The 1958 cookbook by the National Council of Negro Women, the “Historical Cookbook of the American Negro,” opens with a photograph of Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln, opposite recipes for the first of January: “Emancipation Proclamation Breakfast Cake” and “Western Beef Steak” from Denver. “The Emancipation Proclamation New Years’ Day, 1863, is celebrated in all parts of the United States. The Council recipes assembled from the six geographical regions have been taken from the oldest files of Negro families,” the book explains below the recipes.
The subsequent recipe, from Council Regions III and IV is for “Southern Hopping John.” No further explanations are needed for what this recipe means and where it is from. The caption instead points out the similarity to another recipe in the book, for Haitian “Plate National,” a similar dish of rice and beans enjoyed in Haiti, where Independence Day is January 1st. The book also includes a rice and beans recipe from Ghana. Together, the recipes imply a powerful message about food and heritage.
Oral histories in the St. Mary’s County Slackwater Archive describe New Year’s traditions in Southern Maryland throughout the 20th century through today.
Residents of the Black farming communities there described New Years as a kind of end to a season of celebration and relaxation. Philip H. Scriber, Sr. fondly recalled that “from Christmas to New Years no one did any work. They spent the whole holiday socializing. They made homemade cakes and root beer. In those days you didn’t have the money, but you had the love.”
In 1987 Esther Smith described the custom of men in St. Mary’s county trying to be the first “to cross” into others’ households for good luck, “going to people’s houses first thing in the morning on New Year’s Day.” Smith also described the custom of eating black-eyed-peas and hogs’ heads for New Years.
In 2017, South Carolina-born Professor Jefferey Coleman explained that “collard greens meant, you know, money and prosperity and the black-eyed peas meant change.”
In “Fighting Old Nep: The Foodways of Enslaved Afro-Marylanders 1634-1864,” Michael Twitty wrote of his childhood memories of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, as well as “putting them in everyone’s wallet or pocketbook so that they would have money for the entire year.” Twitty traced black-eyed peas’ presence in Maryland to the 1750s, when they were used as a field crop.
House and garden in St. Mary’s County, Jack Delano, 1940, loc.gov
Virginia native Edna Lewis described their use in “The Taste of Country Cooking”:
“They were not planted in the garden but were planted by farmers as a green manure crop. Before the sowing of wheat, when in full foliage, they were chopped into the soil. A week before, everyone was welcome to gather the green pods before the crop was chopped under” in the late summer and fall. Lewis mentioned the beans’ African origin, noting that the legume was “always an exponent of agriculture” for its nitrogen and soil-building qualities.
Despite the long-standing presence of black-eyed peas in Maryland and Virginia, my recipes for Hoppin’ John almost all come by way of South Carolina. A 1904 recipe in a “Cookbook of Maryland and Virginia Recipes” is attributed to the “Rose family” of Charleston. Reverend Hunter-Wyatt Brown, Jr. (apparently not the son of Rev. Hunter-Wyatt Brown???), who was raised in Baltimore, contributed a recipe to the 1954 “Personal Recipes compiled by the Esther Circle St. Timothy’s Church” of Catonsville. Wyatt-Brown Jr. was born in North Carolina but entitled his recipe “Hoppin’ John (Old South Carolina).”
The recipe I used as my guide was contributed by Louise Kelly to the 1975 “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County.”
Kelly was born in 1914 in Greenville South Carolina, where her parents Ever Kilgore and Wade Austin were tenant farmers. Kelly’s mother Ever died when Louise was an infant, in 1915. I am not sure when Louise moved to Maryland but she married St. Mary’s County native Vincent Swales in 1932. The Swales name implies a relation to Theresa Young, whose maiden name was Swales. Louise Kelly worked along with Young and others to found “Citizens for Progress,” the group that complied “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County” to fund-raise for their social programs. Kelly’s 1978 obituary states that she was president of C.F.P. for three years in addition to being involved with the N.A.A.C.P. in St. Mary’s County.
Kelly contributed five recipes to “300 Years” including a recipe for brandied fruit, sweet potato pudding, and stuffed ham.
I had a ham hock, which I substituted for the salt pork called for in Kelly’s recipe. As a result of the switch, I omitted the sugar. I also added a minced jalapeno with the onion. (I also overcooked my rice because I was watching the X-Files. Oops.)
I admit I was tempted to further tamper with Kelly’s simple recipe by adding stock or Sazon Goya or other seasonings, but I resisted. When the beans had reached the perfect tenderness and I took a taste, I felt chastened. There was no need to mess with such perfect simplicity. This is a lesson I ought to take into the new year. Whether change or prosperity is forthcoming remain to be seen, for now.
Recipe:
- .5 Lb salt pork
- 2 Cups water
- 1 Lb black-eyed peas
- 1 Cup rice
- 1 small onion, chopped, optional
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)
Put the salt pork in the water and let it simmer until it is tender. Wash and pick over the peas. You can soak them overnight if you wish. Add the peas to the meat, and cook until tender, but don’t let them go dry. Set aside. Cook rice as usual, but cook so it is dry. Slowly stir the rice into the peas. Add the onion if you want, salt, pepper, and sugar if you like. Simmer to gravy-like thickness.
Recipe from “300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County Maryland,” Citizens for Progress, 1975
