Ham and Bean Soup variations!

[omarick1948]

Let's hear some great variations of Ham and bean soup with recipe etc. Hope you saved that ham bone! :haha:

 

[BillinOregon]

Rick, after the ham bone is long gone, I still keep cubed ham in vacuum packs to make this quick version. I omit the two cups of water and use two cans of chicken broth. The onion and garlic are chopped, of course.
I also add a capful of Wright's liquid smoke.
Thing about this is it is especially savory despite the simpleness of the recipe. My wife is not a big fan of beans, but she loves this one:
http://www.food.com/recipe/best-ham-and-bean-soup-ever-441933

P.S. One other thing I like about this is using canned great northern beans. I had second cousins who grew them near Morrill, Nebraska.

 

[sidelock]

My Wife never discards bones without boiling them as much as possible and making all kinds of good stuff including soups of all kinds with them.

 

[sidelock]

Great Northern beans are great especially with ham bones or hocks.

 

[omarick1948]

Pork neck bones are a nice variation for bean soup also!....I think that it is a Southern variation and a good one.

 

[coloradoclyde]

P.S. One other thing I like about this is using canned great northern beans. I had second cousins who grew them near Morrill, Nebraska.

I grow my own in the garden.....super easy and very plentiful. They grow better if you give them something to climb on. a 10' row yields about a quart of dry beans

 

[Kansas Jake]

We have a baked ham that came off the smoker yesterday. The ham is being sliced and used for sandwiches and we are looking forward to some variation of bean or pea soup with the ham bone providing the good flavor. I like to add some canned tomatoes to my bean soup for variation. Also we get creative and don't really have a specific recipe. It is more on the line of what other veggies and spices can we add depending on what is in the spice cabinet.

 

[tenngun]

Tried this one a few weeks ago, two cups cooked beans, onion ham and bacon pepper garlic and half a teaspoon of cinnimmon and 2 cups cooked penneni pasta

 

[sidelock]

Boy!!!! you are sure so right.

 

[satx78247]

ImVho, NO soup is superior to the REAL Congressional Bean Soup. - The "official recipe" is available on the net & in numerous cookbooks, so I see no reason to re-copy it here, unless one of our members cannot find it on "the Worldwideweird".

yours, satx

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I am sure that ham and bean soup varies from county to county and from region to region. The traditional ham and bean soup around here, was always great northern white beans, simmered with the ham bone and some ham scraps and water. There was always just a bit of grated carrot, so there would be a few orange specks in it and sometimes a touch of chopped tomato, not enough to color the soup or change the flavor. Of course some onion. It was just thin enough that it poured, not so thick it was like mashed potatoes.

Met a woman who grew up a strange combination of Baltimore Italian and West Va hillbilly and her ham and bean soup had about 10 different kinds of beans, very colorful beans and no tomato at all. Much thinner than the ham and bean soup I grew up with.

When in Miami, I had very thick ham and bean soup, made with the small red beans, (not kidney beans) a bit more onion and meat, some extra spices, a touch of molasses and thick enough that it would not pour. It had to be spooned almost like mashed potatoes.

When I make bean soup now, I make the Miami style.

Back in 1956 I was in kindergarten. Toward the 1st of may there was a school fair fund raiser. Some really old coots got together and started on Friday afternoon, making a huge cast iron kettle of bean soup (the great northern style) to be ready Saturday at noon. One of the oldsters claimed to be a drummer with a Pa regiment during the last months of the Civil War and he swore, it was authentic to the recipe used by the unit's cooks. using chopped salt pork. I had never heard the term salt pork before. My dad said the old guy was telling tall tails. My mother said it was true, that the guy was honored in decoration day parades. when she was a kid. I figure it couldn't be true. Even if he was 100 in 1956, i don't know that a nine yr old would have been a drummer in 1865.

 

[sidelock]

Some of the very best.

 

[sidelock]

As far as the drummer boy,,,, it may have been true. They were usually very young. My Grandson played in the fife and drum corps in Williamsburg when he was 9.

 

[satx78247]

TRUE.

Professor Jay S. Hoar (University of ME/Farmington) in his books CALLOW, BRAVE & TRUE: A GOSPEL OF CIVIL WAR YOUTH and OUR YOUNGEST BLUE & GRAY: CIVIL WAR SOLDIER BOYS documents the military service of over 70 children of the USA/CSA.
(The youngest Rebel was 7YO when he joined an AL Cavalry Company in 1861 & the youngest Yank was 8YO, when he "followed his older brother into the MI Infantry". = Both evidently "participated in combat actions" before the end of TWBTS.)

yours, satx

 

[omarick1948]

ff

 

[George]

We never have ham bones, but make a variety of white bean soups seasoned with ham base which suit us. Depending on the soup, I also use beef, chicken or vegetable bouillons singly or in combinations. We like navy and great northern bean soups, but large or small dried limas are my favorite, especially with fried cornbread. I usually just make bean soup, but sometimes add in a variety of vegetables, potatoes, onions, carrots. White beans all go very well with a lot of garlic, and a touch of red pepper doesn't hurt.

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

I eat more lentils than beans. I cook an Italian lentil soup with Ditalini pasta that starts with bacon and also contains carrots, onions and celery. The advantage of lentils is they don't require the long soaking and cooking time that many dry beans require.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I eat more lentils than beans. I cook an Italian lentil soup with Ditalini pasta that starts with bacon and also contains carrots, onions and celery. The advantage of lentils is they don't require the long soaking and cooking time that many dry beans require.

Sounds yummy!
I like lentils...I grew them in my garden once....

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

15 dried bean mix from the local grocers,2 smoked ham hocks, I package chipped country ham pieces, diced potatoes and egg ribbles (2eggs and flour till a sort of dough) like German spatzel diced onion and parsley. Good the first day but excellent on the second, crusty bread, sweet butter and some quality adult beverage.

 

[George]

I agree about the lentils 110%, a favorite as soup, especially with a dollop of sour cream, generous fresh black pepper and a little cornbread.





I also make lentil burgers which we really like.

Spence