Semi-Southern Snap Beans with Bacon

Traditional Southern cooks (and others in many countries) take a dim view of the crisp school of vegetable cookery. To properly infuse beans with requisite pork richness, simmering must be lengthy—in the neighborhood of two hours. Obviously, these beans do not have the verve of bright green vegetables. But what they do have is smoky, sweet, and salty savors that mellow and mingle in a slurpy, unctuous, noodly soft tangle. (They also provide intense “pot likker” for soup; or cook cube