Another recipe for something to do with a ham bone

We’ve discussed my love of whole hams here before, and I hate to retread [Note from me, rereading my own work: That’s patently false, given that you constantly retread or fear doing it because you can’t remember what you’ve written before]. But yes, this story at least starts with yet another ham. Originally intended for a holiday party that was cancelled for the reason you’d assume, I’ve had a 10 lb one literally chilling in my freezer since mid December, waiting for the opportunity to be defrosted. Finally, the stress of its presence was too much and I planned a gathering with the specific intention of serving it, one that seemed timing appropriate given that it was right before St. Patrick’s Day, even if the actual party wasn’t themed that way. I ended up with even more leftovers than I expected, and realized I’d have to get creative with.

At first, I just assumed I’d make Split Pea Soup again, until I realized that one of my last soups to tackle in the cookbook also calls for a ham bone and ham.

You’ll notice the recipes for Split Pea and Navy Bean soups are not that different: a legume, onions, garlic, carrot, fennel seed, because why mess with a good thing? The first thing I did mess with, however, was the beans: dried navy beans were not available at my grocery store so I went with Great Northerns. (Great North Bean soup doesn’t have quite the same ring, does it?) I cut away most of the ham for later use, and cubed the section that wasn’t already spiral cut. Since this was a school night, and I’d already put off making the soup the night before because I was tired and cranky, I knew I wouldn’t be letting the beans sit for an hour—instead, I simmered them for about 30 minutes, assuming that would cut the soaking time in half, and then started the process of adding the rest of the ingredients.

I questioned the need to tie together the herbs but as a slight spoiler, I was happy I did—they definitely provided flavor that way, and some of them broke off a bit, but the soup wasn’t overloaded in large pieces.

Now for the salting: this specific recipe says not to salt until the end, a “persistent myth” about cooking beans. But I actually think this instruction was intended to prevent the soup becoming too salty due to the ham. I ended up salting them slightly anyway, mostly because I wasn’t paying attention, and then adjusted the flavor at the end. I was concerned about adding the ham pieces too early and them getting… I don’t know, weird? Texturally? Because it’s already cooked? But of course it was fine.

There’s no way I’m pulling out a blender to blend anything that’s remotely hot, so I just immersion blender-ed around the meat chunks, which resulted in a nice thickening of the soup and some whole pieces. I finished it with rice wine vinegar, and, when that wasn’t hitting enough, more salt and more regular vinegar, as well as some garnishing olive oil (gifted to me by Julia, friend of the newsletter, for Christmas).

My fast math on how long to cook the dried beans worked, by the way, proof that my two years of study in this field has paid off; thank you to the pandemic for all that you’ve given me! Final note: my immersion blender is quite literally a fire hazard, so if you have one you like, let me know? Otherwise to Wirecutter I go…

KATE

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