Hoppin' John
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hoppin' John is a traditional dish in the cuisine of the Southern United States consisting of crowder peas (black-eyed peas) and rice, often seasoned with a combination of; ham hock or fatback, onions, green peppers, vinegar and spices. In much of the region, eating Hoppin' John on New Year's Day is thought to bring a year filled with luck. Many regional variants exist, including "Hoppin' Juan," which substitutes Cuban black beans for black-eyed peas.
The origins of the name are uncertain, though the dish is believed to have been typical slave food in early colonial times. One possibility is that the name is a bastardization of the French Creole term for black-eyed peas: pois pigeons (pronounced: "pwah pee-JON"). Variations of this dish are seen throughout the American South and the Caribbean.
Another is that a rich Georgia land owner had a slave/waiter with one leg. This caused him to hop around the table. This slave served a meal of rice and black eyed peas the people eating this meal liked it so much they named it after him, they called it hoppin john.
The OED's first reference to the dish is actually from Frederick Law Olmsted's 19th Century travelogue, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States. "The greatest luxury with which they are acquainted is a stew of bacon and peas, with red pepper, which they call ‘Hopping John’." There is also a recipe for Hopping John in The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge, which was published in 1847.
