Don’t forget the black-eyed peas….
I doubt there is anything really scientific to the New Year’s tradition of eating black-eyed peas for prosperity.
But I can tell you they will be served in lots of places in Warren and Bradley County on New Year’s Day.
Confirming they will be on the menu at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion in a given.
Today, even Little Rock’s ultra-fancy hotel, The Capitol Hotel, will be serving up black-eyed peas of some sort. The same holiday fare item can be found at James At The Mill in Johnson, Bryce’s Cafeteria in Texarkana and other fine eateries all over Arkansas.
Molly’s Diner in Warren, no doubt, if they open that day, will be serving up black-eyed peas.
Black-eyed peas were always on the plate lunches served at Grady Hugh’s Café, The Hill Top Café, Dave’s Café, Wayne’s Confectionary and even at The Corral, on a New Year’s Day.
I can always remember smelling the black-eyed peas a simmering on an old wood cook stove on New Year’s Eve at my grandmother’s house out near the old North Steel Bridge. They lived in the last house on the left (headed north) before you got to the old steel bridge (also long gone.).
But, let’s get back to the black-eyed peas.
Everybody cooked them and ate them on New Year’s Day.
It was a sign of prosperity.
Hard times and uncertain economic times are a lynch-pin on why this traditional sticks with us Southerners.
The tradition dates back to the Civil War when marauding Union forces often left field corn and such row crops as black-eyed or field-peas alone when foraging on Southern soil.
The Union soldiers, suspecting such staples were intended for livestock only. They were wrong, but still won the war.
The black-eyed pea or black-eyed bean, a legume, is a subspecies of the cowpea, grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. The common commercial one is called the California Black eye; it is pale-colored with a prominent black spot in the shape of an eye.
Several food historians will tell us the tradition of black-eyed peas being a special food came across the Atlantic with slaves and that West Africans also believed that the eye in the black-eyed pea helped ward off the “evil eye.”
My grandmother didn’t believe in people being able to put the “evil eye” on anyone. But she did stick her biggest butcher knife in the ground with the cutting edge facing every tornado looking cloud back then.
We might laugh at that superstition, but never was that farmstead damaged by those Bradley County tornadoes.
Another belief of Jewish people that the black-eyed pea is a symbol and the eating of symbols were indeed good luck. This can be found in their ancient writings. Old King James didn’t include it in his translation so as kids we didn’t read about it there.
Eating black-eyed peas for New Year’s has long been an African-American and Southern tradition. It signifies luck or prosperity, one of several New Year’s foods that are associated with good fortune.
In the Southern United States, the black-eyed peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce or a peppery-flavored vinegar concoction.
You can’t be from Bradley County if you have to ask someone the difference in ham bones, a little bit of fat back or a juicy how jowl.
There is no sweeter or tastier meat, than that of a long stewed hog jowl which falls off the bone in a vat of black-eyed peas on a cold, cloudy New Year’s Day in Arkansas.
Seasonings?
Why they are as varied as the recipes for black-eyed peas.
Some like a little salt and pepper. Others like a little pepper sauce.
Better yet, dab on a little of that commercial Louisiana hot sauce in the narrow necked red-bottle.
Now what else to serve to afford prosperity in your home like a dish of black-eyed peas?
In America today, there are regional variations, to this very basic Southern fare.
Just like in barbeque the black-eye peas served on New Year’s Day is a grudge match between Texas and North Carolina cuisines. Both call their regional dish “Hopping Jack” a concoction of rice, black-eyed peas and pork.
Another slightly different take on the black-eyed peas from Texas is called, what else, “Texas caviar.” This is made of black-eyed peas marinated in Italian salad dressing and chopped garlic, and served cold.
The traditional black-eyed pea meal also includes collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.
Cornbread also often accompanies this meal; say the cook book writers, foodies and other culinary experts.
Sure, I tell you, cornbread must accompany this dish.
Store bought bread just won’t do.
Happy New Year everybody.
Now eat them black-eyed peas.
And let us all hope for a prosperous year ahead of us as we remember the Pastimes of our youth.
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