My wife’s family says herring for luck in the new year.
This article is sad. Everyone knows that real Hoppin John starts with a quality smoked ham hock and ends with Tabasco sauce. This past summer I got the opportunity to buy local organic hocks smoked in-house by the butcher. I gladly paid $18 per hock for those bad boys and put them in the freezer. Christmas Eve I made Black Bean Navidad soup with one of them and the other is awaiting fresh black eyed peas for New Years Day. I got almost a pound of meat off the first one and was that soup ever tasty!
I usually take black-eyed peas straight, but Hoppin’ John is good, too. Collards are tolerable, if chopped, spiced with black pepper, and doused with A-1.
(”Don’t throw away your Confederate money, boys, the South shall rise again.”)
Fresh black eyed peas in the long pod are absolutely delicious sauteed with onions, garlic, and lean beef. Hard to find fresh peas in the pod though.
I am a southern boy. My girlfriend is from PA. I don’t believe she had eaten a single plant of any type prior to our relationship. Now she goes for the veggies first! There will be Hoppin John and collards at our house this Friday.
>> “the collards represent greenbacks and the black-eyed peas coins” <<
I didn’t like collards or black-eyed peas, but was told by my mother that eating them would bring money. (Oddly enough, though we ate then, we remained poor.) I like eating them as a tradition, but not as a dish.
Well, here in Pennsyltucky in we enjoy roast pork, sauerkraut and whipped potatoes on New Years Day.
I’m not a black-eyed pea fan
I’ve only had it once that it was REALLY good.
The bar at the Savannah Hilton, New Years Eve, 1975. Freebie food with a drink.
Every other time I’ve had it, it was mediocre at best, often horrible. I’d pay good money for a big bowl of some made exactly like that one from ‘75.
You don’t like Lima beans either.
I think there might be something wrong with you...
We always have and love it. Gotta have some smoked pork in it though and some Louisiana hot sauce (Tobasco).
Well, that explains my poverty. I am a G.R.I.T.S., but there is no way I will eat Hoppin’ John, nor Hawg Jowl.
My husband always does pork and sauerkraut.
My family (Virginia) always had straight Blackeye Peas. I liked them, but later I discovered this recipe for cakes made of the peas, with a mayo salsa; it’s one of my favorites, and might change your mind about Blackeyes:
http://saramoulton.com/2013/12/black-eyed-pea-cakes-with-salsa-mayonnaise/
I live a true Hoppin John and Limpin Susan
As a Yankee, blackeyed peas were an acquired taste for me - took quite awhile, too But after many years I have completely embraced them, and love them.
For New Year’s I will be cooking a dish I learned from a Cosmo recipe many years ago. It’s pork and sauerkraut, with an apple, an onion, and some white wine. And spices - this is where I got off the track. I don’t remember what the original recipe called for - suspect sesame seeds, which I didn’t have. Just looking around at what I had, I substituted pickling spice for the sesame or whatever it was. And I loved the result, and still use it to this day.
Southern cooking is pretty straight forward, it’s not fussy or complicated, and it isn’t recipe driven. You depend on proven ingredients and sorta wing it.
For example if you can’t find good meaty smoked ham hocks, use smoked neck bones, or a smoked turkey leg will do. Also, don’t assume that the name says it all - take red beans and rice, that doesn’t begin to cover the list of ingredients.
It’s similar to the way Yankees approach grits. Even a starving dog wouldn’t eat that stuff. Add some diced ham along with some cheese and float a fried egg on top. And the biscuits, don’t forget the hot buttered biscuits, a little honey and a thin slice of country ham and you’ve elevated an everyday item to an unforgettable treat.
New Year’s Menu
Black Eyed Peas
Greens
Boiled New England Dinner (Ham and cabbage, blech)
Cornbread
Black eyed peas are fit for ANY TIME.
First time I had it was in Texas but it was black eyed peas and corn bread.
We eat posole in NM.
I grew up in south Georgia. Blackeyed peas always meant good luck, but I never heard about greens representing money until much later.