Recipe Of The Day

Native to the Americas where it was first domesticated - Phaseolus vulgaris - also known as the haricot bean, pea bean, Boston bean or navy bean, this dry white bean has been a staple of sailors serving in the US Navy since the mid-1800s.

We're fans of homemade soup.  And a recent cold snap inspired me to make a batch of one of our standby favorites. 

Navy Bean Soup

Step One - Make your stock.  In a large stock pot slow cook a couple of Marchant's smoked pork hocks for about 5+ hours.

Step Two - At bedtime cover and put the pot in the garage overnight.  In the morning skim the congealed fat  from the surface. Remove the meat from the hocks and set aside.  Discard the fat, skin and bones.

Step Three - Dice a sweet onion and add to the stock.  Sift thru two 16 ounce bags of dried beans looking for any stones or bad beans,  Add to pot.  Cover and simmer on low until the beans are al dente.  Roughly 3-4 hours.

Step Four - Peel and dice some potato and add to the pot.  Cover and continue to simmer 20 - 30 minutes.

Step Five - Add back to the pot all of the reserved meat and a couple of grated carrots.  Salt to taste.

Last Step - Serve with oyster crackers, saltines or a crusty baguette.

 Good chow if you can get it.  And it's even better reheated the next day.

Soup of the Day

It’s funny how your carefully-planned and organized day can be upended on short notice.

This was not on today’s agenda.  

I woke to a dark, dank, damp and dreary day to haul a barrel of recyclables and three bags of trash to the local dump. On the return trip I was to fetch vanilla coffee creamer. 

In any event, the butcher at our local grocer had smoked ham hocks in the same isle as the coffee adjunct and considering the weather in an instant of inspiration I grabbed some of those smoky porcine knuckles along with a couple of bags of Navy Beans.

 

Navy Beans are small, oval-shaped beans with a white skin. They have a mild, delicate flavor. These are the beans used for my mother’s infamous baked beans. These white beans were named Navy Beans because of their inclusion in the U.S. Naval diet during the second half of the 19th Century.  But I digress.  There was soup to cook and the dang house smelled pretty good as the day progressed. 

There is a long and storied tale about the year Navy Bean soup was served at deer camp. Delicious chow, it was it was a roof-raising experience.  As much as I know everyone pines for a the return of this favorite an Asian fusion venison soup is likely to be featured in 2022. But I digress again. 

In any event, after a hiatus of a couple of years Navy Bean soup is what’s for dinner at fireside this evening.  Solid comfort food.

Plenty too for the freezer. 

Raising a toast to smoked pork hocks (geräucherte Schweinshaxen). 

 

Clearing-out the rest of the garden and putting it to bed for the year can wait until another day. 

Pro Tip - My late father always added a spoonful of vinegar atop his bowl of bean soup.  Scratch your German itch and give it a whirl.

 

Canned Flatulence

The title of this post is a lame attempt at a joke.  Actually, this is canned goodness.



click on the jars for a closer look

I made a ginormous batch of navy bean soup last evening using a couple of smoked pork hocks from Marchant's butcher shop as the foundation.

Rather than freezing it I canned it in a pressure cooker.  Twenty pints to be exact.  This saves precious freezer space with a shelf-stable product. 

It should keep for a couple of years without skipping a beat - but I don't think it will last that long.