Bean Soup is a Conspiracy!

Now before I get too far into this I must admit; I love to cook. Yeah, I'm a guy, and I cook. I'm confident I cook fairly well, perhaps even gourmande' quality, but I have a good teacher (my wife who is a classically trained French and certified Culinary graduate and Chef) though I've always loved to cook. I digress.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best sometimes. Take some great northern beans and throw them in a pot with some ham hocks and leftover country smoked ham pieces, finely chopped onions, salt and pepper...simmer the whole thing on low for a while and the results are, well, just a "conspiracy" they're so good!

So, I'm convinced there are other forces at work with what I call the "Bean Soup Conspiracy".

Many years ago I read a story, by a great comedy author, who alleged that you could make soup with a plain old rock on the side of the road. I must say, I love soup! Just about any kind of soup. It's one of my favorite things. Ever since reading that story as a kid I've often thought about picking up a rock and just trying it.

Many people walk through the grocery store and walk right by the section with the dried beans in it. "Too hard, too long...too much prep seems to be the body language". Personally, I have a hard time passing that section without grabbing a couple bags knowing I can make sumthin' good from them. The wife scolding me about the fact we have probably a half a ton of beans already at the house doesn't deter me.

People say, "oh, but the gas!". Actually, if cooked properly, beans don't give you gas. I have problems with gas, so I make sure they're cooked properly! Beans are a great source of fiber and protein. They're also low in calories, chocked full of vitamins and good for you. And, as an added bonus they're portable and very storable. Again, I digress.

The bottom line here is this; as I sit here and look out my back door with 4 feet of snow piled up against it and the two dogs laying near the fireplace, a nice bowl of smokey bean soup with ham in it just warms my soul.

And so what is the recipe?

(1) 16oz (.5kg) package of great northern (white) dry beans.
(6) cups water
(2-3) nice smoked ham hocks
(1/2) yellow onion, finely diced
sea salt
coarse groung fresh black pepper
(oh, and whatcha'got meat scraps)

So, here's the "hard" part (just kidding...it's idiot proof)

The bean package will have all these complicated instructions about soaking them overnight and then picking thrugh them, then boiling them for 16.37 minutes and all this jazz...screw all that!

Just throw the dry beans, ham hocks and ham in a crockpot, dump in the water, add the onions, about a tsp of salt and a good amount of black pepper. Turn the crockpot on high for about 5 hours and be ready with a good spoon that won't melt at high speeds (because it's going to take a slo-mo camera to catch it standing still when you taste this)

That is all.

P.S. You can use bacon too. Cooked, or raw, doesn't matter.

P.S.S. And if you really want to see how truly good this is...just walk outside your house for about 10 minutes and go shovel some snow or something, then walk back in and smell how absolutely good it is!!

Enjoy.

Always, ALWAYS, check your beans. Those instructions are there for a reason. During the harvesting process, rocks sometimes slip by. Always wash your beans really well in several waters till the waters run clean.

reply to post by ohioriver


Heh, I guess folks back in the old days must have made some seriously 'chewy' soup!

Hey, rock = minerals, right??

Equally, maybe you missed the part about the soup rock too.

S&F

Seriously I dont know anyone who loves soup as much as I do, I can make it with anything, winter, summer, I dont care, its good, and healthy, you cannot seperate me from my split pea soup, or homemade clam chowder.

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by Flyingclaydisk


Seriously, I wanna know. How do you think beans are raised and processed today and in the old days.

I was just looking into making some bean soup .Then I saw your post.

Thanks,man,I will give it a go!

I think beans traumatized me as a young child
Can't stand the look of them, or the smell of them. But you enjoy!

I love bean soup. I especially love bean soup with cornbread. I'm talking cornbread made from scratch. Crumble that bad boy in the bottom of a big bowl and drench it with hot ham and beans that have simmered all day in a big kettle. Man, oh, man. Nothin says lovin like bean soup and cornbread.

It's important to soak your beans.

I'm something of a fairly decent cook as well.

You shouldn't use the water you soak your beans in to cook with. Beans are dirty - soaking them allows the beans to evenly absorb water and cuts the cooking time once you put them on heat down drastically. The longer you cook a bean, the more nutrients you suck out of it. Additionally, soaking beans helps to make them LESS GASSY. You can add a little baking soda to your soaking water, and you'll have gas free beans. After soaking, you should rinse your beans ALOT.

I'm sure you have an edible soup with your method, but I can also guarantee that your beans are split, skinless, and devoid of nutrition.

Soaking is MOI IMPORTANTE!

Great Northern beans are related to the navy bean. There was a lot of problems with the navy bean in the past. Although the great northern bean is weaker they can cause the same problems. You can do it either of two ways to neutralize the toxins that can agglutinate the blood and can cause mild strokes or even heart mild blockages possibly leading to heart attacks. Stomach cramps caused by this can also occur.

You can soak the beans for twenty four hours and then boil them for ten plus minutes or you can boil them vigorously for an hour. Then put them into the crock pot. The heat used in a crockpot can actually increase the chemistry that causes the agglutination of the blood. The onions can help to dampen this as can alcohol but these will not get rid of the toxin. If I remember right it is an oxalate of some kind. Don't reuse the soaking water either, discard it and put in new water.

There are quite a few articles about this on various sites on the web. Everyone is susceptible to this chemical, it is not something that just effects a few people. If you drink alcohol with it the alcohol may stop this from happening but without it you may get some problems. Maybe the headache and foggy mind the next day is not from the booze, a mild stroke could also do this. The brain will heal if the right foods are eaten, fish being a good example of this. Certain perennial grains can also help to repair the brain a little also

Be careful with this, we need everyone here thinking clearly. Here is an article, www.wikihow.com... I did a study on the chemical they are talking about and it has effects on agglutination of blood.

AHHHHHHHHH, the old rock soup tale..

oh how I love it...lol..

Some travellers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travellers. Then the travellers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travellers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavour, which they are missing. The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mention their stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

Originally posted by tinker9917
I think beans traumatized me as a young child

Can't stand the look of them, or the smell of them. But you enjoy!

Me too. Beans are yuck!

If the recipe has more than 5 ingredients and takes more than 30minutes to prepare it doesn't get cooked.

Adding the seaweed "kombu" to your beans also neutralizes the amino acids which cause gas. I just tear up a piece of it that's about 5 x 1 inch (sold in plastic envelopes) for a big pot of chili that renders 12 - 15 cups.

I've also used kombu with canned beans if I keep the liquid they're preserved in. If I rinse canned beans, no kombu needed. Happy bellies all around!

Originally posted by ohioriver
reply to post by Flyingclaydisk

 

Seriously, I wanna know. How do you think beans are raised and processed today and in the old days.

"Seriously", I'll tell ya'!

Back in the days before everyone lived in thermally controlled, completely sterilized and hermetically sealed environments, people used to eat food which was grown from the land. I'm not talking about the organically grown, pesticide free, dirt free, hydroponic, super-sonic (expee-ali-do-shus) stuff you see in the granola store, but the stuff that comes outta' the 'dirt". It had bugs on it sometimes (more protein), or dirt (gasp), and sometimes people didn't have a whole lot of extra water to even wash them off before eating them! (thud!).

So, a little tiny rock or dirt clod now and then (which incidentally I've never found any of) ain't gonna' hurt ya!




edit...I prolly should have added 'politically correct' in there somewhere, but oh well!

reply to post by Flyingclaydisk


Hey I am from the St Louis area and I LOVE to cook as well. Around here we call it Ham and Beans. Mom used all northern beans but I have transitioned into using half pinto and half northern beans. I cook it in a pot on the stove and use the same ingredients with a few additional spices and I also add some potatoes later in the cooking process. Some of the potatoes will cook down and make the juice thicken. It is excellent with some cornbread. YUM. You made me hungry for it now as it is a good cold weather meal and it is just that here now.

When I said beans were dirty, I wasn't meaning dirt only. I have kept a garden for years, I have no problem pulling a carrot out of the ground and eating it.

What I meant was beans are full of indigestable carbohydrates - when you use the same water you soak them in you're just putting all that stuff in your soup. That's what gives you the poots.

Same thing goes when you cook them without soaking, you're just taking all the indigestable carbs and putting it in your soup. This is why you soak your beans with a little (1-2tsp) baking soda. It helps release these sugars from the beans and keeps you fart free. There are also certain levels of toxins in beans that soaking and rinsing will get rid of.

People soaked their beans in the old days too - I'm talking about for thousands of years people have soaked and rinsed beans. So yeah, we've come a long ways from the days of eating dirty, rocky beans, but there are still very good reasons to soak them.

I really enjoy cooking. I have worked in fine dining at one of my state's premier restaurants, although it's been some time since I have worked in a kitchen. I still take cooking very seriously and take pride in making delicious and healthy food for my family. The OP is correct, you can make an edible soup out of pretty much anything.. It's attention to detail that takes your soup from "ok" to "amazing."

One day I wanted to learn to cook beans, so I STUDIED a lot of methods and recipes, and learned the science and chemistry (to a practical level, of course) of doing so. I'm not trying to be a turd, just saying there is a reason beans are soaked before cooking.

I flagged this thread because of the comments. Lots of really interesting info here about beans.
i am a bean lover...and a firm believer that the only bread to eat with beans is cornbread....well maybe a flour tortilla....

I am a big soup fan but beans are something i can't seem to get the taste for.

I don't like beans in anything and will pick them out. I even make my chili without beans if it's just for me but if I make it for others I add beans and just pick them out. My fiancee goes nuts over this because he loves beans and doesn't understand why I don't.

The soup you mentioned is one he'd love but for me not so much. I am also not a ham fan so ham and beans with onions is not something I'd want. I do make a lot of soups but none require beans!

I have been open to trying things with beans as long as they aren't a main ingredient. I did have a white bean soup at a French restaurant that was delicious but the beans weren't whole.. It was more of a puree with some small pieces of bean. It was really good.

Something I like on a cold rainy day loafing indoors is the liquor from cooking pinto beans. Liquor ie. the bean broth for those who haven't heard the term before.
I like beans as much as most, but actually infrequently because as with some other 'cheap' foods, they tend to constipate.... same with rice or spit pea soup.

Something for those not particularily keen on beans, refried black beans might change your mind some. La Costina refried black beans are much different in taste than most of your garden variety beans. In the Mexi section of the supermarket along with salsa, chillies, and all Mexican foods.