5 Good Luck Foods for a Southern New Year's Dinner
Ringing in the new year is always an auspicious occasion, but for some people the celebration is less about toasting with pricey Champagne and caviar and more about finding authentic, "down home" ways to bring friends and family lots of luck.
As you prepare your New Year's Day dinner menu, keep these lucky Southern foods in mind. You'll not only infuse your meal with symbolism, but you'll also benefit from some amazing flavor.
Need help putting together the perfect New Year's spread? Head to Reid's, home of the tastiest gift baskets in Charlotte, for help choosing ingredients (or just grab one of our gourmet gift baskets and let the spirit of giving bring you much-deserved health, wealth, and luck!).
1. Black-Eyed Peas
So many of our favorite foods have hidden historical significance, and black-eyed peas are no exception. These simple beans were once reserved for livestock feed. During the slave trade, black-eyed peas were also used to feed those who were enslaved in the Southern states, creating a stigma that caused the average person to avoid consuming the nutritious, tasty crop at all costs.
Later, as General Sherman drove Union Army troops through enemy territory, soldiers razed or stole every crop except black-eyed peas, believing them to be little more than trash food. When winter struck and Confederate soldiers faced the harsh realities of bad weather and almost certain starvation, suddenly black-eyed peas were on hand to save the day.
Today, black-eyed peas are viewed as a humble yet heroic source of protein and a symbol of good fortune throughout the South and beyond. Though they're often eaten as part of a larger Southern spread that includes cornbread and stewed greens (more on those later), they can be cooked and enjoyed on their own, with pork slow cooked into the mix, or ladled on top of rice. Some people even double down on the health-and-wealth concept by pairing their peas with stewed tomatoes.
There's also a visual component to the concept of good-luck peas. Beans are stored in their dried form and must be soaked in water to become edible. The swelling beans represent the cook or diner's wish for expanding fortunes. You may even encounter a Southern chef who tosses a dime into their beans; whoever scoops up the coin is said to be in for a great year.
2. Cornbread
It's tempting to say that cornbread is good luck because it helps you scoop up every last bit of sauce and porky morsel left on your plate after you shovel in the majority of your New Year's meal, but this widely beloved Southern go-to is considered lucky because it's golden, just like the actual precious metal.
Cornmeal was also delegated to the "livestock food" category, just like black-eyed peas, and often taken for granted until times were tough and suddenly cornbread was a literal lifesaver.
Sprinkle some extra corn kernels in your cornbread to represent coins and increase your potential for good luck exponentially.
3. Stewed Greens
Collard greens are probably the most recognizable Southern vegetable, but you can also cook down mustard greens, cabbage, chard, kale, or turnip greens and get a similar helping of vitamins, minerals, and good luck. The association between collards and prosperity is a bit less deep than the historical link we saw with black-eyed peas -- this time, collards are a New Year's staple because the green stems are the color of money.
4. Pork, Pork, and More Pork
Pork is one of the most popular ingredients in Southern cooking. You'll find it stewed with vegetables, fried, made into sausage, smothered in gravy, and in almost every other preparation imaginable. But on New Year's Day, you're most likely to see pork represented in the form of hog jowl (aka cheek meat) diced up and tossed in with greens or black-eyed peas to add some of the deep, rich, smoky and salt flavor.
You can get great cuts of pork from Reid's gourmet marketplace, including a fully prepared ham or sliced meats from our gourmet deli.
As for why pork is considered so lucky in the South, one must look more globally to find answers. Eating pork for New Year's is a tradition that has its roots in Germany, where locals would pair pork chops and sausage with sauerkraut to welcome blessings and prosperity. Some historians say pork is innately lucky because it's such a rich, fatty protein. Others take a more philosophical view; pigs root for food by shoveling their snout forward, never backward, representing forward momentum. (Lobsters, on the other hand, walk backward, so you may want to cross those off your New Year's Day menu if you're hoping to leave 2021 in your rearview mirror.)
5. Rice
Black-eyed peas and rice are a common combo in the South, but it's not just because of the power of the peas. Many cultures associate rice with good luck - think of all the times you've tossed it at the bride and groom at the end of a wedding! And, like beans, the tiny grains swell when they rehydrate or cook with stands as a symbol of abundance and prosperity.
Rather than cooking up plain rice on New Year's, try a distinctly Southern preparation like Hoppin' John. This classic Southern side is one of those dishes that's deeply personal to each family and even each individual cook. The basic recipe includes black-eyed peas and rice plus aromatics like bacon or ham hock, chopped onion, and maybe peppers, vinegar, or spices. But some people toss in smoked turkey and greens while others sub black-eyed peas for other types of beans.
However you decide to welcome the New Year, you can find all your Southern essentials at Reid's. From corporate gifts like corporate gift baskets and tins of treats for clients and staff to the best themed gift baskets in North Carolina (something for the hostess, maybe?), we combine local ingredients and traditional hospitality to create surprises your friends and family are sure to love.