Ham Hocks in Soup?

Posted by PumpkinBear, March 30, 2009 at 10:24 PM

I'm still working out the details, but tomorrow I'm making a soup that's a cross between the classic navy beans and ham hock dish and a white bean soup.

I'm making homemade chickstock as we speak. I'm going to use the stock for the soup and shred the chicken to be added later. I want to saute a ton of veg., like leeks, onions, potatoes, celery, and carrots in a EVOO and butter mix with the addition of fresh rosemary. After that I plan on adding the stock and the navy beans and letting it simmer away. I want to garnish with more EVOO, parm, and parsley and serve it with Ina Garten's thyme and parm crackers, but I don't know if I should add ham hocks to the soup at the same time I add the beans.

I originally picked up the ham hocks to make navy beans with, but now that I've morphed that idea into a soup, I'm afraid it will be too weird or porky, if that makes any sense. Has anyone ever thrown some ham hocks in a pot of soup? Does it add flavor, do they disintegrate? Do I leave them in and serve them as part of the soup or pull them out when cooking's over?

Thanks in advance!

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