So can some of the more knowledgeable cooks out there give me any tips here? I am a big fan of making my own soup stock whenever I've got a spare chicken carcass, and will toss it in any of my favorite soups.
However, I am currently in possession of a ham bone that needs some love. I wrapped it up and tossed it in the freezer after Easter and have been putting off dealing with it ever since. Do I just boil the bejesus out of it with random vegetable bits like I normally do? And what kind of soups is it good in? The only vague idea I have is lentil soup and I am not a huge lentil fan. Can it sub for chicken broth in my less chicken-y soups (mushroom soup maybe?) or is the flavor more dominant than I want in something that delicate?
Anyone? Anyone? I am not going to let that thing sit any longer!
5 comments:
Ham stock is not really a thing. How much meat is on it? You want to use that bone to punch up the flavors in something else, so say you make up a pot of white beans, stick that in for the long simmer, and then add rosemary and whatnot at the end. There's also an odd but good lima bean recipe from Cooking Light that you can add that bone too, and maybe make your own baked beans? It won't play well with mushrooms, but it would play well with collard greens or a long cooked green like that. Kale?
I know nothing about stock, but I do know that there's ham in split pea soup, which is much yummier than lentil soup... I'll just go and google a recipe for you... hang on ... ack, it isn't just a ham bone, it's actual ham you need. Oh well, here's a link or two http://www.gourmet.org/recipes/soups/habitant-pea-soup(quebec-pea-soup)/
http://www.recipesource.com/soups/soups/06/rec0642.html
Well, obviously those links didn' work, but all you need to do to find them is google quebec pea soup (no quotation marks)
Maybe cassoulet? All the recipes I could find involving the ham bone were bean recipes. Maybe you could make lentil soup or pea soup and give it to someone else who likes it?
If the ham was an expensive and yummy smoke cured ham, then a long simmer with some onion and celery and maybe a carrot or 2 thrown in would give you a rich, smoky broth that you could use for a base for veg or bean soup or adding to casseroles. However, if it was a typical grocery store ham, they are generally salt brine cured. Slow simmering would probably give you a broth that is too salty to be used in large quantities, like for a soup base. We don't eat a lot of ham but I do collect bones (chicken, turkey and beef) in the freezer and when I have a bunch I'll make stock. After I condense it down, I ladle it into ice cube trays and freeze it so I have small amounts of homemade stock available to throw in dishes that just need that extra zing. I would imagine that even if the ham stock was really salty, you could do the same thing and just use it in small amounts and be careful about adding salt.
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