This is reportedly the first cookbook recipe for Hoppin' John from 1847 and found in The Carolina Housewife by Sarah Rutledge, p.83
Hopping John
One pound of bacon, one pint of red peas, one pint of rice. First put on the peas, and when half boiled, throw in the rice, which must first be washed and gravelled. When the rice has been boiling half an hour, take the pot off the fire and put it in coals to steam, as in boiling rice alone. Put a quart of water on the peas at first, and if it boils away too much, add a little more hot water. Season with salt and pepper, and, if liked, a sprig of green mint. In serving up, put the rice and peas first in the dish, and the bacon on top.
So I am only guessing that the pound of bacon is not sliced, but cut up when serving?
As far as adding "greens" as an accompanying dish as some of the traditions go, I wonder what sort of greens were available on January 1st, in the 19th century?
For those who are wondering...
To Gravel the Rice - After it has been washed pour upon it water enough to cover it. Shake the vessel (a common piggin is best) containing the rice, causing the gravel to settle. Then pour carefully all the water, with a portion only of the rice, into another vessel (the vessels being held in each hand). Pour back the water into the first vessel ; shake it again, and pour the water with another portion of rice, into the second vessel. Repeat this until all the rice has thus been transferred from the first to the second vessel. - the last of the rice being very carefully poured off with the water, the gravel will remain. ibid pp. 93 - 94
It's also interesting that this dish is very similar to cooking from India, and my mother-in-law, being from a British colony full of Indian cooks, is familiar with the tradition of eating either black eyed peas, lentils, or red peas, along with rice, on New Year's morning..., she says the most common version was with black eyed peas... but they didn't call it "Hoppin' John"... here is a very early recipe for such a dish...
Indian Cutcheree. Steep a pint of split peas, and add a large tea-cupful of rice, with an onion, ginger, pepper, mace, and salt; boil till the peas and rice are swelled and tender, but not clammy ; stir them with a fork till the water is wasted. Serve it up in a dish garnished with hard eggs and whole boiled onions. The stirring it with a fork is to prevent the grains being broken. c. 1827
The only difference being for my relatives that yellow curry powder was used to spice the dish instead of those spices listed above.
I wonder if this was a dish that moved from Western India (what is now Pakistan), via Muslim traders, across the northern edge of Africa so would be known in some of those cultures, and when Africans were enslaved and transported to the Americas (and lost Islam) they then added the pork....???
LD
