I love making dishes with food that I have dried and stored in my panty and stocks. One such is Hopping John. This particular recipe comes from the 1847 printing of "The Carolina Housewife or House and Home by a Lady of Charleston". I love the taste of homemade bacon, and recently worked with a friend of mine and we make some bacon over the spring and was time to eat some. Hopping John is most certainly a regional low country dish. It is a traditional to eat Hopping John, and collard greens for New Years to bring wealth. My version of Hopping John is simple with a little extra onion and garlic added. I even shelled my own green peas last year and time to let them go.

"One pound of bacon, one pint of red peas, and one pint of rice. First put on the peas, and when half boiled, add the bacon. When the peas are well boiled, throw in the rice, which must be first washed and graveled. When the rice has been boiling half an hour, take the pot off the fire and put it on the coals to steam, as in boiling rice alone. Put a quart of water on the peas first, and if it boils away too much, ass a little more hot water. Season with salt and pepper and if liked a sprig of mint. In the serving up, put the rice and peas first in the dish, and the bacon on the top."

Modern Update for Hopping John:

Wow.  I think I will stick to my black-eyed peas, instead of red peas. I skipped the mint and added some 2 tablespoons minced garlic and 1 cup of onion and 1 small (about a cups worth) green bell pepper. I love the term washed and graveled. In the old days, you did have to wash and check for pebbles in your beans, peas, and rice, even when I was a kid going to grandma’s house.

The timing is about right, cook the black-eyed peas, which are really like a dried bean, first for a while, and then add the chopped bacon, and simmer a while. When the peas are about done, “tender to tooth”, and then when you have about 3-4 cups of stock left in the pot add the rice, and cover for about 15 minutes.

This is best served with a fresh cornbread, and I don’t want to hear about it if you make Southern style or not. I love thinking of how many dishes we have gotten from somewhere else, such as this, Haitian Creole for black-eyed peas: pois pigeons

Photo of Hoppin-John by Michael Gokey 2010