Hoppin' John

{{Infobox food

| name = Hoppin' John

| image = Hoppin-john-bowl.JPG

| caption =

| alternate_name = Carolina peas and rice

| country = Southern United States

| region = South Carolina

| creator =

| course = Meal

| served =

| main_ingredient = Black-eyed peas and rice, chopped onion, sliced bacon

| variations = substitute ham hock, fatback, or country sausage for the conventional bacon, or smoked turkey parts as a pork alternative.

| calories =

| other =

}}

Hoppin' John, also known as Carolina peas and rice, is a rice and beans dish of legendary origins associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States. Similar dishes are found in regions with a significant African-origin demographic like Louisiana red beans and rice. The Carolina version is known for the addition of bacon and other kinds of pork.{{Cite web| title = The Historic Problem With Hoppin' John| work = Serious Eats| access-date = 2024-11-21| url = https://www.seriouseats.com/southern-hoppin-john-new-years-tradition}}

The starchy long-grain Carolina rice that is used in this meal must be washed well and cooked in bacon fat with onions until the grains are translucent before it is simmered with the parboiled black-eyed peas or Sea Island red peas and some chopped ham, ham hock or pork sausage. To finish the one-pot meal, the rice, having absorbed all the cooking liquid, is left to steam using the paper towel method for around 10 minutes and it is fluffed before serving.[http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/HoppinJohn.htm Hoppin John] What's cooking America.Another name for it is Stew Peas Some recipes use ham hock, fatback, country sausage, or smoked turkey parts instead of bacon. A few use green peppers or vinegar and spices. Smaller than black-eyed peas, field peas are used in the South Carolina Lowcountry and coastal Georgia. Black-eyed peas are the norm elsewhere.

In the southern United States, eating Hoppin' John with collard greens on New Year's Day is thought to bring a prosperous year filled with luck."On New Year's Day, it gets the full Southern treatment, which usually means Hoppin' John – a traditional Soul Food fixin' consisting of F peas cooked with ham hocks and spices, served over rice. In the South, eating field-peas on New Year's is thought to bring prosperity" [http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081231/FOOD/312319991/-1/food Celebrate New Year's with Field- peas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618092257/http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081231/FOOD/312319991/-1/food |date=18 June 2009 }} by Rachel Ellner 31 December 2008 Nashua Telegraph{{cite book|last=Chesman|first=Andrea|title=366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains|year=1998|publisher=Plume|location=New York|isbn=978-0-452-27654-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k5psVbxGQkIC&q=Hoppin%27+John&pg=PA51|page=51}} The peas are symbolic of pennies or coins, and a coin is sometimes added to the pot or left under the dinner bowls."'Eat poor on New Year's and eat fat the rest of the year,' echoed the refrain...A shiny dime is often thrown into the Hoppin' John cooking pot and the person getting the dime in their bowl is due an extra portion of good luck." [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A718923 Field Peas: New Year's good-luck foods] by Mick Vann 26 December 2008 Food section Austin Chronicle Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, chard, kale, cabbage and similar leafy green vegetables served along with this dish are supposed to further add to the wealth, since they are the color of American currency."Collard greens (or kale, chard, mustard, or turnip greens) symbolize money in the South" [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A718923 Beyond Field - Peas: New Year's good-luck foods] by Mick Vann 26 December 2008 Food section Austin Chronicle

Another traditional food, cornbread, can also be served to represent wealth, being the color of gold. On the day after New Year's Day, leftover "Hoppin' John" is called "Skippin' Jenny" and further demonstrates one's frugality, bringing a hope for an even better chance of prosperity in the New Year."On the day after New Year's Day, leftover "Hoppin' John" becomes "Skippin' Jenny" and eating it demonstrates powerful frugality, bringing one even better chances of prosperity." [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A718923 Beyond Black-Eyed Peas: New Year's good-luck foods] by Mick Vann 26 December 2008 Food section Austin Chronicle

Etymology

= Early print references =

The Oxford English Dictionary's first reference to the dish is from Frederick Law Olmsted's 19th century travelogue, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (1861).{{cite book |last=Olmsted |first=Frederick Law |author-link=Frederick Law Olmsted |title=A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=koMIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA506 |access-date=3 January 2013 |year=1861 |publisher=Mason Brothers |location=New York |lccn=19012177 |page=506 |isbn=9780598861917 |quote=The greatest luxury with which they are acquainted is a stew of bacon and peas, with red pepper, which they call 'Hopping John'.}} A recipe for "Hopping John" in The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge,{{cite book |last=Sarah |first=Rutledge |title=The Carolina Housewife |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHsO_WjgEyMC&pg=PA83 |access-date=3 January 2013 |year=1979 |orig-year=Reprint of 1847 edition |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |location=Columbia |isbn=0872493830 |page=83 |chapter=Hopping John}} which was published in 1847, is also cited as the earliest reference. An even earlier source is Recollections of a Southern Matron, which mentions "Hopping John", defined, in a note, as "bacon and rice", as early as 1838.{{cite book |last=Gilman |first=Caroline Howard |title=Recollections of a Southern Matron |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQQZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA124 |access-date=3 January 2013 |year=1838 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |location=New York |lccn=06044035 |page=124|isbn=9781404781450 }}{{cite book |last=Thornton |first=Richard H |title=An American Glossary |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yY0VAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA449 |access-date=3 January 2013 |volume=1 |year=1912 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott company |location=Philadelphia |lccn=30025356 |chapter=Hopping John |page=449}}

= Lexical source =

The origins of the name are uncertain. One possibility is that the name is a corruption of the Haitian Creole term for black-eyed peas: pwa pijon ({{IPA|ht|pwapiˈʒɔ̃|pron}}), literally meaning "pigeon peas" in English, but referring not to the variety known as pigeon peas in English but rather what are called black-eyed peas in English. The Haitian Creole term pwa pijon is a cognate of the French term pois pigeon.

History

File:Hoppin' John peas&rice.JPG

Hoppin' John originated from the Gullah people and was originally a Lowcountry one-pot dish before spreading to the entire population of the South. Hoppin' John may have evolved from rice and bean mixtures that were the subsistence of enslaved West Africans en route to the Americas.{{cite book |last=Opie |first=Frederick Douglass |title=Hog & Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UMIlaqxv01sC&pg=PT96 |access-date=3 January 2013 |year=2008 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780231517973 |pages=96–97}} Hoppin' John has been further traced to similar foods in West Africa,{{cite book |last=Twitty |first=Michael W. |author-link= Michael W. Twitty |editor1-last=Katz-Hyman |editor1-first=Martha B. |editor2-last=Rice |editor2-first=Kym S. |title=World of a slave |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iU8GyhJ1veEC&pg=PA280 |access-date=3 January 2013 |year=2011 |publisher=Greenwood |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=9780313349447 |chapter=Hoppin' John |pages=280–281}} in particular the Senegalese dish thiebou niebe.{{cite book |last=Twitty |first=Michael W. |editor1-last=Wilk |editor1-first=Richard |editor2-last=Barbosa |editor2-first=Livia |title=Rice and Beans: A Unique Dish in a Hundred Places |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YmUjqQN3HkC&pg=PA30 |access-date=3 January 2013 |year=2012 |publisher=Berg |location=London |isbn=9781847889041 |chapter=The Transnational Dish of the Motherland: The African Roots of Rice and Beans |page=30}}

One tradition common in the United States is that each person at the meal should leave three peas on their plate to ensure that the New Year will be filled with luck, fortune and romance.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}} Another tradition holds that counting the number of peas in a serving predicts the amount of luck, or wealth, that the diner will have in the coming year.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}} On Sapelo Island in the community of Hog Hammock, Geechee red peas are used instead of black-eyed peas. Sea Island red peas are similar.The pea that could; Geechee red peas from Sapelo Island offer new hope for a community by John T. Edge January 2014 Southern Living page 62

American chef Sean Brock claims that traditional Hoppin' John was made with Carolina Gold rice, once thought to be extinct, and Sea Island red peas. He has worked with farmers to re-introduce this variety of rice. As of 2017, several rice growers offer Carolina Gold rice.Charlie Rose Interview, Episode 129, Season 20

Variants

Other bean and rice dishes are seen in Southern Louisiana and in the Caribbean, and are often associated with African culinary influence in the Americas. The Louisiana Creole version is called congri, and other regional variants include the Guyanese dish "cook-up rice", which uses black-eyed peas and coconut milk; "Hoppin' Juan," which substitutes Cuban black beans for black-eyed peas; the Peruvian tacu-tacu; and the Brazilian dish baião de dois, which often uses black-eyed peas.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}