NAVY BEANS AND HAM

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DESCRIPTION

This Navy Beans and Ham recipe has a super flavorful creamy soup base with tender beans and ham pieces and it has a secret ingredient that removes the gas from the beans.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 large bag or 2 small bags dried navy beans
  • 2 ham shanks with bones, or one cottage ham
  • Bacon pieces, optional
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 packet of Pioneer Brand peppered gravy mix

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Place the dry beans in a pan and sift through them with your hands. Discard any beans that look bad.
  2. Run two inches of water over the beans and leave the beans to soak overnight, at least 8 hours.
  3. Drain the water from the beans. Sift through the beans one more time to check for bad ones.
  4. Place the beans in a large pot. Cover with one inch of water, and add the baking soda. Bring to a boil over high heat. Watch carefully!! The water will become foamy and start to rise quickly. When this happens, remove the pot from the heat. Rinse the beans thoroughly under cold water and return to the pot.
  5. Dice the ham up into bite size pieces and add to the beans. Add bacon pieces if desired. Dice up the onion and add in, then the bay leaf. Cover the beans with three inches of water and add the salt and pepper.
  6. Place the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, until the beans are very tender. Add the gravy mix and simmer for an additional fifteen minutes.

NOTES

  • Crockpot Version: To fix beans in a crockpot, either soak the beans overnight or bring beans to a boil and remove from heat. Let beans soak for 1-2 hours. Place in a crockpot on low for eight hours. During the last half hour, add in the gravy mix and a tiny bit of milk if preferred.
  • The process of bringing the beans to a boil, removing from heat, and allowing to soak for 1-2 hours is called the quick soak method. This method is quick, however, the quick soak method tends to extract more of the nutrients from the beans than the overnight soak.