So WHY EAT Hog Jowl, Black-Eye Peas, Collard Greens and Cornbread on New Year's Day

Jan 1, 2014 | Yosemitest

[Yosemitest]

Check these links out.

Sherman's Mississippi Campaign, by Buck T. Foster


MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN
By William T. Sherman, VICKSBURG—JANUARY TO JULY, 1863


Sherman's Meridian Campaign: A Practice Run for the March to the Sea

[SatinDoll]

I made split pea soup with pepper bacon yesterday, and Manhattan clam chowder the day before.

Put up twelve cartons of soup yesterday: six (6) Manhattan Clam Chowder and six (6) Split Pea w/Pepper Bacon.

Had a New Years Day dinner of hot clam chowder with garlic bread, a glass of red wine, two kinds of cheeses, and a hand-full of toasted unsalted nuts. Since both soups are loaded with veggies I do not bother with a salad.

Happy New Years to everyone!

[onyx]

BTTT

I reside in historic Vicksburg, MS!

[Yosemitest]

One more.

Tracking Sherman through Newton County

[Squantos]

Cool links...love to read history. Grateful !!

Stay safe !!!

[Yosemitest]

First time I tried a "bagel with lox and cheese", was in Plattsburg NY.
An interesting sandwich, with a slice of fresh tomato.
But because I'm not much for semi-cooked cold fish, I didn't do it again.

[srmorton]

Great article! That's what we had for our midday meal today with minor adjustments. Although I am a true Southerner, both by choice and by birth, I do not care for collards. I like almost all other "greens", but my mother rarely cooked collards so I did not grow up eating them. We also had them for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, but my husband got them already cooked at the Piggly Wiggly because I have not ever cooked them myself. We had both cabbage and turnip greens today instead. We also did not have hog jowl, but we did have a delicious baked ham from Honey Baked Hams. I baked some corn bread, but my husband made some fried corn bread which is a particular favorite of my SIL. My 8-month old grandson ate his first traditional New Year's Day meal as did two 18 year old neighbor boys who happened to stop by just as dinner was ready. All three enjoyed it very much as did we all!!

[Liberty Valance]

Charlie Robison - New Year's Day

[Squantos]

Perfect .....:o)

That’s a keeper .... Merry New Year Liberty !!

Stay safe !

[Taxman]

YES SIR!

My DW served corn bread, black eyed peas and collard greens for dinner tonight! Chunk ham had to substitute for hog jowl, though.

Southern Style!

Mighty tasty!

And, a great way to start off the new year.

[count-your-change]

Very nearly the perfect meal.

[Yosemitest]

The trick to cooking collards is to have really good tasting clean water.
Collards are best torn from the leaf stalk or stem and remove all the large vein stems in the leaves.
Collards are very strong in taste.
Get a very large pot of water boiling with no salt or pepper, but just water.
After it comes to a rolling boil under a covered lid, then put your collards into the water and turn the boil down to a gradual boil after about 10 to 15 minutes.
This is where you want to keep your cooking temperature for about 2 hours.
Stir your collards about every 30 minutes.
After about 2 hours, add your chopped green onions and any meat you choose to season your collards with.
At 2 and one half hours cooking time, salt and pepper to taste, and I like to add a stick of real butter, but I cook a lot of greens when I do them (maybe three or four regular paper grocery bag bundles).
Also add a little apple cider vinegar to it, to taste, maybe a half a cup or a full cup.
At three hours, they should be done.
You can drain most of the liquid off, if you like, but I usually just use a serving fork to lift the collards out of the liquid onto each plate, or let each individual get what they want out of it.

Have fun, and remember that dark greens have the most micro-nutrients (video 1, video 2, and video 3 )that your body needs to get energy into your cells, especially if you're diabetic.

[Yosemitest]

" ... Piggly Wiggly ..."

One other thing, at Piggly Wiggly, look for "BAMA Mayonnaise" and if they don't have it, ask for it.
SAUER'S Mayonnaise will do, but BAMA is best because it has a stronger vinegar taste.

Try it, and I think you'll love it.

[Prospero]

Interesting. My mother, God rest her, would insist I eat at least as many black-eyed peas to equal the number of my years, every New Years Day, and was remarkably free of any other such traditions. She rose out of grinding poverty in Texas, as did my father, and both observed the rite. I would just as adamantly refuse, since I detested the taste of all beans as a youngster. It led to an annual standoff, though by her persistence she ultimately prevailed until I reached a certain age where my father intervened on my side, and I afterward celebrated an empty triumph, and over the years forgot the thing.

Today, after a difficult year and relieved to be free of ever again living in a year numbered in any way with a 13, I renewed the tradition on my own, though at my advancing health more to honor her. A man should keep faith with his parents even when they're dead, and honoring our father in mother, in the commandments, comes also with a promise, "that it will go well with you in the land."

Searching back, I was surprised to discover the southern side of this tradition prevails from Texas, even in families of many generations dating back before the WTBS, to North Carolina, at least, where leaving the Union would not have occurred (and nearly didn't) had the latter not found itself surrounded by separated States after having first rejected secession.

Someone here speculated the black-eyed pea symbolized the "evil eye" tradition, though I did not believe that. It is not a tradition common in the South, among the Whites, anyway, and especially among those families who, in North Carolina, still remember the oral tradition praising the former slaves who, at legal risk, fed their White neighbors, sometimes with Freeman benefits. This is not the case in Texas, where the Freeman Bureau's brief influence was not as widespread, though many hundreds of thousands of poor Whites did migrated there during, so-called, "Reconstruction."

There are those who believe that federal policy never ended, though resistance to it did cease at the admonition of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Those same people say the policy just went nationwide, to those places in particular where the Klan, for example, enjoyed its greatest membership, at its peak and afterward; places including Indiana, Illinois, etc.

An interesting tradition, indeed. Regardless of your own celebration for the New Year, to my fellow Americans, God grant you joy!

[Yosemitest]

Be sure to read comments #21, #24, and #32.

[abb]

Pork chops, black-eyed peas, cabbage, and cornbread here in North Central Louisiana.

Because that’s what Mrs. abb’s mother taught her to cook, as did her mother before her.

[Yosemitest]

"symbolized the "evil eye" tradition"

Check out .

"... What is the origin of this eating tradition, and why?

Apparently during the Civil War it was quite common for Union troops to burn Confederate crops,
but Union soldiers viewed the black-eyed pea as livestock feed and not an edible vegetable, so - legend has it - they spared the "cow pea".
Southerners were so overjoyed to find the peas still in the field.
Hungry and hard-pressed by the perils of war, they turned to the pea as a primary staple of sustenance.

The tradition states that those who eat black-eyes, an inexpensive and modest food, show their humility
and thus bring good fortune to themselves for the entire year.

The tradition, however, may have started long before Texas became populated by the white man.
Even as far back as ancient Egypt, these special little peas were considered to be a symbol of good luck and fortune.
Ancient Asiatic, African, and European cultures ate black-eyed peas to protect them from the Evil Eye as well. ..."

The BLACK BEAN EPISODE is where I had always heard that the Evil Eye association with beans or peas came from.

[JoeProBono]

[kalee]

BBQ ribs, blackeyed peas, spinach, and cornbread for us here in NC. I could not find any fresh or frozen greens other than spinach at the local stores, guess I waited too late to shop.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Why eat them? Because they are good! Hog Jowls are the most tender meat I have ever eatten. Its like the question, Why do blacks like fried chicken and watermellon? Answer: because they are good!