Hoppin’ John and Jane’s Magic Beans

It’s mid-morning on New Year’s Day and the entire house smells like a pack of flatulent elephants. 

I wake up from a champagne-soaked slumber with a start, worried that one of the dogs secretly snarfed the leftover party sushi off the table and has deposited some unspeakable mess under the bed. Only hours into 2024 and already a new disaster to face!  

But then I remember, and am relieved: It’s just Jane’s magic beans burbling away in the kitchen. I’d plugged in the crockpot at 3:30am before stumbling off to bed and now recognized the sulfurous cloud wafting through the hallway as a harbinger of hope for prosperity and good luck in the new year. 

“Oh my god, what did the dog do?” gagged my spouse, putting a pillow over his head. 

“It’s the Hoppin’ John cooking,” I soothed, reaching around blindly for my glasses. “And I’m about to go add the collards, so it’s gonna get a whole lot worse!”

The tradition of Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day might not offer comfort while it’s cooking, but with a little attention, eventually it simmers down into something delicious and deeply nourishing. Around here its preparation is non-negotiable, no matter how fierce the hangover.

This simple dish is imbued with flavor and meaning, the legumes and leafy greens symbolizing coins and stacks of bills, lore that originated with the West African people forced to come to this sandy patch of coastline known as the Lowcountry. We also know that they also brought the seeds for the ingredients and the knowledge of how to cultivate them, and the first recipe appeared in—or rather, was appropriated by—The Carolina Housewife in 1847.