Ham Hocks in Soup?
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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11 Comments:
i always boil them up alone and dump the water to get all of the "gunk" out of the meat then add them right into the beans from the beginning....this also gets rid of some of the salt....
when the hock is just about falling apart, take it out - clean it up by removing the fat and skin -- shred the little bits of meat and add it back into the soup.
it does add flavor and body to bean soup.... if they're smoked it shouldn't taste too porky....
pooch at 10:45PM on 03/30/09
I use presmoked ham hocks and I usually throw them in my crockpot the night before with some onion and just let them simmer, the next morning I pull them and the onion, toss the onion the shred the meat off the falling apart hocks. Maybe I'm strange but I use the water the hocks cookedin for my beans and its never been too porky or nasty in any way. Truthfully I think it gives the beans a lovely flavor. I've never used fresh hocks that way however.
huneybumper at 8:05AM on 03/31/09
I boil the hocks in a different pot then the soup, when the hocks are ready I shred them and throw it in with the soup. With the hock water I strain it and throw it into the soup pot as well, makes a wonderful flavor.
pjracz10 at 8:25AM on 03/31/09
My only concern would be that the hocks might add too much smokiness to what sounds like a pretty clean and fresh soup recipe. If you are ok with the smoke in this dish, go for it. I would, if I used them, shred the meat off the hock near the end of cooking and mix it in the soup.
Remander at 8:59AM on 03/31/09
I've always thrown the smoked ham hocks right into the soup (e.g., split pea soup, or white bean and collard greens soup). I usually don't leave them in for the duration of the cooking-time, though, or the smoky flavor becomes too strong. YMMV, though.
Junie at 9:20AM on 03/31/09
In order to control the salt when I cook ham hocks with beans or anything else, I, too, cook them separately in as little water as feasible. I let them cool, pick the meat, discard the bones and fat, and save the stock. I don't strain it unless I'm worrying about a clear soup; for beans, it makes no nevermind. When things are close to done, I add the stock to taste and freeze any left over.
The reason I began doing this is that despite what the research says, with the local water, if I add salt or acid to bean-cooking water, the beans never get beyond al dente. So I've learned the hard way to add it in for the last 30 minutes or so of cooking. YMMV, of course.
lemons at 10:05AM on 03/31/09
Throw em right in there! What are ya...Chicken?!
I've heard of too salty, too sweet, too sour, too moist and too dry..... BUT TOO PORKY?!
Pavlov at 1:41PM on 03/31/09
Pavlov your cleverness never dies.
I say use the ham hock to the "bone" haha use it every chance you can, clean the bits of gold off the bone and give it to the neigbours dog! It won't be too porky (unless it's from a dirty source)
Also,
have you ever tried to say "pork hawk" fast three times??~! I dare ya!
hungrychristel at 2:05PM on 03/31/09
I agree with Pooch. And the soup sounds delicious, I hope you'll post a recipe :) Now I'm craving black eyed peas (and I put the hock in early in that case).
OliverRanch at 3:25PM on 03/31/09
Sounds like a European version for local Portuguese bean soup...just minus the macaroni and potatoes.
We tried to make Portuguese bean soup some months back with ham hocks. It was vile. We must have done it wrong. We boiled the nearly black bones (there was no meat) for 2 hours and it was just a heinous smell, but we pushed forward and added all the ingredients. We flushed the soup pot full down the toilet.
Doesn't help that I don't like the smell of pork and my husband hates the smell of navy beans with ham hock (childhood dish he detests). Aside from that, this was all colors...smells...of wrong, which is sad because I loved my mother's Portuguese bean soup (better than Zippy's).
Cassaendra at 1:58PM on 04/01/09
oops, I thought Chisai was the OP. Okay, no one will understand what I'm writing about then. :P
Cassaendra at 1:59PM on 04/01/09