Love ham hocks for soup and beans, simmered, wonderful flavor.

I find it difficult to find ham hocks most of the time. I love them in bean soup that I make in the crockpot. It's been a few years since I have found any with enough meat on them. They really make the meal great.

I‘ve used ham hocks for this split pea soup but prefer the shanks that seem to be meatier. I was never a big fan of split pea soup until I found this Silver Palate recipe years ago. I’ve made it without the tarragon and spinach and it’s still delicious. The sherry’s nice but can be omitted if desired. I‘m not a big tarragon fan and never thought the spinach added much.

Split Pea Soup With Ham

Note: I make this now with 8 cups stock/2 cups water…and sometimes all stock.

1 pound dried green split peas
6 cups chicken stock (preferably low sodium)
4 cups water
1 meaty ham bone or smoked ham shank or hock (about a 1.75 lb. shank or hock works well)
2 ribs celery, leaves included, diced
3 T. chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/2 tsp. crumbled dried tarragon leaves
4 T. butter (a bit less is still fine)
1 cup diced peeled carrots
1 cup diced onion
1 leek (white part only), rinsed and sliced
1 cup slivered fresh spinach leaves
2 T. dry sherry
1/2 tsp. pepper

Rinse peas in a strainer and then combine them with the stock and water in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil.

Add the ham bone, celery, 1 T. of parsley and tarragon. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes.

Melt butter in saucepan over medium-low heat. Add carrots, onion and leek. Cook until veggies are wilted, about 10 minutes. Add them to the soup pot, along with the spinach. Simmer, partially covered, about 45 minutes.

Remove soup from heat. Remove ham bone and shred meat from bone, removing any excess fat. Return meat to the soup.

Add sherry, pepper, and remaining 2 T. parsley. Taste for seasoning; salt is usually not needed due to the salt in the ham. Heat through and serve immediately. For reheating: The soup will thicken quite a bit when chilled but will thin out when reheated.

ETA - As with most soups, this is best made ahead.

Cuban Black Beans. My recipe is someplace other than where I am. Here's one that's similar. It has balsamic vinegar in it, but I would use rum instead. I doubt ham hock is traditional, but it still makes it delicious.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13902/cuban-black-beans-i/

Allrecipes

Cuban Black Beans

Serve these flavorful black beans over rice, as a sauce for pasta, or with a good loaf of bread.

Submitted by Richard Tebaldi Prep Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 30 mins Additional Time: 8 hrs Total Time: 9 hrs 50 mins Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 pound black beans, washed

• 1 onion, chopped

• 1 red bell pepper, chopped

• 1 green bell pepper, chopped

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 ½ teaspoons paprika

• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

• 1 tablespoon dried oregano

• 2 minced hot green chile peppers

• 3 cloves garlic, minced

• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar

• salt to taste

• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cover beans in water and soak overnight.

2. Rinse beans and transfer to a large stock pot. Add onion, red and green bell peppers, bay leaves, paprika, cumin, oregano, chile peppers, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

3. Test beans for tenderness; when tender add garlic and balsamic vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 296 Total Carbohydrate 56g Dietary Fiber 13g Total Sugars 6g Protein 18g Total Fat 2g Saturated Fat 0g Vitamin C 80mg Sodium 11mg Calcium 127mg Iron 5mg Potassium 1326mg

My navy bean soup and the split pea soup are essentially the same recipe. There's enough meat for flavor. And I ask when I can't find them at the store, they are often in the frozen section.

A ham hock has plenty of meat on it for two and I treat it like any ham joint. Boiled with parsley sauce or baked with brown sugar and cloves. Boiled and then used in a risotto. Made into a terrine. I usually use smoked hocks. We don't eat much soup as DH isn't a fan of liquid meals.

I use a ham hock when making ham and bean soup. The ham hock goes in at the beggining of the cook in a crock pot and I add diced ham steak a couple hours before the beans are tender.

I keep misreading the heading of this thread! I like both.

I used to use ham hocks when making my broth to cook collards or purple hull peas in. I would put the hocks, a couple onions, and chicken stock, maybe some garlic into my instant pot and cook it for an hour, then pour the broth into the veggies and simmer away until done.

My SO got it in his head that too much pork is bad for ones health, so I switched to smoked turkey necks instead, A shame really. My doggies miss the meat treats I would sneak them from the pot. And smoked turkey isn't really any better than the ham hocks,health wise. Its processed and salted just the same as the pork, but I do not eat these particular veggies that I mentioned. So I make them according to his preferences.

I always save the ham hock from our Christmas ham to make something like split pea soup or potato and ham soup. My butchers (one in the next town over, one in the city) smoke their own hams and sell the hocks so they are relatively easy to get.

On a recent trip to see our DD and family, we visited a Balkan restaurant and DH had a dish called prebranac (pronounced "preh-brah-nahts") which had smoked meat and beans in it. He's on a bean eating kick atm and asked if I could make it at home so I looked up this recipe and it was delicious. This recipe is meatless, but I nestled a small ham hock and a couple of smoked chorizos in it. When I was serving it I removed the meats and sliced the chorizos and took the meat off the hock and put the meats back into the dish.

Yummy Prebranac recipe

Colleenoz, thanks for that. Do you think it could go in the crockpot?

I make collard greens with ham hocks.

@murraysmom Zone 6a OH Actually, that's how I did mine.

The recipe calls for Vegeta seasoning. Does anyone know what that is?

Vegeta (condiment) - Wikipedia https://share.google/c8MwuWIVjHRQG058X

My mother used ham hocks when I was growing up. I especially remember them in black eyed peas for New Year’s Day. I don’t eat beef or pork, so I use smoked turkey legs, necks, or wings instead.

porkandham, you don't eat beef or pork? That makes your "handle" pretty funny then. I like it.

@laceyvail 6A, WV, It’s a kind of vegetable stock powder. You could probably miss it out if you just season well with salt and pepper and whatever herbs you think might go well.

porkandham, that is an adorable story about your name. So sweet!! Do they still have those nicknames?

Thanks, Colleen. I'd never heard of it.

@murraysmom Zone 6a OH We stil call them porkchop and hambone on occasion, but as they got older, other nicknames evolved, but we mostly use their given names.

FWIW, I haven't eaten pork in many years, so I use smoked salt and chipotle powder to get that smoky umami in lots of dishes - works just as well, IMPE.

Ham hocks are a great addition for most beans and bean based soups and I agree with them being harder to find at times. We got an email from Honeybaked Ham once advertising a sale on ham bones. When they are on sale (flat price each), they compare very favorably to ham hocks but weigh more due to the amount of meat still on them. I'm not really sure what the price per pound is, on sale or otherwise, but even not on sale they have been a great value. We have gotten meals off the meat left on the bone before using the rest to make soup or red beans and rice. If you try one, just be sure to rinse all the honey glaze off before putting the bone into a pot of soup or beans unless you want it to be peculiarly sweet.

This thread is giving me ideas. Just got this out of my freezer.

Although i don’t care ror eating ham, ham hocks are great to use for flavor and a small bit of meat when cooking beans. My favorites are pinto beans, lady peas (similar to black-eyes peas), and white beans such as great northern or navy beans. Usually i use white beans for white bean soup. My dad used to love what he called Navy Bean Soup.

The only problem….I must make cornbread and usually greens when i make beans and that isn’t on my diet plan. But soooo good.

Plenty of meat for two plus liquor and left overs for soup.

Sadly, our grocery store (New England) sells ham hocks. Smoked flavor, but barely a tablesspoon of meat on them. Bone, fat and sinew. I envy you Floral_uk!

I love green and yellow split peas soup, bean soup and lentil soup. I somtimes buy the ham hocks for flavoring, but there is VERY little meat. Perhaps I can ask the manager — what’s up.

petalique, do ask the manager. Though the smoked hocks I’ve used were okay, the smoked shanks are always meatier. They sell both in the meat department at our market…pre-packaged.

I used to get beautiful ham hocks at a small family grocery in Opelika ,AL , Wrights Grocery. They stopped having anything worth buying and I haven’t tried up here in VA but I haven’t seen them in the case.

They were so meaty that yes 2 could make a meal off of the meat. Too bad as they really make red beans outstanding.

And that is another thing that has been gone for several years. Camellia Beans used to have true New Orleans red beans . For several years all they have had are Red Kidney Beans. Nope Nope Nope. Y’all don’t know what proper red beans are if you are using kidney beans . It is a terrible loss as they don’t cook down creamy. Blue Runner had canned New Orleans Red Beans that were an excellent substitute if you didn’t have time to soak and cook but their’s are kidney beans too. terrible. c

edit- i did some research there are light red kidney beans and when I looked at them I realized that is what we always cooked! Not the thick skinned dark red that don’t get creamy. So mystery solved. I can buy some of the light red and see if they work.

HU-113737678, please report back on the light red kidney beans. I like kidney beans, light or dark and I would love to know how you fix them. Thanks.

@murraysmom Zone 6a OH houzz keeps messing with my sign in- its trailrunner/ still trailing / c- I will let you know but I am almost positive it was the light pink. I make red beans and rice the traditional way. Cut up Trinity and saute add to soaked/ drained/ cooked til mostly soft beans and simmer a bit more . Salt and pepper . If you add it too soon it too loses its flavor . Smash a cup of cooked beans to make gravy creamier. Never add sausage to beans til after they are cooked as it loses every bit of taste. Almost everyone makes that mistake. Even the hamhocks will lose most of their flavor if simmered too long . Then you have to add more meat! Thats it.

I've found ham hocks to be more of pig's feet in the past several years. I prefer 'ham steaks' as seasoning to bean dishes. We like a mix of pintos and navy beans with the ham steak.

Love ham hocks and use diced pancetta for additional meat or in lieu of hocks when I don't have one. I make a one pot meal that is more of a stew than a soup, with chicken stock, garbanzo and cannelini beans, rice, tomatoes, onions, toasted fennel seeds, thyme and kale— and whatever veg I have on hand that needs to be used, like zuccini, eggplant, yellow squash, carrots, etc. It’s very hearty, filling, and the animal protein component is more of a condiment or flavoring.

I love them but they've gotten so expensive. I used them to make any type of bean soup or split pea soup.

No ham hocks for me. Can’t stand pea or bean soup.

Still trailing, have you tried Rancho Gordo for teh beans? They have so many heirloom varieties and I wouldn't know what to suggest, but it's a thought. I've bought beans from them, but not red beans because I can get those in any grocery store here. If you can't find them, I can pack a box and send you some. Making do with canned beans is ok, but canned kidney beans are not the same as home cooked red beans. IYKYK

3katz4me, you don't have to make a soup. I rarely do but we often have ham hocks just for themselves. The left over cooking liquor can be used in many other ways. Risotto is one.

@lascatx thank you yes I can get any beans I want at stores locally. I have tried RG beans. I got 6 bags a number of years ago , selected based on the reviews.

I was very disappointed in all but one kind. In looking further at their reviews I saw there were many that expressed my opinion. They fall apart way too easily. It didn’t matter if I soaked or didn’t soak they cooked to mush immediately after they got tender.

The best red bean I have found is the generic brand at Walmart called ” small red bean”. They maintain there integrity perfectly after getting tender. They are so good and flavorful I use them all the time. They don’t make good Red Beans and Rice NOLA style because they don”t get creamy.

HaHa… it is a specific quality . The dark kidney bean has a thick skin and won’t get the right level of creamy either. I found the light red kidney ( pink) and will be trying those. I found an excellent piece of info that supports my case.

Will report back. 🤞

I read that as you couldn't find the small red beans, but maybe that's 'just the Camelia brand. I agree that kidney beans are not the same. I use generic HEB brand red beans and usually have a bag in my pantry. It has been years since I ordered from RG. I dind't have fall apart beans, but the males in my family don't like eating beans as much - post consumption odors. Red beans and rice and black beans with certain foods are the exceptions, and I can get those at HEB so I haven't ordered again.