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!
The smell of my great aunt’s black-eyed peas simmering on the stove with ham hock and fatback is a forever childhood memory.
That sounds pretty good. The only thing I would add is vinegar.