A follow-on to the stew thread. Today, I’m making beans and hamhocks, using canellini beans instead of my usual great northern or navy beans, a nice meaty hamhock (not one of those nothing-but-fat things you get at the supermarkets), and supplemented with 1" ham chunks from the local deli. Dice up some onions, carrots and garlic to give it some body, throw in a bay leaf or two, salt and pepper, and let it all simmer for a few hours. In the past I’ve used packages of things like 17 Bean Soup, which are good, but they didn’t have any at the store today, and I never use the ‘flavor’ packet that’s included.
An Englishman goes into an American diner and orders the soup of the day. When it arrives, he takes one look at it and says, ‘Good Lord! What is that?’ The waitress says, ‘It’s bean soup.’ The Englishman says, ‘I don’t care what it’s been! What is it now?’
Your bean recipe is very much like mine. I use a variety of beans and almost always put hamhocks in it (or smoked turkey necks in a pinch). I always put hamhocks in my turnip, collard and mustard greens, too, with lots of hot sauce. I’m tempted to put hamhocks on my Frosted Flakes cereal!
But, I don’t like to wait hours for simmering, so I cook all my soups and stews in a pressure cooker. Last week: split pea soup (with hamhocks): 30 minutes, prep to mouth. Last night’s Cajun red beans over rice: prep (using dried beans) to mouth in under an hour.
And corn bread (iron skillet crackly) goes with everything…
I go one of two ways with my bean soup: either a simple navy bean soup, Senate style, or a slightly more involved Hungarian version, which includes paprika, carrot, parsnip, and celery root. Both styles, though, require a ham hock (or at least a substitute smoked meat of some sort, but it really should be a ham hock.)
I don’t have a bean soup recipe but we did make a big pot of chili that has three kinds of beans in it, along with a can of corn, Crybaby jalapenos, chili meat, etc. It was done just as a cold front and 24 hours of rain arrived and is powering everything I do today. Good eatin’.
Hah! Made chicken stock yesterday for the first time in months. Finally getting some cooler weather here, and it seemed about time. Should be able to get about 5 or 6 meals out of that over the next couple weeks.
Smoked ham hock is great. When that was unavailable I’ve used smoked turkey wings and bacon. While I want the smoked ham I think the smoke flavor from anything is where the magic comes from.
The Polish butchers of Brooklyn all offer smoked rib bacon, which makes a great soup bone. I buy about 5 or 6 ribs worth, cut them into sections, and freeze them.
Later this week I plan to make Soup Beans, which I consider the most basic of all bean soups. Just a pound of pinto beans, a chopped onion, a garlic clove, and a chunk of the above bacon. And an 8-inch skillet cornbread to go with. Classic Hillbilly cuisine.
I can’t get “corn, beans, squash” out of my head, this fall. I do big pots of black beans with bacon, onion, cumin, ancho chili powder, and Knorr’s chicken powder. Breakfasts lately have been a big bowl of these beans with mashed squash, a fried egg, and tons of Cholula. Makes me happy.
Oh, yes, good call. My Polish parents make bean soup on a smoked ribs base all the time. (I assume it’s the same as what you call smoked rib bacon–it’s sold in Polish delis cold among the smoked sausages, hams, and hocks, and is meant to be used as a flavoring agent in soups and stews and not really eaten on its own.)
Ricet/ritschert - a seriously old barley/bean/whatever veggie is on hand and whatever critter doesn’t manage to get away stew. Made it yesterday after we got home in the evening with canelloni beans, barley, some parsnips and turnips, onion, garlic and celery with a hunk of ham, bone included. Simmered overnight, and we will be having it tonight.
I don’t like to be reminded about rabbits. A rabbit killed my grandfather*.
I put hot dogs (not ham hocks) in my lentil soup in honor of my grandfather. My mother is the best cook I’ve ever known and she put hot dogs in her lentil soup (they come out nice and wrinkly in the pressure cooker). My mother learned to cook from her mother; she learned to cook from her husband (my grandfather). He was head chef at the London Stock Exchange back in the day, before joining the army. He put hot dogs (or whatever type of sausage the Brits used long ago that approximates American style hot dogs). Grandfather died while grandmother was pregnant with my mother.
He contracted tularemia and died a painful death from skinning rabbits as a cook in the British Army during WWI. His was the second documented case (after a young girl) of tularemia death written up in the premiere British medical journal of the time.