Yeah.
There's nothing,
nothing like bacon.
I think, I think bacon
really is the food of
the gods.
I think that's,
that's how we know that
God wants us to be happy.
It's not because he
invented beer, but
because we have
bacon to go with it.
[MUSIC]
Try that.
Yes!
Hi, I'm John Ratzenberger
[SOUND].
I make my living
normally as an actor.
But today I'm gonna be
cooking some bacon,
cabbage, pine nuts,
little bit of olive
oil in there,
little bit of pepper,
little bit of garlic.
And you wait and see.
I use to cook in
in England when I
lived there.
I lived in London,
with my first two
years in London,
I live in an abandoned
building.
And there was a green
grocer nearby,
who's name was Nizam.
And he use to save all
his rotted fruits and
vegetables for me.
And so
at the end of the day,
I'd go there, and he'd,
he'd give them all to me.
But I would take
his stuff home, and
this is one of the dishes
I would make because it
was so cheap.
And this is a great,
actually, they found
this as a cure for
stomach ulcers,
cabbage, cabbage juice.
How do you turn
the stove on?
Little olive oil.
I'm gonna slice a little
bit of this up, too.
I prefer thick,
thick-sliced bacon.
[NOISE] So I'll just
lower that a tad,
let that cook a little
bit in there.
And I might as well
chop up an onion too,
while I'm at it.
But this is the kind of
dish you can throw
anything in there.
I've, I've yet
decided whether to use
tomato sauce or apples.
I never put both of them,
of them in there.
I never use tomato
sauce and apples.
It's either one or
the other, so,
you know, let's see olive
oil, onions, garlic.
Cabbage for
that matter it's,
it's, you know, I'd, I'd,
I think I'd eat a shingle
if I could get all those
ingredients together.
As long as you
have olive oil and
onions, I really don't
think you can go wrong.
You know, you can throw
the neighbor's cat in
there, it's gonna
taste okay.
I know, I'm probably
gonna get a lot of
letters from Human
Society folks or, or
PETA, but boy, if they've
never tasted sauteed cat,
they don't know what
they're missing.
yeah, so I'm just gonna
shove all this
in here too.
I never measure, I just,
I just eyeball
it all the time.
Come over here, turn
this one on, this puppy.
Just, you know,
spread that olive oil
around a little bit.
These lodge pans, I, the,
they're just the best,
and also you get
a workout when you're
working with them.
This th, this thing's
got a weight.
12 pounds.
10, 12 pounds.
So yeah, Nizam would,
would save,
save these vegetables and
all, all the things he
couldn't sell for me.
And so years later,
you know,
I traveled to Hollywood
and get on a TV show
called Cheers, make my
way back to London.
I was invited back to
London for an event.
And I hadn't seen Nizam,
for years and years and
years and years.
I'm gonna put some
more bacon in here
cuz I just do love bacon.
So I go back and I, and
I, I said to, you know,
to the driver, I said
let's go up to Primrose
Hill, Regis Park Road,
there's a buddy of mine I
haven't seen in a long
time I wanna see again.
So we go up there.
The limo pulls
up in front.
It was a,
I think it was a Bentley.
But it was
a beautiful car,
Rolls Royce or a Bentley.
And so I, I step out, and
I gotta,
I gotta nice suit on.
So I go into
Nizam's shop, and
he's waiting on a lady.
So I wait for
the transaction, and
I'm just standing there.
He says, yes, sir.
Can I help you?
What?
And I said Nizam,
it's me,
John, John Ratzenberger.
John!
My god,
I thought you were
jail or dead.
He thought I was dead or
in jail, so
I said oh, no,
far from it.
And I motioned like
this to the limo, like,
trying to, you know,
Mr. Big Shot.
And he looks to the limo,
looks at me,
looks to the limo.
Goes oh, good,
you got yourself a job as
a limo driver did you?
I said well, close.
Use a lot of garlic.
Another good thing to
have in the pantry.
If, if you have garlic,
onions, olive oil, once
again you could cook a
shingle and I'll eat it.
There's just
nothing better.
Yeah, so let's just
throw some garlic in
there for two.
Which, which one
should I throw it in?
Into that one.
And here.
Put some [FOREIGN] as
the Italians call it,
pine nuts right in there.
Oh, it's just gonna
taste it, so good.
Onions and bacon here.
That looks, we got
the cabbage going here.
I think this
part is done.
Excuse me just a second.
Oh, boy.
Mm.
[NOISE] That's
my problem.
Sometimes I'll
finish this pan
before the cabbage
is done.
So I should not do
that this time.
See now,
that's pretty much it.
I mean, if you,
if you have a peek in
there, that's the dish.
It's great the way it is,
but
I'm gonna add the tomato
sauce anyway in a bit.
[MUSIC]
Yeah, that works.
It's nice,
there's a little bit of
chunkiness to this.
I, I, I don't have
a favorite brand of
marinara sauce but
that one's very good.
I don't put
the whole jar in,
just enough to
give it a taste.
You know, you know,
you can s, save it for
another dish or
another time.
It may not be that
good looking,
but, boy,
does that taste good.
Some pepper probably
wouldn't be a bad idea.
[SOUND] You don't
need any salt.
There's enough
in the bacon.
I shouldn't, but
you shouldn't really
put your fork in there.
So let's make believe
this is the first time I
dipped in there.
[MUSIC]
Once again, it's
a real good workout if
you work with these
cast iron pans.
Once you taste this dish,
you're gonna become
a cabbage fan.
And what is this?
Is this root beer?
See, I actually
don't drink beer.
But you know, oh,
what the heck.
Let's go ahead just to,
just as a taste.
No, my favorite is
that Irish whiskey,
called Tullamore Dew.
Let me grab my fork here.
I'm glad I brought
my apron today.
I'm glad I put
the apron on.
My, when my daughter was
very young, she's 25 now.
But when she was young
she said, Dad, why don't
you just buy shirts with
the food already on it.
And, and I thought well,
I'd better start
wearing an apron.
So here we go.
The bacon, onion,
cabbage sauteed, but
pepper was the only
spice we used.
[SOUND]
Oh, man.
That's so good.
I don't understand why
there aren't restaurants
dedicated to this dish.
To cabbage!
[MUSIC]
Well, for the recipe just
click on the link below,
or give me a call.
I'll come over and
cook it for you.
[MUSIC]
