Rustic Ham and Navy Bean Soup

Bacon, thick cut

Leftover Ham (cut into cubes)

4 stalks of Celery

Celery Leaves (pulled from the stalks and minced)

Medium Yellow Onion, diced

4 Carrots, sliced
Fresh minced garlic

Mini Creamery Potato sliced or two Red Potatoes diced.

Half a bag of Navy Beans (soaked overnight and rinsed)

Better than Bullion Ham's base

Black Pepper

Onion Powder

Garlic Powder

Bay Leaf

Liquid Smoke

Water

Note* I do not add salt; it comes from the bacon, ham, and stock base. Be cautious.

Cut up bacon and saute till crisp and fats are rendered. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. If you use fresh garlic, saute in two tablespoons of the bacon fat for a minute or two. Saute cubed ham in the same pan. Add beans, bacon, ham and garlic to a large stock pot, add about six cups of water for every 2 cups of the pre-soaked beans. (1 cup of dried beans equals 3 cups of soaked beans). Add condensed ham base. Cook for 1 and 45 minutes, add chopped vegetables, celery leaves, onion powder, garlic powder (unless you are using fresh garlic) black pepper to taste, bay leaf, a little liquid smoke. You should note, I have added no additional salt, that is purposeful, salt will pull from both the ham and bacon, additionally, the ham base and condensed Knorr's bullion contain salt. You can adjust this recipe if you are using fresh homemade chicken stock. You can always add salt and pepper to your personal taste in the bowl, but you cannot remove it from the soup. This is a filling soup, so I would serve it with cornbread or a salad.

Please keep in mind that I made a full soup pot of this recipe and will be freezing half of it.

CarveMaster Ham's, My New Favorite Ham.

CarveMaster sty hams are natural hams that are cut from the bone creating a flat shape perfect for carving. They're smoked with apple-wood. Several brands exists, Smithfield, Wright's, CarveMaster, Kirkland... those are the ones I know of. After buying the first one of this variety of ham that is all I buy now. It comes with a packet of red current glaze, they recommend that you brush the glaze on 20 minutes before removing it from the oven, but I did not do it that way. I cut the pouch of glaze openand poured it over the cold ham before baking, I also filled the pouch with water and poured that over the ham to thin the glaze. It is my preference to cook the glaze into the ham and baste it while baking, then the natural juices from the ham mix with the glaze making it rather smokey and slightly salty juice. At the end of baking, I used the baster to transfer the glaze juice to a saucepan and then thickened it with a little cornstarch slurry, thus making a ham gravy. It is incredible dripped onto sliced ham, drizzled on potatoes running into your rolls or biscuits, You make gravy from all other meat juices, why not ham?

If you don't want to use the glaze packet, you can make your own. I would recommend applying brown sugar to the scored surface of the ham and then pouring pineapple juice and maraschino cherry juice over the ham (I reserve the pineapple and cherries for ambrosia salad). You can add a little water as well, only a little. Then baste the ham while baking for 15 minutes per pound at 325 °F.