Navy Bean Soup

By Jim Hingst 

Navy bean soup has been standard fare aboard ships of the United States Navy for at least 100 years. Some believe that this soup dates back as far as the 19^th century.  While many who have served in the navy know this dish as “Navy Bean Soup,” it also goes by the name of “Senate Bean Soup.”  Since about 1903 cooks have made this hambone soup in the U.S. Senate cafeteria.

 

The standard navy recipe is fairly simple. Originally, the soup was a mixture of dried beans and salt pork along with some tomatoes and some simple spices. It often included leftovers from other meals. Today several variations of the original recipe exist. While my recipe may differ from the chow cooked according to the Cook Book of the United States Navy, it makes a hearty warm meal during the cold winter months.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons bacon grease or olive oil for sauteing the onions, carrots and celery

2 onions, chopped

4 stalks celery, diced

3 large carrots, diced

1 package of frozen spinach

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 meaty hambone

3 cups of diced ham or smoked sausage or a combination of the two

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried basil

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon turmeric

¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper

½ Tablespoon ground cumin 

4 cups dried navy beans or some other white beans, soak between 8 hours but no more than 12 hours; oversoaking the beans can make them mushy; drain and rinse

2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes, with juices

96 ounces (3 quarts) chicken broth. You will need enough broth to cover your hambone.

Salt to taste. Ham is salty, so you may not need any more to your soup. The best advice is to cook the soup. Near the end of the cooking process test it for flavoring. Only then add any additional salt. In most cases, more salt is unnecessary.

DIRECTIONS

Soak the navy beans. Drain and rinse the soaked beans.

Sauté the onions, carrots and celery in olive oil. Cook until the vegetables are soft and begin to get some color.

Add the garlic, thyme, marjoram, red pepper flakes, cayenne and black pepper. Continue to sauté until the garlic is fragrant. Add the vegetables and spices to your stock pot. 

You can also sauté the cubed ham and/or smoked sausage. Deglaze the skillet with white wine. 

Sauté the cubed ham and/or smoked sausage.

Add the chicken broth, drained beans, diced tomatoes, bay leaves and hambone. (You can add additional vegetables from your garden or as you are cleaning out your refrigerator, such as chopped peppers, chopped potatoes or spinach.)  The liquid should cover the beans by about two inches. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally to prevent burning, which is the only way you could possibly ruin a soup. (Cooking low and slow releases the flavor from the hambone.)

Cook until the beans are tender. This could take between 2 and 3 hours. Remove the hambone and strip off the ham. The meat should easily fall off the bone. Return the pieces of ham to the soup.

After cooking the soup for 1½ hours, taste test the soup before adding any salt or adjusting your seasoning. The salt from the hambone as well as the saltiness of the chicken broth may provide sufficient salinity. Remember, if you add too much salt, there’s not much you can do to correct your mistake.

If you desire, you can thicken the soup with a roux or cornstarch slurry. Or you can put some of the cooked beans in a blender and puree them and then return it to the soup.

Remove the bay leaves before serving.

About Jim Hingst: Sign business authority on vehicle wraps, vinyl graphics, screen printing, marketing, sales, gold leaf, woodcarving and painting. 

After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 190 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 500 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

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