# Who else is having black-eyed peas on New Year's Day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975 "2011-12-31T20:30:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/1 "2011-12-31T20:30:45Z")
Does eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day bring good fortune in the coming year? WHO CARES? They’re just good eatin’! But since I only make them once or twice a year, I may as well make them on January the 1st. Tomorrow I’ll make ham hocks and black-eyed peas (Recipe: Ham hocks and black-eyed peas. And water. And a bay leaf. And some cayenne pepper) and ham hock and collard greens. SO will make cornbread (with sugar – she likes it that way) in the [cast-iron cornstick pan](http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L27C3-Logic-Cornstick-Pan/dp/B00008GKDT/ref=pd_sim_sbs_k_2) she bought me for Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/2 "2011-12-31T20:34:37Z")
Hadn’t thought about it. I think but am not sure I have some in my pantry – probably will go ahead and cook them Sunday afternoon. I think I have some breakfast sausage, and, if not, bacon fat, so that’s probably how I’ll eat them. Good idea! Forgot about that old tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/3 "2011-12-31T20:43:02Z")
I bought a ham for Christmas specifically so that I’d have half plus the bone for New Year dinner: ham, black eyed peas, rice, greens, and (unsweetened) cornbread. My favorite holiday food tradition! ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/4 "2011-12-31T20:49:39Z")
Our traditional New Year’s meal is grilled pork chops, black-eyed peas cooked with bacon, and buttermilk cornbread (no sugar). I have that same cast-iron cornstick pan, \*\*Johnny \*\*- maybe I’ll use that instead of the skillet. We’ll also have baked sweet potatoes, and my husband will cook himself some collard greens for the occasion, and I will try not to smell them. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/5 "2011-12-31T20:51:13Z")
I will, in the form of Hoppin’ John, though I was rather daunted to hear some Southern traditionalist cooks in the NYT the other day sneering at Hoppin’ John with black eyed peas as a bastardized version of the “true” dish, which they were suggesting used some other form of pea (red?) and different ingredients. Sorry, I can only go by what my mother cooked growing up. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/6 "2011-12-31T20:52:56Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > I bought a ham for Christmas specifically so that I’d have half plus the bone for New Year dinner: ham, black eyed peas, rice, greens, and (unsweetened) cornbread. My favorite holiday food tradition! This is exactly what I have. Peas for luck, greens for money, ham for… well cause it’s good. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/7 "2011-12-31T20:59:49Z")
Yep, yep! I bought some greens to go with, even though I’m the only one who’ll eat the greens. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/8 "2011-12-31T21:10:49Z")
Yep, got them soaking right now. I always put onions and sometimes celery in my dried bean dishes. ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/9 "2011-12-31T21:14:05Z")
New Years Day tradition!!! Have the beans soaking now. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/10 "2011-12-31T21:16:28Z")
I’ll soak the beans overnight and put them on to cook first thing in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/11 "2011-12-31T21:17:53Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > O > We’ll also have baked sweet potatoes… Oh, yeah: forgot that I’m baking some sweet potatoes, too. > [@WhyNot](#): > > Yep, yep! I bought some greens to go with, even though I’m the only one who’ll eat the greens. Yep, the mustard greens are mine (mine, mine, mine, mine! Except that the German shepherd will beg me for a few bites, and I’ll indulge him.) I’ll cook some cabbage for the rest of the philistines around here. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/12 "2011-12-31T21:47:00Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I will, in the form of Hoppin’ John, though I was rather daunted to hear some Southern traditionalist cooks in the NYT the other day sneering at Hoppin’ John with black eyed peas as a bastardized version of the “true” dish, which they were suggesting used some other form of pea (red?) and different ingredients. Sorry, I can only go by what my mother cooked growing up. Well that’s just silly. Isn’t the definition of a tradition doing any damn fool thing time after time for no justifiable reason other than because it is what/how the thing has always been done? My granny always served black-eyed peas and collard greens. So has everybody else’s granny that I know. And so it’s tradition. So what if different ingredients were used once upon a time. That was then, and this is now. I, for one, tend to be a tad leery of folks who throw around adjectives like ‘true’ or ‘pure’ and such. I sometimes can’t help but wonder if they own a pair of jackboots. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/13 "2011-12-31T21:51:29Z")
Somehow, I’ve missed this tradition. Never heard of it. Where’s it come from, and is it regional? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/14 "2011-12-31T21:59:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Somehow, I’ve missed this tradition. Never heard of it. Where’s it come from, and is it regional? > **[Black-eyed pea | Lucky New Year food](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_pea#Lucky_New_Year_food)** > > In the Southern United States, eating black-eyed peas or Hoppin' John (a traditional soul food) on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity in the new year. The peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, fatback, ham bones, or hog jowls) and diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavored vinegar. The traditional meal also includes cabbage, collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize p Sev... > [@](#): > > Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is thought to bring prosperity. > > The “good luck” traditions of eating black-eyed peas at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~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).[4] > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/15 "2011-12-31T22:03:40Z")
Huh. I had no idea it was a Jewish thing. I know it as a Southern (unspecified) thing. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/16 "2011-12-31T22:06:29Z")
Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/17 "2011-12-31T22:07:52Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Black-eyed pea - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_pea#Lucky_New_Year_food) Yep, and we non-Jews added pork! Yum! (Actually, the tradition I’ve always heard is that the peas and the greens both symbolize money. Rice and pork are also considered lucky foods, like rice thrown at newlyweds. And I guess that a fat hog is an obvious symbol of prosperity.) I honestly thought that most of the superstitions were African, though, and had never heard of a Jewish connection either. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/18 "2011-12-31T22:10:44Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Same here. Well then…la’chaim, y’all! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/19 "2011-12-31T22:25:29Z")
> [@Barking\_Dog](#): > > Well that’s just silly. Isn’t the definition of a tradition doing any damn fool thing time after time for no justifiable reason other than because it is what/how the thing has always been done? My granny always served black-eyed peas and collard greens. So has everybody else’s granny that I know. And so it’s tradition. So what if different ingredients were used once upon a time. That was then, and this is now. > > I, for one, tend to be a tad leery of folks who throw around adjectives like ‘true’ or ‘pure’ and such. I sometimes can’t help but wonder if they own a pair of jackboots. I tend to agree, and I’ve always liked the black eyed peas version. Having said that, if you could get past the annoyance at the countrier-than-thou attitude, the below does not sound half-bad either (from said article): > [@](#): > > One of the most influential characters in the Southern revival is Glenn Roberts, the owner of Anson Mills in Columbia, S.C., a grower of heirloom grains across the region, and a walking Wikipedia on the agricultural history of the South. The modern hoppin’ John recipe of converted rice and black-eyed peas, he says, is a flavorless facsimile of the real thing. With sadness, he reported: “People taste it and say, ‘Really? That’s the dish that has survived for centuries and represents an entire cuisine?’ ” > > In his telling, after the American Revolution, hundreds of varieties of rice flourished in plantations and paddies along the coast of North Carolina and Georgia. The flavor of Carolina rice made it world famous; the finest grains were hand-pounded, barrel-aged and scented with bay leaves. From African slaves, white farmers learned to rotate crops of peas with rice, to replenish the soil; they learned that the two foods, eaten together, could sustain life over many months of winter or hardship. > > At harvest, peas — usually flavorful red or cream-colored varieties — were eaten green and fresh, in a dish called “reezy peezy” (a name that shows the influence of the 17th-century Italian engineers who advised local rice planters: “risi e bisi” is a spring specialty in the Veneto). In winter, the dried peas (what Northerners call beans) were the standard for hoppin’ John. > > Later, when mechanized farming took hold, black-eyed peas (which Mr. Roberts described as “burpy” and starchy) become dominant because they were easy to grow, with high yields. And machine-milled rice, sprayed with vitamins and pesticides, became the standard. “Machining takes the flavor nuances out,” Mr. Roberts said. > > _These days, in high-end Southern restaurants, the hoppin’ John is most likely to be made with creamy-textured red peas and heirloom rice, flavored with artisanal bacon fat and fresh herbs grown by the chef — past and present, coming together in delicious new ways._ (emphasis supplied). ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975/20 "2011-12-31T22:37:38Z")
Interesting. I too am in the circle that has never heard of this. But then I don’t think I’ve had black eyed peas since I was a young child. But in general I’m not aware of any New Year day traditions beyond wake up late and sit around until I have to go to work the next day. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-having-black-eyed-peas-on-new-years-day/607975.md?page=2)