Some things just aren’t messed with…
Ham, Hoppin John, a mess of greens, and cornbread.
Why that meal? Well if you’re Southern, the pig symbolizes health and progress, the Black-eyed peas symbolize luck, the collard greens symbolize prosperity, and cornbread was a southern staple. And they remind us to be humble…
Legend has it that General Sherman thought Black-eyed peas were considered animal food (like purple hull peas). The peas were not worthy of General Sherman’s Union troops. When Union soldiers raided the Confederates food supplies, legend says they took everything except the peas, salted pork and corn meal. The Confederates considered themselves lucky to be left with those meager supplies, and survived the winter.
They are also considered ‘soul food’, as the slaves were eating the same things, and everyone was happy to have anything to eat in 1863!
Besides, it’s damn good food! 🙂
Yup, ham was the featured ‘meat’ for our Christmas meal after missing from Thanksgiving, it is a versatile meat for adding into sandwiches, beans and such. Hopping John for me is sort of new – I bought some cans of it and am now very happy to add to my menu (wife and kids are not fans but their loss). Leafy greens – a no go for me, blood thinner meds are affected by it so I avoid as much as possible. A shame – I like raw spinach, dang it! And cornbread – yeah, what is life without that and some butter to put on it. Crumple some of that into a cup of pinto beans – sublime !
Oh dang. That looks delish.
Damn straight… fine vittles right there.
Ham & beans and cornbread: best eatin’ anywhere.
In our neck of the woods up on Brindlee Mountain, it was hog jowl, not ham, on New Year’s Day. My family ran a country meats processing operation with a retail outlet. We didn’t carry hog jowl most of the year, but we’d lay down 20 or 30 jowls in salt at the start of December so they’d be ready for New Year’s.
$HOUSEMATE (from TX) has to have black-eyed peas every New Year’s Day, claiming they are good luck. I find them to be less than olfactory pleasing and it bemuses him to hear my claim that he eats them first thing every year for the same reason someone might eat a live toad in the morning – after that, everything just HAS to be better.
Hrm, wonder if I have any pickled herring about.
All- Thanks for the responses, UChuck, can’t get hog jowl locally, but we did that at home for years, too!
Posted from my iPhone.
Personally believe that purple-hull peas are more flavorful than black-eyed peas.
Happy new year.
Among my family it’s a sort of Southern Passover. While no one in living memory has had to live on beans and greens and cornbread, there are legends of hard times passed down from generation to generation.
I would OD on ham if allowed to. Ham sandwiches, ham and cheese omelets, split pea soup, yahoo. We wimp out and get our good luck peas in a can and yes, they can be a bit bland. So, my wife sautés some chopped yellow onions in a pan, then dumps in the peas. My addition is to add a ladle of hot Velveeta with Rotel in the middle of my bowl. Greens and cornbread on the side and a cold beer. Don’t know how lucky we’ll be, but the eats are great!
And it was scrumptious!
Tradition, and good eating. What more can you want?
Dad has Pennsylvania Dutch roots so our New Year’s good luck meal is:
Pork Roast.
Sauerkraut.
Mashed Potatoes.
My late mother started making this on New Year’s Day after she wintering in Florida late in life.
Some years, even here in the frozen north, we make it–because mom did. Had hoppin’ John, and ham but not the greens, or cornbread this year.
Hey Old NFO;
We had the same kind of Southern staple, I used “glory foods” black eye peas and Greens. Glory Foods are a “black owned” company I believe and they season the food accordingly and it is dang good. We had roast this year, the Honey Baked Ham we got tasted vile so I had to make a quick trip to the grocery store and for some reason Ham didn’t sound appealing. I also use the “Jiffy” cornbread mix, but I dump a can of cream corn into the mix and it really works. 🙂
Yes! Mighty good fixin’s. And if there’s some buttered cornbread left over, pour a little molasses on it and you have dessert. Can’t go wrong.
Interesting history!
Ham hock with black eye peas and sautéed onions slow cooked for eight hours ending up where they almost stick to the side of the pan. My grandpa who was born in the 1870’s loved having them cooked that way with cornbread dipped in buttermilk. Having that along with fresh fried chicken that we, as little kids, would run down and catch in his chicken pen so gran could chop their heads off, pluck em, with our help and fry up kind of crisp was good eating.