Posted on 01/01/2007 10:50:17 AM PST by blam
Why do they call it Hopping John?
On New Years Day east Tennesseans, and people here and there all over the South, eat black eyed peas and rice and call the mixture "Hopping John" (often written "Hoppin' John".) Over the years I have eaten hopping John with good friends in the kitchen, been served it from chafing dishes by well-off San Antonio ladies three sheets to the wind, and walked into a roadside restaurant in Maryland with a can of black eyed peas and asked to be indulged. Somebody at the table always asks "Why do they call it hopping John?" and nobody ever knows why.
Hopping John seems long to have been associated with the meager cuisine of slavery. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase is first attested in 1856 in A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (page 506), one of a number of American travel books written by Frederick Law Olmsted, later to gain fame as the landscape architect who designed New York's Central Park and the great Biltmore House in Asheville NC. He wrote that "the greatest luxury with which they [presumably the slaves somewhere] are acquainted is a stew of bacon and peas, with red pepper, which they call "Hopping John".
Surfin' the Net, I find one plausible explanation: that "Hoppin' John" is an odd adaptation of the Creole French pois pigeons 'pigeon peas', pronounced pwah peeJON. It's not toofar from that to "hoppin' John" (though why not "poppin' John", I wonder).
The OED offers some support for what I think is an equally likely origin of the word, recording a statement by an otherwise anonymous Hardy (not the novelist, who lived somewhat later) in 1843 that "These feasts, or as they are called elsewhere in Northumberland, hoppings, are held on the festival of the patron saint."
New Years Day follows less than a week after the feast of St. John the Evangelist (the traditional author of the Gospel and Epistles of John and of Revelation) on December 27th. The feast of the other Biblical John, St. John the Baptist, comes at the other end of the year, on June 24th. Thus marking the two solstices, the festivals of the two saints John are thought of in traditional calendar lore as the two supporting points of the year.
Some northern European peoples say that the Sun is seen to dance at the winter solstice, at the time when it is seen at the farthest point to the south, and begins its return northward. Could this dance have occasioned the name of this homely dish?
I think we shall never really know.
For more hopping John lore, with recipes, visit John and Matt Thorne's Outlawcook and read some really fine food writing on the site while you're there, along with a harrowing account of the horrors of slavery.
What are candied tomatoes, recipe please?
You might be overcooking them.
Try sauteing a little onion and red pepper in bacon fat. Add the stemmed and cleaned collards, some chicken broth and a little sugar.
If you have ham hocks, you can add, maybe 2 of them now. Simmer for about 2 to 2-1/2 hours.
They should be excellent.
Those sound yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
LOL You gave me the recipe last year. Duh. I copied it off today and will make it for 12th Night. Thanks
Here in Georgia, and traditionally in my family history, we must have three things in the New Year’s day meal. Black-eyed peas (and cornbread) for good luck, greens (collard preferred, spinach acceptable) for prosperity, and pork for good health. I had all three yesterday !
Fresh off the vine, some shelled, some snapped with a ham hock and a little onion is good eats.
I don’t want to fool with them that much. I do like spinach, though.
You can cook turnip greens with the same recipe. They are much more mellow than collards.
I don’t like any of those green, collards or turnips. My Daddy loved them, and used to soak up the pot liquor with his corn bread. He was an old country boy, for sure!
Hi there, Blam — you soaking your blackeyed peas tonight?
I had a poker party tonight with 'fresh green' black eyed peas...we ate ours tonight already with jalapeno corn bread, honey baked ham, cole slaw and pecan pie for dessert.
BlamabamabambaBlam!
I always thought it was from all of the “hoppin” to the bathroom you do later after having black eyed peas?
Hot water cornbread is made like that. I used to do it all of the time, until we could no longer eat flour. Now I just use the old Betty Crocker recipe of cornmeal, salt soda, egg and buttermilk. Cook it in a hot iron skillet, and it is just like eating cake.
Mmmmmmmmm! I love hot water cornbread. My Grandmother made ‘em all the time. She made patties and fried ‘em in an iron skillet.
“Cow peas....... distant cousin of the ‘black eye’ and ‘crowder’ pea...... Purple hull is the name most commonly associated with them. I’ve planted and hoed a many row of them during my early years along picking and shelling.”
“Well, Bless your pea pickin’ heart”. - Tennessee Ernie Ford
I can remember pickin’ and shellin’ peas myself. LOL!
Cornbread crumbled in milk or buttermilk. I can make a meal of that.
(Makes 6 cups) 2 15.5oun. cans black-eyed peas w/jalapeno peppers
1 10 oun can diced Rotel
2 avocados, diced
1/2-1 purple onion, diced
3/4 cup zesty Italian dressing
1 fresh lime, juiced
1/4 tsp salt Rinse & drain peas, stir in all ingredients & chill, if desired. Serve with tortilla or corn chips.
Thank Gen. Sherman for our black-eyed pea tradition. - NewsFeed Researcher - peas, pea, year, years, new, black-eyed, day, goes, luck, days, good
http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_e1/peas-year-black-eyed.html
This time of year, someone always brings up the subject of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day to promote prosperity and bring good luck. This tradition seems to have Southern roots. The story goes that during the Civil War, Sherman's army stripped the South of nearly all of its crops and livestock but left the black-eyed peas, also known as cow peas and field peas. The Northerners considered such fare livestock fodder. [1]
Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is an important Southern tradition to bring you good luck in the coming year. These lessons helped me, a bona fide Yankee carpetbagger of nearly 18 years, acclimatize to my new environs south of the Mason-Dixon line. [2]
[___snip___]
Eating black-eyed peas on New Years is supposed to bring the eater good luck and prosperity in the coming year. [7]
My favorite dish to prepare is "Hoppin' John." This is a traditional southern dish containing black-eyed peas and rice, with chopped onion and sliced bacon, seasoned with a bit of salt. (Good hearty eating on that COLD New Year'''s Day.) [7]
A staple in the Southern diet for more than 300 years, the black-eyed pea originated in Asia and is thought to have been introduced to the United States through the African slave trade. Hoppin' john -- a dish made with black-eyed peas and rice -- is one of the more popular ways of serving peas and rice, but they also can be combined in salads and soups or simply cooked as a side dish.....
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