This post might not make sense to you if you’re not from the South, but I had a near calamity today. I had a taste for black eye peas, so I got my trusty cast iron pot out and started washing peas. Bud made a pass through and nearly swooned with true love when he saw how lovely I looked washing peas, and the garlic, celery, and onion waiting on the chopping block. There would be unhappiness in our home this evening if no peas and ham were forthcoming. After seasoning and starting the peas, I went to the freezer to find the meaty hambone I’d squirreled back a couple of weeks ago. I think to a Southern Cook, the hambone is more important than the ham itself, a delicacy to be hidden from nosey freezer plunderers at all costs. In fact, I have been known to threaten bodily harm when a home-wrecking guest asked Bud, not me, for the hambone after a meal. I put a stop to that hussy then and there!
At any rate, the precious hambone has to be retrieved at the perfect point of denuding. Too much meat on the bone is wasteful. Too little just leaves the pea soup a bit anemic. I knew I had the most darling hambone hidden away in the freezer awaiting its rendezvous with my peas. I reached in the freezer for my hambone and found………..nothing! Well, actually I found ground beef and pork, chicken parts of numerous vintages, several kinds of sausage, vegetables and fruit a plenty, but no hambone. I panicked. Earlier in the week, I’d asked Bud to get the frozen meat trimmings and scraps to the trash. God forbid? Had he mistaken my foil-wrapped hambone for scraps. Worse yet, had he sneaked it out to another woman? I was almost too shattered to look, but finally found my hambone shoved to the back of the bottom shelf behind a bag of ice. Never has a hambone been so welcome. The peas breathed a sigh of relief when I dropped the bone in.
Our marriage was saved.
2 1/2 cups black eyed peas
8 cups water
1/2 tablespoon salt or more to taste
1/4 tablespoon black pepper
1 medium onion (whole)
1/4 c diced celery if desired
Nice hambone
1/4 teaspoon vinegar (or pepper sauce)
Simmer all ingredients in large cooking pot on stove top burner on medium heat. Use cast-iron pot if you have one.
Cook 40-60 minutes or until peas are tender. Do not allow water to evaporate entirely. If peas are dry they will burn quickly.
Serve with hot cornbread
Nutsrok 
http://shehab740.wordpress.com
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I think an even more darling hambone wrote this post! 🤣
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Ah ha ha ha!
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👩❤️👩
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I could make the cornbread.
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Then we’ll have dinner!
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I cook mine the same way except for the whole onion, what’s up with that? Cornbread is a given and black eyes peas would never taste the same.
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I chop the onion. We are from the South, aren’t we!
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You just said whole onion and didn’t metion chopping so I thought I had been waisting time all these years.
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I didn’t make it clear, did I?
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Or I was so hungry thinking about the peas and cornbread I overlooked it.
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I don’t think I’ve ever cooked black eyed peas. I’m pretty sure I don’t have a lurking ham bone, but I might be persuaded to slice off a hunk of the Easter ham to season them with.
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On second thought,…… maybe not! I bet it needs to head out to the trash can too!
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Maybe it’s a regional food. I’ve heard people from other areas don’t eat them. It might be time for the easter ham to go.
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Ya reckon?? 😁😁
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Do you east the small round areebs peas?
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trista Claycomb why
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I have heard of black eyed peas, never tasted them, never knew how they were prepared or what went with them. Now I know a little more
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You might not have them in Australia. Dried peas and beans are an important part of our diet.
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