Hoppin' John / Skippin' Jenny

[snopes]

Comment: Several blogs and websites (including Wikipedia and Southern
Living) claim that leftover Hoppin' John (the New Year's black-eyed pea
and rice dish eaten in the Southern United States) is called "Skippin'
Jenny." My "raised Southern" friends claim that they have never heard of
this name and tradition. My own research so far finds it referenced first
in 2008 online, but many of the references subsequent to this seem to
quote Wikipedia...

[Beejtronic]

Nothing to do with the legend, but I hadn't heard of "Hoppin' John" until about 3 minutes ago, when I was reading about Costa Rican food. It's called gallo pinto there. Weird how these things happen.

[erwins]

We had hoppin' John every New Year's day, but I've never heard of skippin' Jenny. Just another Southern data point.

[snopes]

I won't believe either name until I see a long-form birth certificate.

[Cervus]

Originally Posted by Beejtronic

Nothing to do with the legend, but I hadn't heard of "Hoppin' John" until about 3 minutes ago, when I was reading about Costa Rican food. It's called gallo pinto there. Weird how these things happen.

It's not actually the same dish. But as the basic dish is beans and rice, you'll find hundreds of variations of it worldwide.

[urbanlegendfanatic]

Here's what I came up with off a Creole website;

The other way is making a Creole dish of black eyed peas, spices, hot peppers, and rice – Hoppin’ John. Traditionally, this was a mostly vegetarian dish with a ham bone or piece of “streakin’ meat” thrown in for seasoning. Today, I see all sorts of bastardized Hoppin’ John recipes with huge amounts of ham or bacon, a minimal amount of black eyed peas sitting dryly atop a pile of rice, and – heaven help us – even cheese. We’re taking this recipe back to its roots.

BTW, if you have any Hoppin’ John left over, it’s called Skippin’ Jenny, and it’s supposed to be even luckier than Hoppin’ John.