Ham Bone

[geordy]

Anyone have a tasty recipe for a ham bone....soup? I brought the bone home from the Easter Ham.

[Jody]

Our favorite is a yellow split pea soup, called Midnight pea soup.

You can use green split peas if you can't find yellow.

1 lb dried split peas
1 ham bone...see note
2 large or 5 medium onions diced
4 leeks sliced..or use a few more onions'
2 celery ribs sliced
2 large carrots diced
1 cip white wine
3 cloves garlic chopped
marjoram and thyme..just eye it
8 cups water

Combine everythig and cook at a simmer for 2 1/2 hours.

Remove ham bone, while continuing to simmer the soup. Shred any meat on the bone. Use a hand blender to slightly puree soup, Add the meat.

My DH likes it served with croutons, that have been sauteed in a bit of olive oil/


Now I almost never have a ham bone! So I use 2 ham boullion cubes or 2 packets of Goya sabor a jamon...a Spanish ham flavored powder then add a 8 oz package on cubed ham after I've slightly pureed it!

I have at least 3 containers in the freezer right now for when I'm too lazy to cook!

[Truffaut]

Or you could use the wonderful lentilles de Puy for a delicious lentil soup...cold lentil salad...lentil side dish.....

[Anne]

Here is my favourite winter soup : soupe aux lentilles bourguignonne

300 gr green lentilles
2 carrots
1 big onion
1 stick of celery
2 garlic cloves
1 big spoon of parsley
1 small spoon of savory (wild basil ?) if you have any at home (I don't, so I never add any)
1 bay leaf
1.5 deciliter liquid cream
1 ham bone (without fat)
100 gr cooked ham (or ham that you shredded from the bone)
1 liter beef stock
butter, salt, pepper

Now, I use lentilles vertes du Puy, which don't need prior soaking and cook in 20 mns only . You have to check on your pack of lentilles whether you need to soak them first and how long they need to cook .

Cook a little bit the chopped onion in butter in a big saucepan (without letting it get coloured, so use low heat) .

Peel and cut the carrots in thin slices and add them to the onion for a little while .

Add the lentilles, the ham bone, the sliced celery stick, the bay leaf, the mashed garlic, the savory (if any) and the cold beef stock . Bring slowly to boil, removing the scum if there is any . Then let simmer, half covered, until both the carrots and lentils are cooked through .

Throw away the ham bone (shredding the ham first) and the bay leaf . Put a few big spoons of lentils away for later on, then blend the rest of the soup . Put the blended soup back on the fire, add salt and pepper . Cut the ham in small squares, add it to the soup and let it all cook for 5-10 mns .

Then add the lentils that you had saved previously, also add the cream and let it warm up (if the soup is too thick for your taste, you may want to add some boiling water too) . Add the parsley just before serving .

This soup is filling enough to be a dinner in itself . It is VERY tasty, very perfumed . And lentilles are full of iron .

[Truffaut]

Anne,
That's an interesting recipe. I don't think I've ever seen a lentil soup with a beef stock base, but it sounds delicious.

[Jody]

Anne, the soup sounds wonderful and I've copied it to my Master Cook program. While Doug has not had lentil soup with beef broth , I always use beef broth, I've never had it with cream!

Lentils are another thing I always have to have in Paris. I used to bring home bags of lentils du Puy, but fortunately one of our shops now carries them locally.

[Happygoin]

Lentil soup was going to be my suggestion too. Love it. Pea soup, not so much. My mother used to make pea soup whenever she had a leftover ham bone. It was one of the few things we were not made to eat when we were kids. ~blech~

[geordy]

Exactly Happy!!! My Mother was famous for her split pea(green) soup!
Relatives and neighbors would come with their empty jars from far and wide when word got out she had made the soup!! (folks always made a call around Easter!) I never liked it...not the taste..the color and the way it left a "film" in the bowl! Since it was in such demand we weren't forced to eat it either!

First time in the Netherlands I tried their famous sort of beige pea soup(the yellow peas?) and liked it. So since the bone..and quite a bit of the ham..gets discarded now I thought I'd give it a whirl! All the recipes sound good..and I too love lentils in any form....I'll have to see what I find in the legume section!

Lentiils have gotten expensive here ..something about India not exporting??? It is causing the prices in Indian and other east Asian restaurants to go up!

Thanks all!

[annettecinca]

Anne, this does sound good--thanks for posting the recipe. I've always thought something with "Bourguignonne" in the name included Burgundy wine, so I'm guessing in this case it means the recipe originated in the Burgundy region?

[Anne]

Mar 26, 2008 10:12:48 GMT -5 @annettecinca said:

I'm guessing in this case it means the recipe originated in the Burgundy region?

I guess it does, since no ingredient in the receipe is specifically bourguignon indeed ...

BTW, when I have no ham bone, I simply do without it . The soup has much flavour even without the bone .

[susanb]

All the recipes sound good. I've never had beef broth or cream in my lentil soup. My mother was
also famous for her split pea soup and after the first time we had to eat it. we never had to again.
It was the thick texure that got me........DOUBLE BLECH!!
sUSAN

[geordy]

Demarais...I decided to try your midnight pea soup. I had a big ole bone(with quite a bit of meat) from a 10 pound Easter ham so I thought that would be enough flavor without stock. Instead of leeks I used scallions(spring has sprung!) and the yellow peas so as to have a more(to me)pleasant color! Did without the celery and used baby carrots. It "broke down" nicely so I did not puree. Also had some good rye bread around so made some croutons. Made it Saturday but wound up having Mexican for dinner Sat nite so had it last night ...superb! It is cool and rainy here today so looking forward to it again tonight

Next..a lentil salad,,with lots of moutarde! ;D Suggestions anyone...?

[GitteK]

Stupid question: are you guys talking about the bone which is in the middle of a smoked ham (read= leg of pig) ? Are we talking about a second-hand bone: first roasted for ham-roast, then given away to poor relatives ??

And WHEN, in the name of Escoffier, did THAT qualify as a base for a quality soup ?
A second-hand, used-before, smoked bone ??

Geez, I knew American economy was down the drain, but still............

[framboiseetrose]

Well, Gitte.......... We have a famous restaurant and it is Danish on the freeway from San Francisco to Los Angeles called Andersen's Pea Soup. It is a favorite stop for motorists and yes, they serve the wonderful split pea soup with the (second-hand) ham bone! It does impart a real great flavor.

And you've never heard of it in Denmark??

[Jody]

We don't care what part of the pig's leg a ham bone comes from. In a pinch, we'll use smoked or cured ham hocks..I guess that's the ankle!! You can't cook in the Southern US unless you have a hock or a bone.

Shoot we even sing about it

Hambone, hambone where you been?
Round the world and I’m going again
What you gonna do when you come back?
Take a little walk by the railroad track

Hambone, hambone Have you heard?
Papa’s gonna buy me a mocking bird
And if that mocking bird don’t sing
Papa’s gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring don’t shine
Papa’s gonna take it to the five and dime.

Hambone, Hambone
where you been?
"Round the corner
And back agin"
Hambone Hambone,
where's your wife?
"In the kitchen cookin rice!"

[geordy]

YUP..Gitte that's my second hand bone! Well since I baked the ham at my brother's it is not exactly second hand....but I am the "poor relation" these days!

And yes it does impart a wonderful flavor...along with the wine(thanks Demarais!) and other seasonings! A few hours simmering and breaking down....delicious! Off to heat some up!

Hambone is also I believe a "nickname" down south....or in some southern writings??/

[Shoesy]

Hmmm..... if you think of a second-hand hambone as "vintage",
wouldn't that make it sound more desirable? ;D

[Anne]

Chouchou, I am not sure whether "vintage" sounds very desirable when solid food is concerned .

Gitte, ham bone doesn't come from smoked ham but from cooked one . Roasting ham at home (or eating warm ham) isn't a French thing, so you actually ask your butcher to save you the bone from a ham that he has cooked to subsequently sell it in cold slices to his customers .

[Happygoin]

And besides, if chicken stock is made from chicken bones, and beef stock is made from beef bones...why wouldn't you make a soup base from a ham bone? Earthy? Yes. American? Maybe. Delicious? I don't think so, but a lot of others do.

PS. And, Shoesy, calling it vintage...or even antique for that matter, doesn't make it taste any better

[Shoesy]

Yes, I know, Happy.......but since wine can be vintage, and so can fashion, then I thought maybe a hambone could too. Just kidding, of course. ;D