Forget Bacon: A Better Way To Make Cabbage 10X More Flavorful

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Cabbage is one of those vegetables that is often overlooked because it's not very exciting on its own. It can be a little boring, and you often need to include a few other flavorful ingredients to perk it up. While cooked cabbage can have a nice sweetness to it, the texture and flavor may leave something to be desired. That's why many recipes go for the Southern twist of cooking cabbage with bacon. If you've grown tired of cabbage with bacon, however, you need to upgrade your protein and start making cabbage with turkey instead.

The key to this preparation is to use smoked turkey, not just regular turkey. Smoked turkey legs work best, and you can find Royal Premium Quality Smoked Whole Turkey Drums, for instance, at Walmart for about $4.50 per pound. Smoked turkey wings would also work, and you can even use necks or tails. You may have already noticed that smoked turkey legs taste similar to pork, which is part of the reason this substitution works. Unlike bacon, which you'd fry in a pan before adding cabbage, you need to cook the turkey on its own by boiling it down.

The turkey can be cooked in broth, plain water, or seasoned water, depending on the recipe. When the turkey is fall-off-the-bone tender and there isn't much liquid left, it's ready to be set aside while you cook the cabbage and other ingredients in the remaining liquid. If you are using a pressure cooker or a slow cooker, there are versions of the recipe that call for you to cook the turkey, cabbage, and other aromatics together.

Although bacon does bring a meaty, umami flavor (as well as a smokiness) to cabbage, there are some clear-cut reasons to try smoked turkey instead. The most obvious is that this is a great alternative for anyone who can't eat pork. The flavor will still be very rich, but the meat is generally more well-rounded and complex than what you get from bacon alone.

The other major benefit of smoked turkey comes from the way you cook it and how that affects the taste. By boiling it down, you're extracting extra flavor from the meat, and the broth becomes deeply flavored as a result. Cooking bacon the same way mostly results in rendered fat, which does boast flavor, but it's not the same. When you cook the cabbage in the broth, it begins to take on the flavor of the turkey, giving the whole dish a fuller, more complex taste. The collagen from the turkey also breaks down during cooking, making for a richer, thicker stock.

Another advantage for utilizing smoked turkey over bacon is the meat itself. Usually, bacon is chopped into small pieces, so you get tiny bits mixed in with your cabbage. When you cook the turkey, the larger, tender pieces add a nice textural contrast. It feels more like its own separate ingredient rather than just a seasoning in a cabbage dish, the way bacon sometimes can. If you're unsure, you can also mix both meats together to see how it tastes before going all in on smoked turkey.