Soup Zeus

A story of the rare and raging confidence that I have over a slow cooked pot of bones and broth.

It might not look like much, but inside that vat are two smoked ham hocks, a full hambone, dried navy beans, aromatics, and herbs that will coalesce into magic after just a few short hours.

My bean soup is better than yours. I feel a shiver of Midwestern humility-based shame run screaming down my back when typing those words. Still, they are true. My bean soup is better than the one you make. It’s better than your mother’s, your Mee Maw’s, or your long dead distant relative from 100 years ago. My bean soup will outshine all comers, from dive bars to Michelin stars. There are few things in the world where my confidence soars so high.

I have a core group of friends that go with me a handful of times a year up to a family cabin. One of the great treats of these long weekends is making and sharing meals with the crew. Most of us are quite adept in the kitchen and we strive to make great food so as to impress our closest friends.

My stock in trade at these gatherings is comprised mostly of soups and stews. It’s the perfect setting for slow cooked meals and requires very little attention once the initial prep work and simmering have been handled. Some of my hits include potato cheddar, roasted red pepper, Irish beef stew, and even a spicy seafood Ciopinno.

Bean soup is my ‘Freebird’, though. Kernel, my bandmate and dear friend, once christened me Soup Zeus for my skills around a dutch oven, though I did get drunk enough once while making it that I just used a whole ham. It was the saltiest soup ever made by human hands.

Soups and stews were some of the first things I learned to cook on my own growing up. The recipes are largely forgiving (unless you chuck an entire ham into the pot) and are far more about time than technique. It doesn't take a genius to throw things in a pot and then let them simmer for several hours. The true trick of a great soup or stew is based on what ingredients are used, and knowing what order in which to prep them, sear them, and simmer them.

This is not a French riff courtesy of Julia Child, nor does it possess the exacting technique of Thomas Keller. This is rustic, poor people food made from leftover pig parts, some root veggies, and dried beans. With the proper approach, a little skill, and the right ingredients you too can make the best damned bowl of bean soup on the planet.

Let Soup Zeus show you the way.

Ingredients

4 strips bacon (cut into thin pieces of about 1/2 inch)
1 ham bone or 2 smoked ham hocks (You can use both for even more flavor)
1.5 pounds chopped ham
1.5 pounds dried navy or great northern beans
3 carrots (1.5 to 2 cups of carrot) (diced)
2 shallots (diced)
8 garlic cloves (minced)
3 dried bay leaves
1 bunch fresh rosemary
1 bunch fresh oregano
1 tbsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 cup white wine
salt
pepper
cold tap water

If you don’t have access to a ham bone or hocks, save this recipe for another time. There is no substitute that will work well enough, and you deserve for this to be the best damned bean soup ever.

Preparation

One of the things I love so much about cooking is getting my mise en place together. It’s a French term that essentially translates to “set up”. The idea is to get your mise en place (meez) together, and fully prepped before you ever turn on the heat under your pot.

Because there is a firm rule in the kitchen to have your shit together before beginning, I tend to be a good cook when the pieces are set in place properly. If I have done my setup well, it can lead to some of the truest happiness in my life, all within the confines of my very own kitchen. If I begin cooking before fully getting my meez together, I often find myself playing catching up, and feeling stressed out at even the simplest of meals.

Please take my advice and get all of your meez together before you begin to cook a damned thing. I would also suggest that as you prep these items, you chop all of your vegetables and aromatics first before moving on to the ham and bacon. This will save you from having to wash the cutting board an extra time.

With our meez together and ready to go, place your bacon pieces in a cold dutch oven and then turn the meat to medium low. Pro tip: use the heaviest dutch oven you can find. Cast iron and heavier pots will conduct heat more evenly and keep you from burning your soup. Simmer the bacon until it crisps to doneness. Once the bacon is fully cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon and place it on a plate lined with paper towel, and set aside. There should be enough fat from the bacon to simmer your aromatics and root veg, but feel free to add a bit of olive oil if needed.

Toss in the carrot and season with salt and pepper, bay leaves, and the dried thyme. I say this often in recipes, but you should be seasoning with salt and pepper as you go in smaller amounts. Salt and pepper don’t just add flavor, they help to break food down in different ways that enhance texture, color, flavor, and the depth of the dish. The timing of when you add ingredients can be as important as what you’re adding to the meal.

Simmer the carrots over medium or medium-low heat for a few minutes. You don’t want them to get dark brown. You are looking for them to soften and break down a bit. After maybe five or six minutes of simmering the carrot, add the shallot, continuing to simmer over medium-low.

Allow the shallot to become translucent and then add your red pepper flake, the chopped ham, the garlic and a bit more salt and pepper. Stir well to make sure the ingredients are all mixed and incorporated with the fat in the pan. Simmer for a few minutes longer. This simmering process from adding carrot to the pan to ending up softened garlic will likely take you 20 or 25 minutes, give or take. Err on the side of caution and take it slow if you have to. Don’t burn this stuff. It’ll get nasty.

Once your aromatics have been simmered down sufficiently, add the wine and simmer for two to three minutes to reduce the volume by just a fraction. After that, you can place your ham hocks and/or your bones into the pot along with the beans and fill up the pot to well over the top of the hocks/bones and beans. Season that with again with more salt and pepper.

Next, place the fresh herbs in the pot. The ideal way to do this is with a muslin bag that will impart flavor into the soup without any of the physical herbs ending in the finished soup. You can also use some kitchen string and tie the herbs together. I was out of kitchen string and didn't think to grab a muslin bag at the brew shop for this, so I went rustic and just dropped them in as-is. You could also pull the herbs from their stems and chop them up. This is for savages in the wilderness. It’s fine with an extra leaf or two.

Bring this mixture to a simmer and cover with the lid set slightly askew. This will take several hours and can cook for just about as along as you’d like, although the beans do get mushy after a while. I find that somewhere in the 4-6 hour range is great. I also prefer navy beans as they are a bit smaller and tend to hold their shape better and for longer than the great northern variety.

All you’re looking to do while the soup simmers is to wait for the flavor to come to fruition from the marrow of the bones and hocks. Be sure to stir the soup regularly to avoid burning or scalding anything on the bottom. Keep an eye on the water levels and make sure you’re not getting too dry. I like to cook my bean soup until the beans have gotten soft but are still holding their shape. Over time, the water-cum-broth should become smoky, slightly salty, and rich with umami.

As the soup simmers, you will notice a bit of bubbly scum that will appear n the surface along with a layer of fat. Remove as much of the scum as you can with a spoon and remove some of the extra fat as well. You want to leave some fat in the soup for flavor, but too much can get greasy and form an oily layer atop your soup. Regular skimming will help relieve this, and result in a cleaner and better tasting soup.

Once you’re ready to serve, turn the heat off, and ladle this smoky goodness into a mug and enjoy. I find it pairs best with homemade corn muffins, but rolls, garlic bread, and oyster crackers are all wonderful choices for accompaniment. Not only is this meal delicious, it makes a ton of food for a very small amount of cash. I made my most recent batch of this to take to the cabin and spent just $28 for everything save the hambone. This most recent batch made at least 14 servings of soup. I could have just used the hocks on my list and the soup would still have been outstanding. Gourmet food at $2 a serving.

Get your meez together, grab your dutch oven, and give yourself the day to summon the Soup Zeus.

Cheers,
Matty C