Traditional Hopping John

Hopping John (as it used to always be spelled—people didn't usually drop the g until the 1960s) is a Lowcountry South Carolina icon. A form of bean pilau, it originated in Africa was brought to the Lowcountry by enslaved workers. A pilau (often spelled and pronounced “perlo” or “purloo”) is a specific way of cooking rice and a relative of Turkey’s pilaf and Spain’s paella. South Carolina’s version of pilau is made by washing and pre-soaking rice and then simmering it in a seasoned broth. When you add beans to a pilau it becomes the dish known as Hopping John.

It's a delightful hearty, rich dish, provided you can find the right ingredients, for every single ingredient in this traditional South Carolina recipe has been altered by our modern industrial food system, and not for the better. Early recipes called not for black-eyed peas but “red peas” or “cow peas.” These were types of field pea that arrived in the Colonial South aboard slave ships from Africa, and at first they were patch grown by enslaved workers on the private plots from which they fed their own families. Black-eyed peas were never called for in 19th century Hopping John recipes, but they began to be used in the 20th century, especially as the recipe migrated outside the South and cooks couldn't get cow peas.

The bacon and rice are different today, too. In the old days bacon was salt cured for weeks and hung for days in a smokehouse. Modern commodity bacon is brine-injected, flash-smoked, and packed for shipping in less than 24 hours. 19th century Charlestonians made their Hopping John with Carolina Gold, a variety prized around the world for its rich and delicate flavor. That variety disappeared from the market by the early 20th century, replaced by hybridized rice from Texas and Louisiana, which could be planted on dry ground and harvested with mechanical equipment and has all the flavor of laundry paste.

Unfortunately, black-eyed peas and commodity long grain rice don't work in traditional Hopping John recipes, which call for cooking all the ingredients in a single pot. Modern rice is designed be simmered in a precise amount of water until all the liquid is absorbed.
Commodity black-eyed peas turn to mush if you cook them too long, but cow peas are firmer in texture and meatier in flavor, and they hold up well to long, slow cooking. So, most 20th century “Hoppin’ John” recipes call for cooking the rice and black-eyed peas separately and combining them at serving time. This keeps the ingredients from disintegrating, but the rice doesn’t absorb any of the flavor of the peas’ bacon-laced pot liquor. So, modern recipes typically call for adding a lot of aromatics and herbs in a futile effort to breathe a little life back into a spiritless combination.

These days, fortunately, producers have started to return the old varieties to the market. Carolina Gold rice and older styles of cow peas are now widely available in specialty retail stores. If you can’t find them near you, you can order them online from Anson Mills or Carolina Plantation Rice . Traditionally cured and smoked bacon is available from Benton’s Country Hams or Edwards Virginia Smokehouse.