Part 4/9:

With the philosophical underpinnings laid out, the duo transitioned into the practicalities of preparing Hoppin' John. Twitty presented heirloom red field peas, distinguishing them from the more commonly known black-eyed peas. He explained the preprocessing steps, which included cleaning the peas and soaking them to determine their viability—those that floated were discarded, while those that sank were deemed worth cooking.