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.
"That sounds delicious, but haven't you guys heard of salt pork?"
Do you mean fatback?
If so, it makes some good gravy for biscuits!
Just finished new years day lunch - cabbage, black-eyed peas, rice and ham. This is a tradition in New Orleans and we eat this meal for money and health in the new year. I have heard of Hopping John but never had it.
I know lots of folks eat cornbread but i rarely hear of anyone fix'in em in an iron skillet,fried on top of the stove till its crunchy.Used to get em this way and cover em in butter.Have no concern for diets!
I have always heard that the black eye peas were symbols of coins and that you had to eat a "green" for the bills...therefore cabbage, mustard, collard, kale...as greens...generally any greens that will benefit with seasoning from salt pork or bacon...
That's the way my wife makes cornbread IG. I usually go back and pour some milk over the cornbread, add a little salt & pepper and a slice of onion.
and we are having collard greens too...although I suspect Im going to be the only one eating them. I like to saute the 'trinity' (onion, celery, bell pepper) with bacon pieces in a bit of olive oil and then add the cut up greens in at the last fewe minutes and stir until the greens just begin to wilt. a dash of salt and pepper and Tabasco and they are perfect!
I'm going to boil some spiced shrimp up and put them on top of the black-eyed monsters later today. Never done that before but my wife was inspired to purchase the combination.
I bake mine in an preheated iron skillet that has had a stick of butter melted in it. Crunchy as all get out. I also let the batter rise for at least 10 minutes.
I use Jiffy Corn Bread mix. Which while the cheapest also seems to be the best. Yeah I know from scratch is better but if I buy all that corn meal and flour I'm just throwing a feast for weevils.
The Irish side of my family always ate corn beef and cabbage on NY. The Austrian side always had pork and sauerkraut.
My father, who was never much for sentimental tradition, once told me it was because the only vegetable available in the winter was cabbage and an odd potato or two. :-)
Hey,thanks for the tip!Have a good'un!
Do you mean fatback?
Fatback is often confused with salt pork. Salt pork comes from the sides and belly of a pig, fatback is the layer of fat that runs along the animal's back. Fatback is used to make lard and cracklings and for cooking.
Yes, but we know them as Purple Hull Peas though.
Don't tell the Democrats.
Algore says cow peas about six times a day, approximately one gallon liquid per pea session and is polluting the earth's atmosphere. Algore also wants to be president of the United States.
We usually have turkey and dressing on New Year's Day, but I didn't want to have to get out yesterday to get a turkey, so instead we're doing slow cooker Beer Barbecued Pork Roast, Green Bean Casserole and Corn Bread. Mmmm.
Can???....don't those grocery stores out West carry raw peas in a bag???
Yep...the Black Eyed Pea in Abilene has a mighty fine Chicken Fried Steak....
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