Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1871-03-30
JeWl and Greene.

Jswl and Greene.
When the grass begins to show heal
thy green on the hillsides--when the buds
begin to swell, fish to bite, the lamps to
frisk, and the birds to pair-in
short, when spring, ethereal mildness, no
longer fingers in the lap of winter, the APP
petite of man, like that of the brute.
Graves change of diet. The horse tires
of his yellow chopped oats, hay and bran,
and his mouth waters for the emerald grass
and the tender shoots of herbage that spring
up in the fence corners. When turned
out his festive heels cleave the ambient
air, and he laughs veritable horse laugh
at the prospect of filling up with green's.
So it is with man. He gets through the
winter admirably on sirloin steaks, poul-
try, oysters. canned fruits, ''and sich,"
but when the spring comes lie feels a
gnawing and hankering in his ''innards."
which neither the grocer nor the butcher
can satisfy. His stomach revolts at por-
ter-house mutton mortally ofends him,
and he turns up his contemptuous nose at
poultry. lie loathes hominy and rice,
and his innost soul withdeep disgust is
stirred at the bare thought of dried apples.
He reviews the history of fNebuchadnczzar,
and the fate of that Illuminating biped docs
not strike him as being particularly hard.
He feels an almost irresistible inclination
to go on all fours AID bark the fruit trees
as the horses do. Even his matutinal
cocktail ''goes agin him." and he is gcner-
ally out Of sorts
In many parts of our beloved country our
fel-low-men and women annually pass
through this uncomfortable phase of
existence without knowing what is the mat
ter with them, and suffer gastric agony
until the crisp radishes come upon the
table. But in Kentucky we know what
this mysterious craving of the appetite
means, and how to satisfy it. We under
stand ourselves. and know what's the mat
ter with Hannah. The human system,
impoverished iu certain elements by the
long use of winter grub, needs something
to supply the waste. What we need is
iowl and greens Other less favored COM
munities have bacon and greens, or plain,
boiled to pulp and served up with perhaps
a slice or two of hard-boiled egg to aid
the imposition. but in Kentucky alone do
we find that grandest combination of culi-
nary science-that dish fit for the gods
jowl and greens. The jaunty dandelion,
the ''lamb's quarter" the broad leaf Of
the water dock, the pungent wild mus
tard, or the more civilized spinach and
turnip top, furnish the tender, toothsome
garuIture for the royal jowl, salted to a
nicely. smoked to a golden brown, and
brought upon the table with just tinge
of that creosotic favor SO enjoyable in cur
ed meats and Scotch whiskies. Jowl and
greens exists in sporadic from in other
States. 1t may be occasionally encoun-
tered in farm-houses throughout Indiana
and Illinois, while in the Southern States
it is more common. But in Kentucky
alone is it epidemic and found in its high
state ofdevelopment. Here alone is the
dish appreciated, and accorded its proper
position in the list of good things, COM
bining the attribute of the necessary and
the luxury, In season it is given the
place of honor on our hotel bills of fare.
shaming by the imposing grandeur of its
democratic simplicity the frothy frumprey
of French delusions and snares with which
ii is associated The eye of the jaded
epicure, passing hurriedly over the pre-
tenders, rests with sense of satisfied COM
placency njowl and greens. 1:aiaso4fsi toI
An Indispensable auxiliary to jowl and
green's is corn bread, and here again Ken
lucky proudly challenges the competition
of the world. None of your vile COM
pounds of alkili and acids, with which the
housewives of other States persecute the
and horrify the gastric juice
nor the sodden mass of dough, molasses
and ''injun meal" with which the biogo-
ted Yankee does penance for his sins
but the sweet, palatable pulp, baked to a
turn, and melting on the enraptured palate
with richness that fingers like sweet
of faded joys. The corn
bread of Tennessee is good. The corn
bread of the. West has no distinctive charac-
acter, being gsometimes good and sometimes
bad. The corn bread of Boston is name
less horror. The corn bread of Kentucky |
is Joy forever. But to return to oar
eohon. We believe humanity is indebt-
ed to Luke Cullus, one of the pioneers,
for the grand combination of jowl and |
of the great Emperor of the same name,
who fooled away bis time IN devising fiimsy
dishes of peacocks, tongues, while he might |
have had jowl and green's.
There is one element in the African |
which redeems him from hopeless barba-
sreak of higher organization
which encourages us in the hope of ulti-
mate civilization and enlightenment. He
takes kindly to jowl and greens. He
snakes the ghastly catfish from its lair in
the oozy bed of Beargrass, and "yanks"
the tender pulletfrom the midnight roost.
He dotes on tho fat, persimmon-sed and |
opossum, baked with |
sweet 'taters; but his religioa is jowl and |
greens. And in this devotion wealth and
refinement strike hands with toiling pover-
y. Jowl and greens is the one touch of
nature which makes us all akin.
If there is any euvious reader from the !
lands to the north of us who thinks we
have taken up too IN .ch with this gastron-
,mic rhapsody. we retort that we scorn his
The man who don't like
owl and greens is a fraud fit subject
Tor treason. strategem and spoils. We