Janie's recipe might even make Hopping John palatable. I have had too many servings without sufficient spices (and without the lightening effect of tomatoes), and found the dish blah. There seem to be as many recipes as cooks who have prepared it- main ingredients ham, black-eyed peas.

According to a Texas newspaper article, the 'good luck' idea was a PR promotion, starting in the 1940s, to increase business for a cannery in Athens. (according to C. F. Eckhardt, a Texas writer).
www,taylordailypress.net, Dec. 31, 2010, "Black-eyed Peas: Hoax or Tradition?", by Tricia Rosetty.

A CSIRO bulletin suggests that this pea was first domesticated in West Africa and was used as part of the slave cuisine in the Caribbean and U. S., from about mid-17th C.