American · Appalachian · soup

Soup Beans with Ham Hock

Name: Soup Beans with Ham Hock
Prep time: 2 h 58 min
Total time: 10 h 58 min
Cuisine: American · Appalachian
Ingredients: pinto beans — 450 g; pork hocks — 450 g; water — 2500 g; yellow onion — 200 g; salt — 10 g; black pepper — 5 g; red chili flakes — 5 g; bacon grease — 27 g; yellow onion — 140 g; chow chow — 120 g

Soup Beans with Ham Hock reads umami 7.5, richness 7.4 and allium 5.2 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a American · Appalachian soup, about 10 hr 58 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 7.9 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 3.4 / 10
Sour & Bright — 0.8 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 3.3 / 10
Rich & Fat — 7.7 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 5.6 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 7.5 · Richness 7.4 · Allium 5.2 · Salinity 4.7 · Sweetness 3.2 · Earthy 2.8 · Smoke 2.3 · Heat 2.1 · Warm Spice 1.6 · Nutty 1.0 · Bitterness 0.9 · Herbaceous 0.9 · Sourness 0.7 · Floral 0.7 · Fruity 0.7

What's in it (10)

pinto beans — 450 g
pork hocks — 450 g
water — 2500 g
yellow onion — 200 g
salt — 10 g
black pepper — 5 g
red chili flakes — 5 g
bacon grease — 27 g
yellow onion — 140 g
chow chow — 120 g

Time & effort: about 10 hr 58 min (2 hr 58 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 43.8 kcal, 3.1 g protein, 2.1 g fat, 3.3 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

Soup beans are the daily bread of the Appalachian table and the name is precise: they are beans served in their own broth, not drained, and the broth is thickened only by the starch that leaches out of the beans over several hours. The full meal is a bowl of soup beans, a wedge of cornbread crumbled into it, raw onion on the side and a spoon of chow chow. Nothing else is required and adding much else misses the point.
Pinto is the standard bean, though brown beans, October beans and greasy beans all get used and are all worth seeking out from a Southern seed keeper. Do not use tinned beans; the broth is the dish and it only exists if the beans made it.
Cover the beans with cold water by 8 cm and soak overnight, at least 8 hours. Drain them.
Put the ham hock in a heavy pot with the 2.5 litres of fresh water and the halved onion. Bring to a boil, skim off the grey foam, and simmer 45 minutes.
Add the drained beans and simmer uncovered, lid ajar, 2 hours. Keep the heat so low that only a few bubbles break at a time — a hard boil breaks the skins and gives you mush instead of whole beans in a thickened broth. Stir occasionally and scrape the bottom. Add hot water only if the beans come uncovered.
When the beans are completely soft and the liquid has gone cloudy and thick enough to coat a spoon, season with the salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Adding salt earlier keeps the skins tough. Take out the onion halves, pull the hock meat off the bone, chop it and return it.
Stir in the bacon grease and let it stand 10 minutes off the heat. Serve in deep bowls with a good deal of the liquid, the raw diced onion and the chow chow alongside.
Substitutions: pepper vinegar can stand in for the chow chow.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Sea Island Red Peas and Rice — Southern · Lowcountry
Tacu Tacu — Peruvian
Locro — Argentine
Axoa de Veau — Basque · Iparralde (France)
Tripas à Moda do Porto — Portuguese

Keep reading: what umami, richness, allium mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

See how this dish fits your palate — take the short taste test →

Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.