Hopping John (Black-Eyed Peas On New Year's Day)

RS Richmond ^

[Coldwater Creek]

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.

[gulfcoast6]

First time I have heard this too.

[gulfcoast6]

HAM is our staple on New Years and I might add, days later too.

[gulfcoast6]

Can? Can? Against the law here in Mississippi to have can black eye peas

[varina davis]

We were all too full to eat much of anything today. On New Year's Eve, the son-in-law (native Floridian), fixed up a huge spread of Cracker Boil (blue crab, shrimp, corn on the cob and little potatoes) all boiled til just done with tons of spicy seasoning. It's dumped on a newspaper over a picnic table and then a free-for-all. On the side there was crawfish, stone crab, and steamed clams and oysters and a table full of sides. Delicious Cracker feast!

[varina davis]

Salt pork is what I use to season my "older than dirt stew." Good eatin'.

[cloud8]

> Can? Can? Against the law here in Mississippi to have can black eye peas

Same here. Who would think of cooking with mushy beans and that slop they're packed with from a can?

Now how do you cook those black eyed peas like I do (dried and soaked over night), or fresh off the vine?

[gulfcoast6]

First off, just what state did those black eys come from? I mean, it it a southern dish, might have come from Mexico or Mass.

[Alas Babylon!]

Central East Alabama! Where abouts? We're here between Montgomery and Auburn!

We're having pot roast tonight. Mother-in-law is making it and I can't say no or her daughter will be mad.

[prov1813man]

Well, for us, (South Carolina heritage) it was always black eyed peas, ham, fried cabbage and corn bread. This very day, cooking on my stove in fla, is ham, collards, cabbage, peas and potatoes, with corn bread in the oven. I feed it to yankee and cracker alike where ever I am.

[BlueAngel]

The Chicken Fried Chicken isn't bad either!

[Moonmad27]

Yes, I should have searched further for those bagged blackeyed peas instead of the dreaded can, but I felt lucky to get the canned variety. Out here in this part of California, Albertson's has a little Southern food section -on the exotic foods row. This place would be paradise if only we had any Southern-cookin' restaurants (Blackeyed Pea, for one) and a Dillards within 75 miles!

[mware]

Around our neck of the woods, sauerkraut is the dish preferred on New Year Eve, for good luck anyway.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Nothing to do with Hoppin John, but last night Fergie (the Pea, not the former Duchess) was on one of the network NYE shows...I totally freaked out my HS aged son when I pointed out that Ms. London Bridge is older than his mom. I just had to post that.

[linn37]

As a Texan married to a Pennsylvania boy we had a mixed New Years Day dinner of Ham,sauerkraut,and black-eyed peas. Two of the kids hate the peas one hates the sauerkraut,thats why I serve them with mashed potatoes,you simply mix them in your taters and wash it down.

[AnAmericanMother]

Well . . . it's all my father's family (my mother's family is from Augusta and Charleston).

My paternal grandmother's family is from Eufaula AL and from points north of there up through Russell County to Hurtsboro and Uchee.

My paternal grandfather's family is from Cherokee County AL, mostly from Goshen and Centre, but really from everywhere in the county. We have all sorts of collaterals and cousins up and down the Chattahoochee river valley, we're related to most of Columbus GA and Rome GA.

The grandparents met and married in Rome, GA after their families migrated there around the turn of the last century.

[Professional Engineer]

No Hoppin' John, but we did enjoy our black eyed peas and ham. With a generous dose of Louisiana Hot Sauce to boot.

[MosesKnows]

what state did those black eys come from?

The black-eyed pea, sometimes called cowpea, originated in Asia and is thought to have been introduced to the United States through the African slave trade.

[Old Professer]

This is how all superstitions spread and become legends; they begin as harbingers of good luck and then when it seems the fad is about to die, the desperate practioners change the wording just a little bit and it becomes, "Do this or bad luck will follow."

[Old Professer]

I thought we weren't going to bring up the Ford family again.