Smoked Ham Hock & Bean Soup Recipe

Smoked Ham Hock & Bean Soup Recipe

A Smoked Ham Hock is comfort as comfort food gets. Better than bacon and butter, a good hock or two brings an unmistakable goodness, better than any soup bone ever could… like you’ll find with this here Ham Hock and Bean Soup recipe of  my dear ol’ gramama Mammy.

Now if you ain’t familiar with the Ham Hock, it’s just a fancy name fer the “pig ankle joint.” But don’t let that scare ya none! This inexpensive cut of meat & bone… all it’s smoky, salty, purely porcine assault of flavor… all it’s fatty skin and connective tissue collagen… why you’ll not only gobble down the whole pot of soup in one sittin’, but it’ll have the young’ens fightin’ fer the hock bones.

Cook up this fine soup with a skillet of cornbread and mmmmm…mmmm. You’re gonna love ya some Hock!

Fixin’ & Cookin’:  ‘bout 2 1/2 hours or so but not a lot of work

Servings:   ‘bout 6 dependin’ on stomach size

Ingredients:

• 8 cups water or more dependin’ on yer soup pot
• 1-pound Great Northern beans or navy beans
• 2 to 4 smoked ham hocks, dependin’ on their size and meatiness
• 2 cups of chopped yellow onion (ya can use white if ya want)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste
• A couple bay leafs
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• A couple celery ribs chopped or sliced thinly
• A couple chopped up carrots
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (careful ‘cuz the Hock is a might salty)
• 1 -14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, with juice (optional)

Fixin’:

Fill yer big soup pot with yer water. Toss in yer beans and bring to a boil fer about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour.

Throw in yer Smoked Ham Hocks, pepper, thyme, bay leafs, onions, carrots and celery. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beans are tender (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.) Check and stir once in a while and skim off any foam if ya got it.  If soup is too thick, add a little more water.

Now, pull out yer Hocks and fork off the meat and toss it back in the soup. Now if ya like, ya can toss in yer diced ‘maters… or not. I prefer it without the ‘maters but does make a nice change of pace. Simmer the soup fer ‘bout another 15 minutes. The remove the bay leafs and dig in!

Love the Hock!