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

Jan 1, 2014 | Yosemitest

[Yosemitest]

My brother's wife wanted to know the history behind the southern tradition of the New Year's Day meal, and that started a search.
I thought I'd share it with you.

First, let me show you What hog jowl is, is, by J.A. Bolton Storyteller





I hope your family will be enjoying the traditional meal of collards, black-eyed peas, hog jowl and cornbread for New Year’s Day.
I thought in today’s column I would try to explain some of the folklore and customs behind the delicious meal we observe here in the south on New Year’s.

I probably need to explain what a hog jowl is.
Some of our Yankee friends have never heard of this cut of pork.
It’s the cheek of the hog.
It tastes and cooks similar to thick cut bacon.
It’s a tough cut that is typically smoked and cured.
Hog jowl is used to season beans and peas or fried like bacon.

Hogs and pigs have long been a symbol of wealth and gluttony.
It’s why we say “someone is being a pig” when they take more than their share.
Some people believe that

the more pork you eat for New Year’s,
the better your luck will be in the coming year.

So WHY hog jowl?
The short answer is that we eat cured pork because it’s winter time.
Hog jowl is a cured meat which stores well over long periods and it’s always been cheap.
Plus it goes well with black-eyed peas and collard greens.

Most southerners will tell you that the humble black-eye dates back to the Civil War.
Black-eye peas were considered as animal feed (pea vine hay).
When General Sherman’s Union troops came through, it was said that
what they couldn’t use they burnt.
Lucky for the south the Union Army didn’t know much about the black-eye peas,
and that’s what southern people lived off of for the winter.
Peas became a symbol of coppers or pennies.
My folks said that for every pea you ate, it would bring you a penny.
Folks say you should eat exactly 365 peas on New Year’s
if’n you want enough to make it through the coming year.
If you ate more it would mean
you would lose one for as many days.
I reckon it all goes back to making a pig of yourself.

Want to get rich this year?
Here in the south, collard greens and cornbread bring in the big bucks.
Collards are a late crop and are mostly grown here in the south.
Heard the saying “boil them cabbage down” ?
The same goes for collards since it’s part of the cabbage family.
The traditional way to cook collards
is to strip the leaves from the stem of the collard leaves,
wash several times,
cut up and place them in a big pot with bits of hog jowl or a ham hock.
When tender, remove from the pot and drain off the pot licker.
I’ll tell you more about the pot licker in another story.

For the best cornbread,
use a cup of self rising cornmeal,
half cup of flour,
a pinch of sugar and salt,
one egg,
half cup of milk nd a handful of pork cracklins.
Mix all the ingredients together.
Grease an old cast iron frying pan and place it in an oven at 400 degrees.
Cook for about 20 minutes but turn over after 10 minutes.
It should come out golden brown on both sides.

I know the doctor is going to say that eating this way will run up your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers, but what the heck.
You need to start off enjoying the New Year.
Don’t forget that
pork is for luck,
peas for pennies,
collard greens for dollars
and cornbread for gold.



Hope you have a happy and prosperous new year

and don’t forget to live, ... love ... and laugh.

Now for a recipe from Black-Eyed Peas and Hog Jowl - New Year's Day Tradition .

This is not culinary masterpiece. Having it once a year will be fine for most.
But, it’s tradition, fun to do, and it's for good luck. It can't hurt.
I served mine with some picked onions I made a year or so back.

Ingredients
1 small slab of Hog Jowl
1 15 ounce can Black-Eyed Peas
Salt
Freshly ground Black Pepper

Cut the hog jowl into thin bacon like strips.
In a large skillet, fry hog jowl over medium low to medium heat until desired doneness and crispness.
Place hog jowl on a platter lined with paper towel to drain.
During this time, heat black eyes peas in a sauce pan over medium heat until hot.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves good luck for 365 days



I find hog howl in a whole piece.
But, I have read on other blogs where they have found it pre-sliced.
I have never found it that way.
If you slightly freeze your hog jowl, it will make slicing it a little easier – about 20 minutes in your freezer.
You will get a good amount of fat renderings from the hog jowl and if you fry it too hot a lot of smoke.


Here's the Southern Style Collard Greens
But I disagree with their cooking time for good greens, because 45 minutes is just too short, and I recommend about 2 and one half to three hours cooking time, with a little splash of apple vinegar.
Click on the link to get it,
and if the greens taste too strong, just dump the water, rinse them, and add new water and cook a little longer.



You can find Southern-Style Cornbread here.

And you can get some stone ground whole corn meal here or here at Kymulga Grist Mill.

[wardaddy]

I hear ya.

Hog jowls...my big dogs still gnawing on them

A big pot of BEPs

Country ham.....Rices of Mt Juliet TN.....top shelf salted country hams

Buttermilk corn bread in 100 year old passed down CI skillet...stove top cooked soda style white meal...not sweet Yankee cornbread.....which I confess I do prefer for Mexican cheddar cornbread but not as real cornbread

Collards...well cooked

And my wife’s fancy hand chopped slaw

Plenty of pepper sauces and raw country butter

Really nice

I probably eat the peas most....

My big Rott had that jowl firmly clenched and my 6 year old reached for it

I hollered in time....do not try to take a fat cooked jowl from a Rottweiler....not ever

Even a good dog can bite u over that

Imagine taking a jowl from 125 pound chihuahua....were there such a thing..lol

[Yosemitest]

One more find from Wikipedia, Black-eyed pea, Lucky New Year food.

" ... In the Southern United States, eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity in the new year.

The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled circa 500 CE), Horayot 12A:
"Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail,
you should make it a habit to see qara (bottle gourd), rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic lubiya), kartei (leeks), silka (either beets or spinach), and tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year."
However, the custom may have resulted from an early mistranslation of the Aramaic word rubiya (fenugreek).

A parallel text in Kritot 5B states one should eat these symbols of good luck.
The accepted custom (Shulhan Aruh Orah Hayim 583:1, 16th century, the standard code of Jewish law and practice) is to eat the symbols.
This custom is followed by Sephardi and Israeli Jews to this day.

In the United States, the first Sephardi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s, and have lived there continuously since.
The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the American Civil War.^{[citation needed]}

Another suggested beginning of the tradition dates back to the Civil War,
when Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman,
typically stripped the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they could not carry away.
At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and field corn suitable only for animal fodder, and did not steal or destroy these humble foods.^[4]

In the Southern United States,^[5] the peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion,
and served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavored vinegar.

The traditional meal also includes collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham.
The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity;
the greens symbolize money;
the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.^[6]
Cornbread also often accompanies this meal. ... "

Be sure to note that Jews do NOT EAT Pork.

[wardaddy]

I used to deer hunt off Steele Bayou

And I grew up right where Sherman marched and burnt....the Old Clinton Blvd

Stone cold ghetto now

We found lots of musket ammo

[prisoner6]

My family likes to make Hoppin' John's. several variations. Basically black eyed peas, brown rice, onion or garlic and pork. This year we used this recipe from Betty's Kitchen Betty's Kitchen

[Yosemitest]

Thanks for the photo.
All that's needed is a glass of Iced-Tea with a slice of lemon in it.
And a slice of peace cobbler (from the home canned cold packer) would be nice.

[Yosemitest]

Sherman is still despised in Meridian, Mississippi today, for burning it to the ground.
Merrehope, Circa 1858

" ... General Polk was commander of troops who were charged with defending the east Mississippi area.
On February 14, 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman came in with approximately 10,000 troops and forced Polk and his troops to evacuate Meridian.
Sherman took over and burned almost all of Meridian and destroyed the railroad lines for 10 miles in each direction, making “Sherman Neckties”.
Polk and his troops had already destroyed much of the rail in order to keep Sherman and his army from using them.

General Polk and some of his troops evacuated to the east near Alamucha.
Some of the troops and most of Polk’s equipment and the railroad “rolling stock” were sent southward by rail to Mobile…
with the last car pulling out of Meridian as Sherman was marching in. ... "

Occasionally “Sherman Neckties” are still found today in the woods where old "dummy RR lines" use to run.

[Yosemitest]

[MagnoliaB]

We did our part yesterday to uphold this Southern tradition.

[BamaDi]

I had pork chops, collards, black eyed peas, and cornbread! It’s been traditional in my family for years!

[chasio649]

Great post...thanks!

[chasio649]

Beautiful!!!

[rfreedom4u]

Why eat it?

Because it’s awesome that’s why!

[WinMod70]

I did eat some cornbread once and possibly a black eyed pea but never the other stuff. Not saying I would never try it all at once but not on New Years. I eat so much pork roast, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes on this day there is no room for the southern combination.

[Revelation 911]

Being a NorthEasterner Italian - its neat to see this cross over culturally - because we have “greens and beans” - which is typically Rappi greens, butter beans and Italian sausage in a little chicken stock just to keep it moist....I substitute collards (I like the flavor and texture better). Neat article thanks

[Vinnie]

Mrs. Hugin is Russian/Polish descent, so the lucky meal is kielbasa, sauerkraut and dumplings every New Year.

Mrs. Vinnie is Polish so we had similar meal w/ the addition of pork roast cubed up in the mixture. Delicious!!!
Black-eyed peas is probably the only bean I don't like. My Southern mother always had them on the table on New Years Day.

[Dusty Road]

Well we did our part except I use salt pork for the black-eyed pea’s, pre fry a little bacon for the skillet cooked cabbage, corn bread in an old cast iron skillet. For dessert it was stuffed bacon wrapped jalapeno’s, OK maybe that’s a Texas thing. I ate 5 of them!

[Vinnie]

BAMA makes excellent products. Their jams and jellies are terrific. Can’t find them around here, though I really haven’t researched.

[Mercat]

We do it slightly different each year. This year it was the ham hock left over from Christmas, great white northern beans - in a soup with celery and carrots. Our son brought a can of black eyed peas and a cabbage so we added those. And cornbread.

[Vendome]

Cuz they’re dang’d good that’s why.

You forgot fried okra...

[DAC21]

Our tradition is Corned beef and cabbage, with potatoes and carrots, black eyed peas and corn bread for NYD. This year the wife relented and we added Greens. We went with canned Southern Greens as making from scratch takes time, but they were really good, just the right amount of Vinegar flavor (Sodium Diacetate). I believe the brand is from Glory.