Getting ready to do ham & beans this weekend. Soaking the beans right now. Any fav recipes? I like some meaty hocks, a bit of onion, and cornbread. Would a bit of bacon be the ticket?

Pork fat rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ive always believed that the best bean soups are simple recipes. Bean soup is down home meal not meant to have underlying flavors with hints of this or that. It's just stick to your ribs goodness. For me the key is using a good quality hambone. If you start with a good smokey hambone then bacon should not be needed to give it smoke flavor.

Hambone
onions diced
beans your choice
salt and pepper to taste

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Regards,
Guy-Harold Smith II

Are there beans in soup?

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Recycled Bricklayer

Well, with ham hocks and bean soup there will be beans......And a lot of methane gas too,..... unless you put about a tea spoon of baking soda in the pot while you're soaking the beans...Otherwise you'll be sleeping alone tonight


WuzzFuzz

...or keepin' the bed warm for your better half.

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Pack light and cinch tight.

Besides the ham and beans...add a can of stewed tomatoes. You won't be disappointed. We freeze quarts of maters and add our soup. Everyone loves it.
spricks

Ham and beans.. MMMMM A personal favorite. Good comfort food on a cold night.

MUST you cruel people torture me with all this food talk?

I never met a bean I didn't like except the red kidney kind. Pintos (which I love to cook with a chuck roast and chilis or just with ham or country bacon), Great Northerns, red beans, blackeyed peas, and on and on. Very fond of lentils, and LOVE the big dried limas we call butter beans in this part of the country. Cook those babies with ham hock, toss in some sliced hot smoked sausage, top it with chopped onion, and serve cold canned tomatoes and cornbread on the side...

Damn, now I have to go eat something.

My all-time favorite bean is Anasazi Beans; check out

https://www.anasazibeans.com/beans.html

That's all I can suggest to Smith357's post.

Good beans & rich ham, when you have the ham content right, you will not need any more salt.

Wow! That brought back some pleasant memories. I haven't had that in years. My dad used to make it and I loved it. I had completely forgotten about that stuff. Comfort food at it's best!

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

Navy beans, ham hock, big old white onion, covered with chicken broth, served with corn bread or sour dough biscuits and honey and a cup of black coffee. (a little hot sauce on the side) and put out the pilot lights you don't want no open flames.

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Carpriver.

Oh NO..!!!!! I forgot to tell ya, you got to have some corn bread to go with those ham hocks and beans.. or have some hush puppies made up before hand to go with...

Woops I see carpriver beat me to...about adding some corn bread



WuzzFuzz.

My wife makes ham and beans all the tine. It is great. And she does put ham in it.

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US Veteran 1970-1974

2 qt. water
2 cups beans
2 lb. ham hocks (smoked)
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced or crushed

No need to soak the beans, just rinse to clean.

dump all together in the crock pot, cover, turn on & leave for work.

At the end of your day, make biscuits (corn bread optional if you're really Southern but most cowboys will insist on biscuits) using 1/2 regular flour & 1/2 corn flour.

OH, - YAH! the beans. The longer they simmer, the better they get

Ham & beans. The best bowel cleanser I ever ate.

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Inconsistently consistent

Actually son its PINTO Beans and Ham Hocks, with a slow roasted uncured Ham Roast, allowed to cook down, not dry out, fried potatoes and onions, slaw with Hellmans Mayonaise, now your bacon grease should cover the bottom of a cast iron skillet, with the rest of the grease mixed into your cornbread batter, preheat the skillet till its almost ready to smoke and pour your batter into the hot skillet, bake until the crust is golden to dark brown, your preference, and if you really want to make a meal used buttermilk in the cornbread batter.

Now if this in fact does kill you, you will have had a last meal fit for a real HILLBILLY, if not you may need assistance to move, but ooooh baby, thats good eatin!

White beans are for yankees only, please no embarrasing white beans and sweet cornbread or Miracle Whip stories, please! This is Southern, as in Down Home cooking. Billy Magg

Dog-gon-it I forgot the most important part, it makes for great cornbread in milk before bed! Billy

This is what we had for supper tonight.

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CSM, U S Army(Ret) 1963-1990

Big Lima Beans. Better known as "Belly Busters."

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Georgia On My Mind

We're talk'en beans & ham, not beans & prune juice! :O

I love beans! The methane is like the prize in the box of Cracker Jack.

Ah, what kind of beans?

Limas or Great Northerns:
Ham, a little fresh oregano=serve with a side of vinegar and biscuits or cornbread or a good, chewy loaf of sourdough with BUTTER.

Pintos or small reds: Soak and set aside. Saute diced onions, a little celery and fresh garlic in a bit of bacon grease and olive oil (50/50, as little as possible), Wright's liquid smoke if you like. A dash of cumin (no more than two). Bacon or ham (or both). add beans and juice and a SMALL can of Ro-Tel tomatoes and habaneros. This should turn out like beans not like chili.

Thanks for all the input. I just finished off the pot yesterday. I did see a mention of baking soda. Years ago my ex asked my mom for her recipe. She was a elementary school cook with 25 years of experience. She told my ex about the baking soda trick. Sure made the school a little less stinky. Ex made the ham & beans. After eating it I was immediately awakened in the middle of the night with a HUGE urge to use the john! Found out later that day the ex had NOT dumped the soaking liquid with the baking soda out but just used it to make the ham & beans. Wow there is not a laxative better than that. LOL....

You must be a southerner. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

I can't argue with that. The hard part is deciding what kind of beans to use. I always have a tough time choosing between pintos or black eye peas. But the truth is there are no bad choices when it comes to beans.

Gotta have corn bread too. Years ago I asked Grandma for her SECRET recipie. She told me the secret is use buttermilk........Other then that just follow the directions on the side of the Albers corn meal box.

I beg to disagree. Gtowing up in New Orleans the only bean I thought existed was the red kidney bean. Since I moved to the bayou country 30 some years ago, I have found that the white bean is a very popular staple with smothered pork products or smothered chicken or smothered liver, or smothered rabbit, or smothered squirrel or smothered deer roast.
Cook ya a pot of white beans. Cook ya a pot of rice. Smother down one of the above meats with lots on onions, garlic , bell pepper and some salt and pepper. Ad far as bread-it's garlic bread all the way.
Now-to assemble. First you put the rice on the plate. Then you get a big chunk of the meat. Now,and this is important-dig deep in the pot and get a big spoon of gravy and put on the rice (you need to dig and not just skim the top so you get lots of the stuff at the bottom of the pot). Now and only now do you put a big ladle full of white beans on top of your rice and gravy. Now you grab the Tabasco sauce (original flavor please) and make the white beans pink. Now grab you'self a chunk of garlic bread, finish off your scotch, throw out the ice and fill your glass 3/4 of the way up with a nice red wine-or make another scotch-either way is acceptable.
I type this with fond rememberances and a heavy heart as one I have enjoyed meals such as this with in the past died this morning. A fond farwell to Paul McIlhenny CEO of Tabasco.

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Forum consigliere

Out West we use Pinto beans only. But I do like Lima's also.

Ham and beans with onions, cornbread, and an iron skillet full of fried potatoes. I can eat these 3 or 4 times a week.

White beans on rice with a plate full of fresh caught crispy fried, catfish fillets, lots of Louisiana or Crystal hot sauce. Cant beat that!
Steve W

A German lady that used to live next door to me made ham and beans. She used great northerns, ham hock with lots of ham on the bone, diced onions, a touch of garlic, a smidgeon of celery and grated carrots. It was special on a cold blustery day.

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War Eagle!!!

By coincidence, I just made a pot of beans yesterday. Soaked 2 lb. of dryland pintos overnight, rinsed, then started on a low rolling boil at 7:00AM. One large yellow onion, diced, added to the boil. Two tbsp. Lowry's seasoned salt. One tbsp. minced garlic. A pinch of cumin (optional, some don't like it). Two lb. smoked ham shank, diced. Continue on low boil for one hour, then reduce heat to slow simmering for about 4 hours or so, then leave covered until served.

Watch the water throughout the cooking, adding water as needed to keep beans fully covered with water.

A few easy variatons:

1. Add a large can of diced tomatoes. This gives the broth a different flavor.
2. Add some diced celery.
3. Add 6 or 8 oz. of diced green chiles.

Two pans of sweet cornbread done at suppertime.

This makes about 12 good servings. Leftovers can go into quart-size Tupperware and frozen. Defrosted and reheated they actually get better tasting.

I used to make this same basic recipe in elk hunting camp. Bean pot stayed on the woodstove for several days at a time, we'd just add more water as they cooked down. Lots of good eating there!

Almost forgot my secret ingredient! I always add the ashes of two cigarettes while the beans are cooking.

Why do I add the ashes of two cigarettes? Because if I only used one it would look too much like an accident. Now shut up and eat your beans.

Give this a try:

2 Ham hocks
2 medium onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves minced
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chicken broth
1 1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
4 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained but not rinsed
or prepared dried beans, if you prefer
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
When serving, top with sour cream or grated cheddar cheese for garnish.

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Miss Buddies crsides & fat tom