I cooked a ham tonight, and have nice rich flavourful ham stock No one i my house is into ham juice or gravy, I have only cooked a few bone-in hams in my life, so what o I do with this stock?
The best split pea soup ever!
I’m sure if you Google, you’ll find a hundred recipes, but if not, let me know, I’ll dig one of mine up.
Yes, split pea soup! Sometimes I love it even more than the original ham.
You can use this stock with any beans, in fact. Many vegetables will get a flavor boost from being simmered in ham stock rather than water, too. Or try rice.
Make scrapple.
One cup dry split peas to three cups liquid. Throw in any leftover ham or ham bone, add any sausage you may have lying around, cube some potatoes and slice some carrots, and I even like to add a half bag or so of frozen whole peas if I have any around. Re-season if needed with fresh cracked pepper and/or salt. Sometimes I add turmeric and even some lentils or barley. It’s hard to mess up, really. Simmer the whole mess for about an hour.
The recipe I use:
12 cups ham stock
3 cups dried split green peas
3 medium carrots, shredded or thinly sliced
1 medium onion, chopped small
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp. thyme
Bring to boil, cover and simmer at least 1 hour. Eat with hot buttered toast.
I think that beans are best with cornbread, myself, but toast works as well.
Buy low, sell high!
Take some chunks of ham, some potatoes, celery, onions and carrots and make ham soup.
It may sound weird, but it’s really, really good.
You made me wake my hubby with my burst of giggles.
It’s also a great cooking liquid for making lentils.
So watery…and yet there’s a smack of ham to it.
Add two moist turnips to your burst of giggles and bob’s your uncle.
Yeah, any legume/pulse type thing it will work well with. Also, off the top of my head, I’d use it for something like jambalaya, too. Basically, anywhere where a stock/broth is called for and a slightly smokey flavor is appropriate.
ooh ooh add a stick of celery sliced up thin and don’t shred the carrots as it makes it too carroty, mmmmmmmmmmm
I don’t like it to carroty either. I toss a couple of whole carrots in and when it’s done chop up whats left with a spoon. If I want it decorative, with about 15 minutes left to cook I’ll take out the remains of the carrots and toss in very thin fresh slices or little 1/4" cubes.
Always add some savory.
Oh, if you do this, use waxy potatoes of some kind. It’s kind of gross when the potatoes dissolve and make the whole thing a sort of mealy potato gruel.
Wow, thanks everyone. Although I make beef and chicken and vegetable soups with confidence, I have never made pea or lentil soups, nor done anything with ham stock before. I cannot remember ever having a bone in ham at home so I never hung out and cooked one with Mom. My dad has been on a lower sodium diet since I was in my early teens.
My partner is French Canadian, but doesn’t eat soup, otherwise I am sure I would have tried this before now. I love soup. mmmm
Doesn’t eat soup? At all? Those Quebecois make me so ANGRY sometimes!