scotch Irish settlers, but it took the modern-day culinary pioneer Bill Neal, owner/chef of Crook’s Corner restaurant in Carrboro, North Carolina, to unearth this ancient pudding up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and transform it into a sublime, rather elegant custard that is served in slices. Bill used streak-o’-lean (lean