That looks fantastic. We make a similar 'soup' with ham and split peas - which is usually so thick you can stand your spoon in it. I like the look of your chunkier version with those beans.

Great cold weather food! I'm going to hit it with a good dose of hot sauce.

Instead of ham and beans like you made (which looks delicious), I fixed pinto beans and salt pork yesterday. Cooked up 2 pounds which I portioned off into meal size and froze most of them. This usually lasts me nearly a year.

Regarding old cornmeal mix. Just add a tsp of flour and soda (tsp of each) and cook as otherwise directed. This will take care of the old stuff that's degraded over time. Works for me (although I haven't had 4 year old to fix).

Of course, from scratch is best and it's easy to do.

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Originally posted by Wet Spaniel

That looks fantastic. We make a similar 'soup' with ham and split peas - which is usually so thick you can stand your spoon in it. I like the look of your chunkier version with those beans.

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We do split-pea with ham soup here too, Jonty, though there are occasional border skirmishes as to whether the split peas should be green (as favored in the States) or yellow (as favored in Canuckistan).

Personally, I think the Canadians have the stronger argument. If that gets me tried for treason, so be it.

Brad's beautiful pot of beans isn't dissimilar to what I do from time to time - there are variants of it more or less nationwide. But other bean dishes hereabouts use larger dried legumes - what we call Navy beans (small white ones), various multi-colored ones, etc. Sherry notes a fabulous Texas version with pintos. And, of course, here in Noo Wingland we have our version of baked beans which are rather different from yours. They're loaded up on porky goodness, either from smoked hocks or, more commonly, salt pork. Along with sweetness provided by molasses or maple syrup....

Split pea n ham here too..
First night soup..
Next night ..pea sluge (sl-judge)...not sure how to spell it correctly..
Anyhoo..2nd night must add water... :0)


Looks good Brad.. :0)

Split pea and ham is another in our winter repertoire’.

Marilyn will remove about half the beans once cooked through slightly, then continue cooking the rest of the pot and let it get a bit squished while stirring. Then add back the rest of the beans to reheat. Brad

My grandparents ate Beans, Greens, and Cornbread almost every single day of their lives. What changed throughout the year was the type of beans--White, Pintos, or Limas--- and the type of greens; turnip, mustard, or collard. The constants were salt pork in the beans, vinegar pepper sauce on the greens, and chow chow on the table!

NOT quite ham and beans, but winter repertoire I suppose   ....

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Originally posted by Owen

NOT quite ham and beans, but winter repertoire I suppose   ....

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Okay, that's a cheap@$$ joke that we've all seen a bazlillion times since the start of the pandemic. But it still made beer shoot out of my nose.

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Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

Split pea n ham here too..
First night soup..
Next night ..pea sluge (sl-judge)...not sure how to spell it correctly..
Anyhoo..2nd night must add water... :0)


Looks good Brad.. :0)

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This brings to mind the story of the Lentil Monster.

I was starting to develop my cooking chops my senior year of college. Sharing a third-floor walkup with some great friends, all of us still counting pennies and fantasizing about eating healthy.

That's a lie. We were fantasizing about eating WELL. We all wanted prime rib and buckets of pig fat and sausages and cheese and to eat from all of the great Chinese and Mexican restaurants that were opening up at the time. But those were rare treats, and most of the time we could only afford to eat healthy and besides, all of us were dating women who wanted to eat healthy.

Or so they told us. We shouldn't have believed them. History proved that they were more lustful for rich foods than we were for them, judging by who they ultimately married, but they told us otherwise and we, flattered and rapturous as we were, believed them. Regardless, this brings us to the Lentil Soup Monster.

My roomies and I were having a party. They knew I cooked well (for an amateur) but rent was due and we were scraping. Roughly 20 or so friends expected. Everyone responsible for bringing own beer or wine, household feeds and washes the dishes. What to do? Hey, Lentil Stew! A bag of lentils, a bit of bacon, lots of veg, a few seasonings, it's almost vegetarian and you lie about the bacon anyway.

A wonderful time was had by all. Lentil stew (mostly vegetarian) over rice. All went (or stayed) home happy. We probably had more than 30 people there, and I recieved universal acclaim. But as previously noted, certain things expand over time.

When discussion the next evening about "what's for dinner?" I pointed out we still had a lot of lentils and rice. So my buddies agreed. Water added to both, heated, leftover beers drunk, everyone went to bed fed and content, if not as luminously content as the night before.

Next evening: "What's for dinner?" "Still got some lentils and rice." "Naaah - think I'll run down to the store and see what's leftover." That last from one of my roommates, who, while he was in school and living with us, was an assistant manager at the local Jack-In-The-Box. He was hoping to score some stale deep-fried tacos.

And that's how it progressed for a week, and then two weeks. The rice reverted to dry form and had to be discarded, but the lentils continued to grow in volume in the pot jammed into the fridge. At three weeks, they were beginning to grow hair. I still couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. At four weeks, the hair nudged the lid off the pot.

At this point, I found a construction dumpster three houses down the street, and threw the whole mess, lid, pot and hairy lentils, into it. Ring cameras didn't exist in those days, so I was never charged.

I swear, on any stack of books you'd offer, that this story is mostly - but not entirely - true.

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Originally posted by eagleisland

quote:

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Originally posted by Wet Spaniel

That looks fantastic. We make a similar 'soup' with ham and split peas - which is usually so thick you can stand your spoon in it. I like the look of your chunkier version with those beans.

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We do split-pea with ham soup here too, Jonty, though there are occasional border skirmishes as to whether the split peas should be green (as favored in the States) or yellow (as favored in Canuckistan).

Personally, I think the Canadians have the stronger argument. If that gets me tried for treason, so be it.

Brad's beautiful pot of beans isn't dissimilar to what I do from time to time - there are variants of it more or less nationwide. But other bean dishes hereabouts use larger dried legumes - what we call Navy beans (small white ones), various multi-colored ones, etc. Sherry notes a fabulous Texas version with pintos. And, of course, here in Noo Wingland we have our version of baked beans which are rather different from yours. They're loaded up on porky goodness, either from smoked hocks or, more commonly, salt pork. Along with sweetness provided by molasses or maple syrup....

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I was wondering about Navy beans and what the anglicised equivalent would be.  And I am very partial to a pot of baked beans made with molasses and bacon - I've never made them with maple syrup, but as you know, it's in short supply around here so I use 'treacle' in mine which is effectively molasses.

I believe the white beans we use are plain ol “Navy” beans.

I recently stumbled upon a quick, slick, easy trick for making cornbread on the stove top.  Works great. Ready in 20 minutes.  Very little clean up.   Short video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSjU5kOvqfo

Now I have to go get a ham bone or a hock for some ham and beans after reading this. We like baby limas for this usually. ‘Tis the season.

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Originally posted by rinemb

This weekend we inaugurated ham and bean season with our first big pot. We used locally sourced smoked ham hocks and bagged white beans.
Warning: Don’t depend on a 4 year old box of Jiffy for your cornbread. (It had no rise and was basically a flat hoe cake) From now on, scratch only. You get to control flour to corn meal ratio and sugar amount.
Brad

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Brad, you will have to excuse me for not getting too excited over Ham and Beans.  That used to be the absolutely worse meal that came in a box of C-Rations (Ham and Lima Beans) when I was in Viet Nam ..... basically inedible.  I never met anyone who liked or would even eat them.  They had a nickname, you can look up on Google, that can't be repeated here.

My dad grew up a poor WV hillbilly and they had pinto beans and pork 6 out of 7 days of the week. (Fridays was McDonalds). To this day it's his favorite dish.

I like it too, the wife not so much. I have to remind her of the poem, "beans, beans, good for your heart..."

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Originally posted by BanjoLink

 

Brad, you will have to excuse me for not getting too excited over Ham and Beans.  That used to be the absolutely worse meal that came in a box of C-Rations (Ham and Lima Beans) when I was in Viet Nam ..... basically inedible.  I never met anyone who liked or would even eat them.  They had a nickname, you can look up on Google, that can't be repeated here.

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Just looked it up John 

Two favourite nicknames from our rat packs were 'babies heads' for steak and kidney pudding (the kidneys look like foetus heads) and 'cheese possessed' which was processed cheese in a can but in typical army fashion, they always do strange things with the wording so it was labeled Cheese, Processed.

----"To this day it's his favorite dish.--"

Not everyone requires variety. My grandmother ate leftover cornbread* crumbled into a tall glass of cold buttermilk most every day of her life, and enjoyed it every single day, called it her favorite dish.

*our cornbread was dry, crumbly, and salty, not at all sweet or cake-like.

... ham and

                                                                                                                  season??

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

----"To this day it's his favorite dish.--"

Not everyone requires variety. My grandmother ate leftover cornbread* crumbled into a tall glass of cold buttermilk most every day of her life, and enjoyed it every single day, called it her favorite dish.

*our cornbread was dry, crumbly, and salty, not at all sweet or cake-like.

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My mother and aunt did the same thing, but sometimes used regular milk ......... never any sugar in cornbread!

^^ I never acquired the taste for buttermilk, yuk. Sugar in cornbread seems to be a racial/cultural thing. I have learned that I usually don't like "Soul Food", which is about the same thing as "Southern Cooking" except for the sugar. Most Black cooks sweeten dang near everything! Sweet beans, sweet greens, sweet cornbread, even a sweet sauce on most meats. Our tradition was savory and salty, not sweet.