Most of my recipes are quick and easy. Ham bone soup is one of the exceptions. To do it right, it’s a two-day process. So, plan on spending a good amount of time preparing this one. Trust me, it will be well worth your time.
Ingredients:
Ham bone
Ham
Potatoes
Celery
Carrots
Green Beans
Cloves
Chicken Bullion
Kuhn’s Pepper Rub (optional)
I love cooking this soul warming soup recipe in the dead of January’s cold winter. It is a perfect way to use the leftover frozen ham bone from your Christmas dinner ham. You didn’t throw it out, did you?
Day one.
Start off with a large pot of water to boil your hambone in. I like to add a few whole cloves to the water, and then boil the bone for hours, until all of the meat falls off the bone. Much of the water may boil away, so it’s not unusual to have to add more water to the pot.
After the bone is clean, discard it, of course, and drain the pot through a colander into a second large pot so that you separate and preserve the ham pieces and save all of the juices. Sift through the ham pieces and save the good ham while discarding any gristle or fat.
If I feel like there is not enough ham to make a good, hearty ham soup, then I’ll pick up a thick slice of ham at the grocery store, cut it up and add it to the pot. Store the good ham meat chunks in the refrigerator overnight. Set the pot of hot juices outside in the snow if you want to cool the hot pan quickly.
And then set the cool pot in the refrigerator overnight so that the excess fat will rise to the top.
Day two.
Retrieve the pot of broth from the refrigerator, and you will see a white layer of fat floating on top of the good broth.
Skim off and discard all of the fat that rose to the top overnight. You will now have a nice pot of ham broth ready to make soup out of.
The next step is preparing the veggies. Cut up three or four pieces of celery, three or four potatoes, and a couple of carrots. Open and drain a can of green beans.
Add it all to the soup broth along with a few cubes of chicken bouillon. Cover and simmer for an hour or so, or until the veggies are tender.
Be prepared to taste the best soup of your life! (And that’s no exaggeration!)
It’s probably not necessary, because the soup is already so flavorful, but you may notice in the picture that I sprinkled a little bit of Kuhn’s pepper rub over the top of my bowl of soup. But then, I use the stuff for everything!
Enjoy!
COMING SOON:
Robert Kuhn 