Brooklyn-Style Hoppin’ John

Put the ham hocks in a big soup kettle and cover with water. Add onions, garlic, and pepper. Don't add salt at this point, cause the hocks are salty already. Simmer until hocks fall off the bone, 2-4 hours, depending on the hocks. Remove hocks, discard skin and bones, shred meat and return to pan with 1-2 pounds of blackeyed peas. Now taste for salt and add as appropriate. Cook till peas are cooked, half hour or so. Taste for seasoning, and serve over hot white rice.

In north Florida, you have to use a hog jowl in the black eyed peas if you want good luck. Ham hocks mean you don't know what you are doing...

Content to be ignorant in this instance! ;)

That is true in central Florida, too. And be sure to serve some collards or other greens with it.

I did not use the seasoning meat. I did use the ham hock. The ham hock was so delicious that you have to keep yourself from eating it all. I prepared it slightly differently in that I seared the ham hock, and then cooked everything down together at low heat. The beans were delectable and not overcooked. My southern man was very impressed. Paid with Mark Bittman's cornbread for a show stopper.

Greens portend wealth. And if you had to toss because it smelled like a dead pig?, and not like beautiful cooked pork? ya done sumpin wrong...jus saying

Cooked leftover holiday chopped ham from freezer, browned it to caramelization with vegetables and seasonings, added one bag of cooked peas with liquid, Maybe a little less fat and salt this way, still pretty flavorful!!!

This smelled like dead pig. We tossed it.

I didn't sear the ham hocks and used 12 ounces of 'biscuit ham.' I only added 2 cups of the water; it didn't need more. I also had fresh thyme, tied what I had with a string to make it easier to retrieve and it was all delicious. I think a teaspoon of dried thyme would work just as well.

I wish I had seen Dr. J's tips below before cooking, and will follow them in the future. The recipe as written is opaque about some key steps, like how much water to use to boil the hocks, and when (or even if!) to remove them and shred the meat. I ended up not adding more water in step 4 because what I started with seemed like plenty after adding the other ingredients; the pot was almost full to the top. The result was delicious but way soupier than I'm used to for Hoppin John.

We serve this every New Year's Day at an annual drop-in. We follow the recipe as instructed but it's important to note that ham hock saltiness can vary depending on where you source your hocks. We serve this with rice, cornbread, and spicy greens/tomatoes. It freezes pretty well.

Really tasty. Used some thick hickory smoked bacon bits, and added some random aromatic herbs, made a paste to slathered a bone-in rump roast (slow cooked separately) then added that, and it was heavenly. Feeling lucky already!

I love to add crispy bacon bits at the end to kick it up a bit. I cook the veg in the bacon fat.
One of my most favorite dishes, new year's or no.

Recipe above did not fully describe how to handle the ham hocks. After cooking the hocks in water for 45 mins I added the veggies and simmered for a bit longer before removing the meat, deboning and removing the skin, and then shredded the pork and adding back into the pot. Then add the beans and cook for 30 more minutes or so. Recipe took me about 3 hours total.

I've been cooking black eyed peas on New Year's Day for most of my life (and at this point in time, we're not going to be discussing how long that has been). In all that time I've never made what is, essence, a stock out of the smoked ham hocks, but I did this year, following Dr. J's instructions. These were the best black eyed peas I've ever cooked. Thank you, Dr. J!