"I ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" (1930s? East Texas?)

[William Salmon]

>> I don't know why, but, IMO, the stuff is as sticky as mucilage or the
>> grease from pig tails, swine neckbones, pig ears, pigs' feet, or pig
>> snoots and not very slick at all. Our okry was home-grown, so that may
>> have had something to do with it. Different subspecies or some such.
>> Who knows?

The trick is to add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar while stewing or
sautéing. It makes short work of the slime.

A story I heard as a kid was that okra seeds were brought to America by
captive slaves, smuggled across the ocean on the slave ships in their
hair. A bit of googling suggests I wasn't the only one to hear this
story. It would be interesting to know where that story got started.

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