Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ham Bone

So last week I was craving ham. JD and I are particular about a lot of the food we eat and ham has to be good. It has to be a whole or half bone in that has been cured, not smoked. A brown sugar cure is best. It CANNOT be spiral sliced, we like the meat to be juicy! Anyway... I made a ham last week and used the highly recommended gingersnap crust ham recipe from Alton Brown. It was really good, but we have this meat covered bone left (along with about 8 lbs of meat :) and I had no idea what to do with it. I want to be a provident provider and cook with what I've got and that means making a soup or beans with it!

As a kid my Mom would make Split Pea Soup and, no offense Mom, but I hate Split Pea Soup. It looks like baby poop. I'm sure it was good soup, my Dad loves the stuff, but I distinctly remember stirring the soup with my spoon, waiting until everyone was done and then pouring my soup back in the pot, and then lying to my Mother that I ate it all. I think my brother Barry joined me in that experience. Regardless, I can't bring myself to try it again so I found this recipe (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Smoked-Ham-Barley-and-Vegetable-Soup-103243) on epicurious.com and I am bound and determined to make a ham bone soup that is good. I'll let you know how it turns out tonight.

Update: The soup was good although not what I was expecting. I was hoping for a more "hammy" taste and it didn't happen. Maybe if I had used ham hocks (pig feet) instead of the bone it may have been different. This could have easily been turned into beef or chicken soup with veggies and barley. This was also my first foray into the use of barley, it was really good. I think it would make a good breakfast food :)

1 comment:

Geneen said...

OR... you could do doug's favorite ham soup. 1 lbs white beans soaked over night, then put in crock-pot with 8+ cups of chicken broth (enough to cover the beans and ham bone generously), one onion cut up, one ham bone and any left over ham, and 1 tsp of sage. cook until beans are tender (usually all day long, 10+ hours), add salt if necessary and more sage to taste. i take a potato masher to the soup after i take the ham out to shred it to make the soup more creamy, then add the ham pieces back in. serve with corn bread. it is definitely a family favorite. :) who knows, with 8 lbs of ham left over you might have enough ham to do both soups. just save the ham bone. let me know how the other soup turns out.