The cured and smoked cheek of the hog — fattier than bacon, central to the New Year's Day plate of black-eyed peas and greens that's eaten for luck and prosperity across the Black South.
Hog jowl is the New Year's Day seasoning meat across the Black South — the smoky fat in the Hoppin' John and the collards that the whole family eats on January 1st for a prosperous year. It is one of the most ritually loaded foods in the tradition.
Hog jowl is the cured, smoked cheek of the pig — essentially a fattier, richer bacon — and it carries the full cured-pork burden: WHO Group 1 processed meat for colorectal cancer, very high sodium from the cure, and high saturated fat, since the jowl is one of the fattiest cuts on the hog. For a community already carrying ~40% higher colorectal-cancer mortality and the nation's heaviest hypertension load, this is real. But hog jowl's role is ceremonial, not daily — it anchors the New Year's plate of black-eyed peas (for coins) and greens (for folding money), a tradition rooted in survival and hope that goes back to Emancipation. The wisdom here is not to lecture the New Year's plate out of existence; it is to let the peas and greens — both genuinely healing, fiber- and mineral-rich foods — carry the meal, and use the jowl as the small ceremonial seasoning it was always meant to be. For everyday black-eyed peas the rest of the year, smoked turkey is the swap. On January 1st, a little jowl in the pot is the tradition; just keep it to the pot, not the plate.
Render diced jowl slowly to release its smoky fat, then cook the black-eyed peas and greens in that seasoned pot. Or slice and fry like thick bacon. Pour off most of the rendered fat before adding the vegetables.
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