Black-eyed Peas and Ham Hocks

I have searched for the Perfect Black Eyed Pea recipe each year for New Year's Day. I am not a black eyed pea eater, but my husband is and, being Southern, we have to have this every New Year's Day. I read the other reviews and adjusted the water level- I think this is a common sense issue. Just eyeball the water. When you cook beans that have been soaked, you generally boil them in fresh water that just covers the beans. Same here. Add more water as needed while they boil. I did not use as much ham, but cut it into bite size pieces before serving. I added another bay leaf and kicked up the fresh ground pepper. This dish thickens as it cools, so do not worry about it being too soupy. I did not serve it over rice, but as side dish to oven baked ribs (find the recipe on this site). Of course, there was plenty of sweet cornbread. My husband said this was my best batch of black eyed peas yet (that's 15 attempts- one for every New Year's Day we have been together). Not quite as good as his momma's, but pretty good for a Yankee born wife who doesn't eat black eyed peas.

This recipe gave me a good jumping off point. I soaked the peas overnight for fear that they would be hard if I just boiled them out of the bag. I added 2 tsp of minced garlic, minced onion, a generous amount of salt and pepper and 8 dashes of hot sauce. This didn't make it hot at all just added the flavor it needed. The ham hocks gave it a nice flavor. I will make it again and next time I will had chunks of ham.

Needs more water and I cover my pot. I also added chopped onion, a little garlic and creole seasoning. I'm from Louisiana, so the proper way to finish this is by mashing some in the pot and serve it on rice!

Made this tonight. I read the reviews and made a few changes and saved them in a custom recipe file. This is what I added and the quantities: 8 cups water 1 pound dry black-eyed peas 1 1/2 pound smoked ham shanks salt to taste 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 2 bay leaves 1 medium onion minced 2 cloves garlic minced 1 tsp of Cajun spice 2 carrots chopped 2 Tbs cooking oil 1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce Cooked for about 3 hours. It tasted so good! Went along great with the cornbread made from this site. I'll be making this for sure on New Years day!

Here are my suggestions: soak beans overnight in 2 tsp of baking soda (to remove gas from beans); cook ham hocks on high for 45 minutes using Chicken stock then add all ingredients; add onions and a pepper to spice it up. This is the way my mother cooked her black-eyed peas. One final note: prepare this with "Grandma's Buttermilk Cornbread" recipe and your guests will rant and rave. Thanks for sharing this comfort food recipe with us!

This recipe was pretty good. I just fixed it in my Slow Cooker for 9 hours. I used more of the ham hock like 2 pounds and 2 pounds of smoked neck. I added much more pepper then the recipe asked for and added in addition to that about 2 teaspoons paprika, since I didn't like the original colar. It made it taste even better

I made this in the slow cooker (7 hours on low). Turned out great.

My southern husband wanted black-eyed peas on New Year's (I still don't get it, but I'm from Canada!) so I obliged him. I soaked the peas overnight, then drained and rinsed them. I diced up one pound of bacon and fried it in the pot until just shy of crispy, then I drained the grease and added six cups of water (as suggested by reviewers), the peas, a little salt, a little pepper, and three bay leaves. After cooking for about 1½ hours or so, I found the bacon to be tasteless (and I love bacon!) but the peas tasted pretty good, although our three-year old refused to touch them. This was awesome with soy sauce on it! If I try it again, I'll probably use bacon again, but I'll mix the fried bacon in with the cooked-and-drained peas just before serving. Thanks for sharing, Douet!

This need WAY more than 3 cups of water!! Try starting with 6 cups.

Yummm!! Made these for New Years Day 2010. I used 3 smallish ham hocks, 1 whole onion chopped, and about 6 cups of water with about a tablespoon of chicken base. Lot's of black pepper. Cooked on HI in the crockpot for about 2 hours then turned down to low for about 5 more. Served with cornbread. Perfect good luck meal!!

I made this recipe exactly as listed. Just cooked everything all together, nothing extra to do! I got a lot of compliments.

This recipe is also good with green bean snaps thrown in. We like it best the southern way -- served with the juice over corn bread. Some hot pepper sauce (the vinegar kind) is good sprinkled on top. Is cheap, delicious and feeds a lot! Great for a covered dish event.

I feel the added water suggestions, and they help. I would recommend soaking the peas, first of all. Lastly, who eats this with rice?

In my opinion, the only thing wrong with this recipe is the amount of water and cook time. I have a similar recipe from a trusted cookbook that calls for using dried beans (unsoaked)but to cook for 2 1/2 hours (a whole hour longer) AND calls for 1 1/2 quarts of water. YOu can soak if you want to cook for shorter period of time, BUT the whole point of cooking a long time is to give the pork flavor and salt a chance to penetrate the beans. I would not recommend waiting until the beans are almost cooked to add the meat (like one reviewer said she was going to do) b/c the beans will likely be flavorless; the meat may taste better but the beans and broth will be flavorless. I think the rice thing comes more from the Louisiana area.

Excellent will never eat canned black eyed peas again.

This was great. Originally from MI it was not a yearly tradition to have black-eyed peas. I had no idea how tasty they are. My advice on this recipe is to keep this simple. I now know, I love the taste of black eyed peas so I didn't tweak this at all. The last time I made this, I doubled the recipe used a ham bone from a spiral cut ham. Delicious.

Absolutely delicious and EASY. Used fresh pink eyed peas instead of dried black eyed and placed in crockpot on low over 8 hours along with 1/4 onion, chopped. Came home from work and hubby and I gobbled it up!

This was so good! I had this with some southern friends on New Year's Eve many years ago, and thought I would try it myself. I had some left over ham from an early Easter dinner instead of hamhocks, so I started off boiling the beans in some ham stock and got them going before adding the ham. I did add some vinegar based hot sauce after reading some of the reviews. I really wish I had some cornbread to make this meal complete!

Very good, did not use a bay leaf. I cooked the ham hocks in chicken broth and then strained out ham hocks and added ham, potatos, black-eyed peas. Broth was very good!!

Great way to flovor the peas with the ham hocks and also add a pat of butter, a dash of hot sauce, and a teaspoon of sugar. The only way people from the south eat this is with...stewed tomatoes...yummy and oh so good! Try this and you will have this dish more than once a year. Happy New Year. Lisa and Mark in Virginia Beach

With the added water, it turned out great!!

Easy to make and very tasty.

This was a very good recipe it was a flavorful dish though i added 2 tsps of sugar i really enjoyed it.

I am from the deep south and on New Years day it is black eye peas,rice,steamed cabbage and go ole fried chicken. I ususally cook the dry black eye peas unless I am in the south to get some fresh ones during the summer and freeze,HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

This was okay. The recipe didn't say to soak the peas overnight, so I didn't. I'm wondering if perhaps I should have. It was a bit bland. . . I would not make this again.

For faster cooking time, I do mine in the pressure cooker, with lots of water. If it's for New Year's Day, I prefer using the traditional Smoked Hog Jowls, if I can find them.

This is the same recepie that I have used for years. I grew up in Missouri. I have just a few suggestions. One, put the ham hocks in cheese cloth so that after it is cooked, you can pull it out, separate the meat from the bones and hide. Then return the meat to the pot. Also when mashing the beans to thicken the mix, take some beans out of the pot and mash them and return the slurry to the pot. This helps keeps the beans in the pot intact. Sometimes I might add a dash of liquid smoke and or vinegar.

We live in NW Washington, but my husband grew up with southern cooking. I had smoked ham hocks that we needed to use up from the freezer and he hates split pea soup, so I thought I'd try this recipe. He LOVED it! He said it was "real comfort food" and reminded him of the way his grandma used to make it. He put ketchup on it :-P and pronounced it a keeper. The only change I made was to cook the beans for about 1/2 hour, drain them then cover with fresh water, bring to a boil and finish cooking. I also used two bay leaves instead of one for more flavor. Our kids liked it, too. Great recipe!

Amazing! Used low sodium chicken broth instead of water. Omitted salt

Easy - substituted a slow cooker for the stovetop . Cooked on high for 4 hours and switched to low for last hour. Added chopped ham along with one additional ham hock. Used additional cup of water. This was the first time I ever cooked black eyed peas but not my last

This was fantastic! Only change I made was the suggested 6 cups (as opposed to the original 3) and did 4 cups chicken stock/2 cups water. Busting with flavor. We will definitely be making this again! Also, do NOT pre-soak the peas, you risk a much less flavorful pea. Let the raw peas soak up the chicken stock while cooking (I did it on high for 4 hours) and it's done!

I do not like black eyed peas but these were delicious! I added the ham hocks and chopped onion, garlic powder and bay leaf and instead of water used chicken broth 1 1/2 of the large box kind and some diced ham because to be realistic the ham hocks are only for flavor! Bon Appetite! Will make these again on cold day with rice and cornbread and done!

Great. I made this for the new year.

I made this and it is truly one of the best black eyed peas and ham hocks I have had. Note I precooked the ham hocks done before adding all it and juices to the black eyed peas. Make sure and not over cook the black eyed peas. Good eating

Ended up having to cook much longer than recipe called for but it turned out great

Simple and tasty. Used this recipe for New Year's Day 2013. Keeper.

Everyone loved it. I've been asked to make it again for 4th of July, which I will of course.

I used smoked ham shank instead of hocks. Very good. Will defiantly make again

I needed almost 3x the water the recipe called for, and I should have cooked this all day in a slow cooker, since 1.5 hrs isn't long enough to break down the ham hocks. The resulting meat was really rubbery.

Been cooking this for the last 4 hours in my crock pot, and its smells fantastic. Simple recipe, what can go wrong. It would be helpful if there were crock pot cooking instructions though.