I hope ya'll had your black eyed peas!

[Gulf]

I did not even fire the oven. My wife took care of the the traditional new years meal in the home kitchen. Black eyed peas, hog jowls. collard greens, and cornbread .

[UtahBeehiver]

Had to Google hog jowls to see what this was and a whole slew of recipes and dishes came up (a bacon type cut from the hog cheek). So in 2016 I already learned something new for the New Years.

[Gulf]

That's right Russell.

Hog jowls are cured and smoked like bacon or just packed away as salt pork. The meal I described above is the most important meal of the year for most southerners. Some substitute ham for the pork and cabbage for the greens but, the black eyed peas are a must. Many say that the tradition goes back to the civil war. It is said tjhat when General Sherman made his infamous march to the sea (winter of 1864), he left a wide strip of utter desolation. No food source, which was thought able to be able support confederate soldiers, was left behind. All Livestock was procured to support the Union Army. Food crops were burned in the fields. Food silos were raided or torched.

The yankees considered black eyed peas and greens (mustard, collards, and turnip) as animal feed. Dried whole corn, also. They did not waste there time with those. And, "polk salad" grew wild. They took all of the cured meats, hams and bacon, with them. (Cured meats would last for months without refrigeration.) That only left the mostly fatty of the salt porks. Hog jowls was at the top of that list.

Another tradition from Southern African Americans relates to the date of the Emancipation Proclimation (January 1st, 1863). It is said that black eyed peas, greens, and salt pork is all that hey had to celebrate that day.

Either way (same time period), it is a Southern tradition. The tradition that is handed down says that pork is for good luck, blackeyed peas are for pennies, greens are for dollars, and corn bread is for gold.

So, "hoping that ya'll had your black eyed peas, hog jowls. collard greens and corn bread" is a Southerner's way of wishing ya'll Good luck and Prosperity for the new year .

[wotavidone]

Just looked it up. Looks rather good. Hog jowls look pretty good. My understanding is that its very fatty, but I'm sure that would be like the fat in eisbein. Cured pork fat is a health food, IMO.

P.S. there is only one black-eyed pea that I want, but I'm pretty sure that Fergie is completely unaware of my miserable existence.