# Lifestyles & Discussion > Personal Health & Well-Being >  Black eyed Peas picked off the vine

## Meatwasp

How many of you  have ever ate black eyed peas that were  just about mature and   added small immature  pods and cooked them with Ham hocks.
I just finished planting two 100 ft rows of them.  I loved them when I was a kid.
This is a Southern dish. I don't like them after they are dried.

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## amy31416

> How many of you  have ever ate black eyed peas that were  just about mature and   added small immature  pods and cooked them with Ham hocks.
> I just finished planting two 100 ft rows of them.  I loved them when I was a kid.
> This is a Southern dish. I don't like them after they are dried.


Not me, but it sounds interesting. What the heck's a hock anyways?

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## acptulsa

> Not me, but it sounds interesting. What the heck's a hock anyways?


Please don't tell me you're unfamiliar with pot liquor also.  Next you'll be telling us you find "chicken friend chicken" redundant, or that green beans and bacon don't mix.

Yankees just don't know how to live.

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## amy31416

> Please don't tell me you're unfamiliar with pot liquor also.  Next you'll be telling us you find "chicken friend chicken" redundant, or that green beans and bacon don't mix.
> 
> Yankees just don't know how to live.


I'll have you know that I've lived a great portion of my adult life *south* of the Mason-Dixon line*, where I was introduced to things such as "scrapple." And while I do find "chicken fried chicken" redundant, I find the concept of "chicken fried steak" intriguing.

Once again, what the heck's a hock? And now, what is pot liquor and does it give you a hangover?



*about 20 miles south

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## ARealConservative

bacon goes pretty well with just about anything.

....but chicken fried chicken is redundant.

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## acptulsa

Twenty whole miles, eh?

Pot liquor could give you a nice, fatty yang hangover, I guess.  A yankee would probably call it a roue (did I spell that right?).  Does "pan drippins" make more sense?  Chicken fried steak led to chicken fried chicken--the latter being a boneless breast battered and fried.  Thus the redundancy serves a purpose, and I ain't listenin to no arguments about that.

As for hamhocks, I would advise you to take the same attitude toward them that I have toward choriso and menudo--if you wish to enjoy these things, your best bet is to remember ignorance is bliss and refuse to ask.

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## amy31416

> Twenty whole miles, eh?
> 
> Pot liquor could give you a nice, fatty yang hangover, I guess.  A yankee would probably call it a roue (did I spell that right?).  Does "pan drippins" make more sense?  Chicken fried steak led to chicken fried chicken--the latter being a boneless breast battered and fried.  Thus the redundancy serves a purpose, and I ain't listenin to no arguments about that.
> 
> As for hamhocks, I would advise you to take the same attitude toward them that I have toward choriso and menudo--if you wish to enjoy these things, your best bet is to remember ignorance is bliss and refuse to ask.


A roux! One of the most useful things in cooking ever, I guess the Southern version is to always use animal fat. Up North here we usually use butter due to fears ingrained in us that our heart will explode if we use animal fat for anything.

When I took a drive down South to Alabama a couple years ago, I did make it a point to try that weird grayish-looking gravy they put on biscuits, it was okay, but not something I could see as a daily addition to the diet. 

I like chorizo, so I will never ask, and will also not ask about the ham hock--don't know if I'm going to eat it though!

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## Meatwasp

I just got back. Amy Ham hocks are the end of a big ham . Just where the leg begans. Gee don't they sell them anymore?
Menudo Ugh! I was forced to eat that when I was a kid and it tasted like I was eating a floor  mat I HATE IT!
 I love Choriso con vevos (SP) if it is home made. I will probably ruin people on eating things but we had a big chicken ranch and some guy came and took the hens that quit laying for butchering. He even took chickens that were sick and dying and my dad  said"what the heck do you want those for?". He said they make Chicken tomales out of them. Needless to say I shy away from food like that.

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## acptulsa

> When I took a drive down South to Alabama a couple years ago, I did make it a point to try that weird grayish-looking gravy they put on biscuits, it was okay, but not something I could see as a daily addition to the diet.


Sausage gravy is no small part of the reason so many southerners are so well rounded.  Hate to think how many years of life a love of sausage gravy has cost untold southerners over the decades...

And yes, I prefer my nice turkey fat roux myself.  A lot.

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## amy31416

> I just got back. Amy Ham hocks are the end of a big ham . Just where the leg begans. Gee don't they sell them anymore?
> Menudo Ugh! I was forced to eat that when I was a kid and it tasted like I was eating a floor  mat I HATE IT!
>  I love Choriso con vevos (SP) if it is home made. I will probably ruin people on eating things but we had a big chicken ranch and some guy came and took the hens that quit laying for butchering. He even took chickens that were sick and dying and my dad  said"what the heck do you want those for?". He said they make Chicken tomales out of them. Needless to say I shy away from food like that.


I think they do still sell them, even around here. I go to a market that's in a mostly hispanic neighborhood, and there's a section for all the "weird" meats like tongue, feet, and various odds and ends--I avoid it. Perhaps that's where they keep the ham hocks. 

Okay, I'll never eat a tamale again. 

You Southerners want a Northern version of weird food--just go to any Chinatown in a big city. They sure do love their dried creatures of the sea.

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## Meatwasp

I am not a Southerner born and raised in Calif.
If you eat ham you will like hocks as it is part of the ham.

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## acptulsa

> You Southerners want a Northern version of weird food--just go to any Chinatown in a big city. They sure do love their dried creatures of the sea.


Hell, life gets too weird for me just getting close to a coast--never mind going north.  Even the Gulf Coast makes me scratch my head sometimes.  I've heard, for example, that back east certain weird southerners put cole slaw not _be_side barbeque sandwiches but _in_side them!

Now folks, I've been past the original Bar B Q ranch, I live within a hundred miles of the Chisolm Trail, and I can assure you that the proper place for cole slaw is _be_side a barbequed meat...

And yes, I enjoy oriental food, and no I do *not* go to the chef for enlightenment about what I'm eating.

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## amy31416

> Hell, life gets too weird for me just getting close to a coast--never mind going north.  Even the Gulf Coast makes me scratch my head sometimes.  I've heard, for example, that back east certain weird southerners put cole slaw not _be_side barbeque sandwiches but _in_side them!
> 
> Now folks, I've been past the original Bar B Q ranch, I live within a hundred miles of the Chisolm Trail, and I can assure you that the proper place for cole slaw is _be_side a barbequed meat...


SAYS YOU! I visited a friend in Memphis and we went to this place called "Corky's" for barbecue and that's the way they served a pulled pork sandwich. It was _delicious._

I never thought I liked barbecue until I went there. Just turns out that barbecue up North is crap.

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## acptulsa

> SAYS YOU! I visited a friend in Memphis and we went to this place called "Corky's" for barbecue and that's the way they served a pulled pork sandwich.


Oh, hell, its getting closer!  Well, I hope Texas is enough to scare it away from here...

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## amy31416

> And yes, I enjoy oriental food, and no I do *not* go to the chef for enlightenment about what I'm eating.


Asian food is one of my favorite things to cook. I recall listing off a few things that go into hot and sour soup, when I got to black fungus, they all seemed to not want to know any more. 

That said, I rarely use the _really_ bizarre ingredients, like bird's nests or shark fins.

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## pcosmar

> A roux! One of the most useful things in cooking ever, I guess the Southern version is to always use animal fat. Up North here we usually use butter due to fears ingrained in us that our heart will explode if we use animal fat for anything.


uh, Butter IS animal fat.

In my neck of the woods(way up north) a stew pot is as likely to contain squirrel,muskrat or rabbit.
Don't ask, Don't tell takes on a whole new meaning.

I am just is from prepping garden areas and am starting to plant. 
I hope the frost doesn't get me again this year.

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## amy31416

> uh, Butter IS animal fat.
> 
> In my neck of the woods(way up north) a stew pot is as likely to contain squirrel,muskrat or rabbit.
> Don't ask, Don't tell takes on a whole new meaning.
> 
> I am just is from prepping garden areas and am starting to plant. 
> I hope the frost doesn't get me again this year.


I categorize butter as dairy fat because it's from the milk rather than the body of the animal.

So, what does squirrel, muskrat, etc. taste like? Chicken?

Good luck with the garden.

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## Meatwasp

> uh, Butter IS animal fat.
> 
> In my neck of the woods(way up north) a stew pot is as likely to contain squirrel,muskrat or rabbit.
> Don't ask, Don't tell takes on a whole new meaning.
> 
> I am just is from prepping garden areas and am starting to plant. 
> I hope the frost doesn't get me again this year.


I planted everything out and I hope it don't freeze too. We used to eat ground squirrels until someone told us they carry disease. So we ate bear but it grows big in your mouth as you chew it so don't like it.

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## amy31416

> So we ate bear but it grows big in your mouth as you chew it so don't like it.


Ew. And weird.

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## pcosmar

> So, what does squirrel, muskrat, etc. taste like? Chicken?
> 
> Good luck with the garden.


It depends on the cook and what the critter had been eating.
Done right milder than beef, similar to pork, but a bit different.

Thanks on the garden wishes.
Did OK last year despite the frost, Planting more pumpkin this year.

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## acptulsa

> We used to eat ground squirrels until someone told us they carry disease.


Damned Huckabee trolls...

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## driller80545

Ham hock is the ankle of a pig. Great in soups and stews. Boils right off the bone. Also good in green beans and black eyed peas.
Same part of the anatomy as a  horse's hock or ankle.

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## acptulsa

> Ham hock is the ankle of a pig. Great in soups and stews. Boils right off the bone. Also good in green beans and black eyed peas.
> Same part of the anatomy as a  horse's hock or ankle.


That's the trouble with Ron Paul people.  They'll tell you whether or not you're content in your ignorance!

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## driller80545

Right above the pickled pig's feet

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## Meatwasp

> Ham hock is the ankle of a pig. Great in soups and stews. Boils right off the bone. Also good in green beans and black eyed peas.
> Same part of the anatomy as a  horse's hock or ankle.


Well I was close. But ham hocks I ate were bigger than the ankle. Suppose they used the  whole leg did the smoke the ankle too???

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## Meatwasp

> Damned Huckabee trolls...


LOL we don't eat any of the wild animals now. Saving them for the PAW.

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## driller80545

It is the combination of the bone and the meat that create the flavor, so I would guess that the bigger the better. Yes, they smoke the ankle too.  Man, a whole leg would take a big pot to cook down. I better go find something to eat.

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## acptulsa

> LOL we don't eat any of the wild animals now. Saving them for the PAW.


Just stay away from my popcorn popper.

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## Meatwasp

The old hermit that lived down from us tried to get me to eat rotten fish and rattle snakes. He used to say," just sprinkle a little soda on the fish it be fine"

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## Meatwasp

> It is the combination of the bone and the meat that create the flavor, so I would guess that the bigger the better. Yes, they smoke the ankle too.  Man, a whole leg would take a big pot to cook down. I better go find something to eat.


Did you ever eat Black eyed peas before they got dry? YUMMY the only way to eat them

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## familydog

> He used to say," just sprinkle a little soda on the fish it be fine"


Its true. Although I like to add a few wild teaberries on the side.

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## pcosmar

All this food talk got me up to do a test. 
The Testers are at work so the pies have not been sampled yet.

Last month I cooked up my last pumpkin(from my garden) and I made a big batch of Pumpkin Butter.
I just made two pies, One from pumpkin puree (homemade) added sugar. spice, eggs, and milk.
The "normal" recipe.
The other a pint jar of Pumpkin Butter, 2 eggs 1 can of milk. Instant Pumpkin Pie.

Visual results,
The "Instant"pie looks better.
Still cooling and waiting for testers.
Dang, it smells good in here.

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## Kludge

> Next you'll be telling us ... that green beans and bacon don't mix.


Damn, why have I never heard of that before? Sounds very good.

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## amy31416

> All this food talk got me up to do a test. 
> The Testers are at work so the pies have not been sampled yet.
> 
> Last month I cooked up my last pumpkin(from my garden) and I made a big batch of Pumpkin Butter.
> I just made two pies, One from pumpkin puree (homemade) added sugar. spice, eggs, and milk.
> The "normal" recipe.
> The other a pint jar of Pumpkin Butter, 2 eggs 1 can of milk. Instant Pumpkin Pie.
> 
> Visual results,
> ...


RESULTS MAN! We need results!

I'm made pumpkin pie fright from pumpkins before and it was fan-freakin'-tastic. Like you said, not as pretty as the instant, but so so good.

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## pcosmar

> RESULTS MAN! We need results!
> 
> I'm made pumpkin pie fright from pumpkins before and it was fan-freakin'-tastic. Like you said, not as pretty as the instant, but so so good.


Only visual results. As yet.
on the left a scratch made pie.
On the right the Pumpkin Butter "Instant" pie.


"Instant" is relative.
It took two days of cooking to make the Pumpkin Butter.

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## driller80545

I'll try a piece of each!

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## amy31416

I'd totally steal those if they were sitting on a window sill.

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## pcosmar

> I'd totally steal those if they were sitting on a window sill.


Sorry all. I just can't get them to upload.
Heck, I can't even post the Smell.

I am waiting too, but the girls should be home soon.

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## amy31416

> Sorry all. I just can't get them to upload.
> Heck, I can't even post the Smell.
> 
> I am waiting too, but the girls should be home soon.


I'm sure they're both fantastic, but I think I'll put my money on the "pumpkin butter" one winning the taste test, because I think the texture just might win out. 

And the only reason for that is because it's homemade pumpkin butter, if you had used canned commercial pumpkin, I'd give it to the one made directly from pumpkins.

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## Meatwasp

Pcosmar.
I am raising a lot of pumpkins too and I thank you for the pumpkin butter recipe. Will have to  try that. I get my big machetti out and cut the pumpkins into quarters and than peel them. That is one big job. do you have an easier way?.

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## pcosmar

> Pcosmar.
> I am raising a lot of pumpkins too and I thank you for the pumpkin butter recipe. Will have to  try that. I get my big machetti out and cut the pumpkins into quarters and than peel them. That is one big job. do you have an easier way?.


I split a big one in half and baked it in the oven for about an hour at 350( I think) it barely fit.
You might try quarters, and put them on a cookie sheet.
Then scrape it out of the shell. be careful, it's hot.

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## Meatwasp

My usual way I do it is hit the skins off with a big knife and put all the peeled pieces in a big pan with some water and them when they are soft I run them through a potatoe ricer  and freeze the sauce in baggies until I use it.
Your way sounds easier but my oven would only hold a few haves

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## pcosmar

> My usual way I do it is hit the skins off with a big knife and put all the peeled pieces in a big pan with some water and them when they are soft I run them through a potatoe ricer  and freeze the sauce in baggies until I use it.
> Your way sounds easier but my oven would only hold a few haves


Both work.  I just save the hassle of peeling them.

It all depends on the pumpkins and the size of your oven.

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## pcosmar

Morning Update.
Samples were tested, and enjoyed.
NO *definitive* winner.
The scratch made pie, was good pumpkin pie. As usual.
The easy Pumpkin Butter pie , was good pumpkin pie. Which is what I wanted to know/find out.

It is quick and easy, with no loss in overall quality. In a word, Success.
Visually, the PB pie looked nicer. The texture was a little smoother. More like custard pie.
No loss in flavor.

The test told me what I wanted to know.
It works.

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## Meatwasp

> Morning Update.
> Samples were tested, and enjoyed.
> NO *definitive* winner.
> The scratch made pie, was good pumpkin pie. As usual.
> The easy Pumpkin Butter pie , was good pumpkin pie. Which is what I wanted to know/find out.
> 
> It is quick and easy, with no loss in overall quality. In a word, Success.
> Visually, the PB pie looked nicer. The texture was a little smoother. More like custard pie.
> No loss in flavor.
> ...


Thanks for the info. I always try and scorch the pumpkin sauce before making it into a pie. My mother always did that. Gives it a good flavor

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## amy31416

> Morning Update.
> Samples were tested, and enjoyed.
> NO *definitive* winner.
> The scratch made pie, was good pumpkin pie. As usual.
> The easy Pumpkin Butter pie , was good pumpkin pie. Which is what I wanted to know/find out.
> 
> It is quick and easy, with no loss in overall quality. In a word, Success.
> Visually, the PB pie looked nicer. The texture was a little smoother. More like custard pie.
> No loss in flavor.
> ...


Thanks for the update. May there be many more pumpkin pies in your future.

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## pcosmar

> Thanks for the update. May there be many more pumpkin pies in your future.


Fer Sure.
I may have to change my name to, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.

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## Dustancostine

> Hell, life gets too weird for me just getting close to a coast--never mind going north.  Even the Gulf Coast makes me scratch my head sometimes.  I've heard, for example, that back east certain weird southerners put cole slaw not _be_side barbeque sandwiches but _in_side them!
> 
> Now folks, I've been past the original Bar B Q ranch, I live within a hundred miles of the Chisolm Trail, and I can assure you that the proper place for cole slaw is _be_side a barbequed meat...
> 
> And yes, I enjoy oriental food, and no I do *not* go to the chef for enlightenment about what I'm eating.


Acptulsa,

I originally agreed with your sentiment, that is until I visited Southern Virginia (Near North Carolina) and had one of their pulled pork sandwiches such as Amy describes. It had the cole slaw _inside_ the sandwich and it was very very delicious. Now on the other hand I am not sure if I consider it bar-b-q but it was still delicious.

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## Dustancostine

> I categorize butter as dairy fat because it's from the milk rather than the body of the animal.
> 
> So, what does squirrel, muskrat, etc. taste like? Chicken?
> 
> Good luck with the garden.


Squirrel taste like ribs.

Dead serious.

Edit: BTW in Texas we do not deep fry our squirrel like Huckabee does in Arkansas, be put in on the grill with Bar-B-Q sauce.

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## Meatwasp

> Its true. Although I like to add a few wild teaberries on the side.


What are tea berries? Are they like mountain drops?

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## acptulsa

> Now on the other hand I am not sure if I consider it bar-b-q but it was still delicious.


It really isn't that different from mayo and lettuce on a burger.  Nonetheless, I also don't think the Bar B Q Ranch would ever claim it.  Of course, around these parts barbeque is sacred enough to become somewhat inflexible.  That said, the best barbeque place I ever encountered was in some little town near Paris and they spiced and slow-roasted the meat to such perfection that putting sauce on it would have been a crime.  Is perfectly roasted meat with no sauce still barbeque?

Well, at least it didn't need cole slaw on it to be tender and juicy...

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## amy31416

> It really isn't that different from mayo and lettuce on a burger.  Nonetheless, I also don't think the Bar B Q Ranch would ever claim it.  Of course, around these parts barbeque is sacred enough to become somewhat inflexible.  That said, the best barbeque place I ever encountered was in some little town near Paris and they spiced and slow-roasted the meat to such perfection that putting sauce on it would have been a crime.  Is perfectly roasted meat with no sauce still barbeque?
> 
> Well, at least it didn't need cole slaw on it to be tender and juicy...


I'm starting to think you just might be an elitist--at least as far as barbecue goes. . .

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## acptulsa

> I'm starting to think you just might be an elitist--at least as far as barbecue goes. . .


All barbeque is _not_ created equal, and does _not_ have the right to be free of my discrimination.

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