Ancient New Year's Customs To America

 Food and the New year are always entwined.  There are so many customs and legends. Many of our Black American food customs have originated from them and they are a delicious way to ring in a new year.

Kayla Stewart an award winning food writer and part of the Bittman Project, an online food journal write this informative piece in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Every New Year's Black Americans have some combination of green veggies and cow peas, namely collards and Hopping John. Why these foods?The choice of greens, usually cooked with pork for flavor symbolize paper moneys. collards do resemble folded dollars. The peas promise good luck,health and abundance according to Adrian Miller a food scholar and author. Yet African countries never had any food related New Year's customs. This is a messy marriage of using european based ingredients such as collards, a derivation of colewort or a non heading cabbage and African cooking methods, namely a long, low and slow simmer. West Africans did cook black eyed peas but these were for deities who had a fondness for the legume. Geography also played a strong part in the way the dishes are prepared. Lousiana has a surprisingly strong German influence so cabbage instead of collards. Black and Southern traditions became inextricable. The foods were the same. 

There are distinctions though. Amethyst  Ganaway, a Lowcountry chef and writer have noted that people interchange  black eyed peas and rice with Hopping John. . The last is a one pot meal of rice and field peas.It's also lighter , redder and creamier in look and texture than the other.. How people celebrate will factor in, it means sharing good will along with hope  from a marginalized and suppressed sector of society. It,s not just greens and beans either for welcoming another year. Other foods have also been included in the New Year's canon is seafood gumbo. It came from the Carolinas Low Country J.J. Johnson the and owner  chef of New York's Fieldtrip believes his grandmother's philosophy of if you eat good and healthy in the new year, you'll be good and healthy in the new year.Ms. Stewart includes recipes for all these dishes.There is one for collard greens plus cornmeal dumplings which are an easy blend of cornmeal, flour, baking powder and butter. The collards are flavored with green onions and garlic.  There is an easy black eyed pea  recipe made with salt pork or bacon. The gumbo is a bit more elaborate but worth it. You do have to create a gumbo spice mix first. The gumbo is a tasty mix of lobster , crab and scallops.

The traditions are a messy marriage of European and African yet it works. These recipes symbolize hope and happiness for the new year. It speaks to the aspirations in all of us.