Dried Bean Soup with Pork Hocks

Dinner tonight is pork hocks and white bean soup. I am using the old Mennonite recipe, but using black beans instead of white beans, because that's what I have.


I got lovely fresh pork hocks from Stongs, very cheap. You can also use ham or smoked pork.
I put the beans to soak this morning, then cooked them and the pork hocks in two separate pots in the afternoon. Does anyone just use one pot?  If I am working all day, I cook the beans and meat the night before.


I put peppercorns and bay leaf in a spice ball and simmered with the meat. I also had summer savory in freezer bags from last summer and tied up a bunch with string and threw that in. You can just throw it in loose, but I don't like picking out the stems.


Once the meat is falling off the bones, I'll take it out, cut it in small pieces and serve it separately or put it back in the soup. I'll add an onion, fresh parsley, and salt and the beans to the soup.  I have no parsley from the garden yet so have to still buy it at Youngs. So many recipes call for a stingy tablespoon of chopped parsley, which is ridiculous. I use a whole bunch for soup, and of course it has to be the flat leaf Italian kind. I love the taste and parsley is a top 100 food. Did you know it kills bacteria on contact?


The recipes from Mennonite Treasury of Recipes and Mennonite Foods and Folkways from South Russia (henceforth known as MT and MFF) both call for 1 Tbsp. white vinegar. I am not sure what that does, but will try it.


The recipes also call for cream or sour cream to be added to the pot but we always put it on at the table in our house.


I made this soup again just recently using organic pork hocks from Famous Foods and Great Northern Beans and only one other ingredient --- frozen summer savory from the garden (plus salt).  Great Northerns are very flavorful and cook faster than other beans.  I cooked the unsoaked beans for two hours and cooked the pork with herbs in a separate pot at the same time.  Then I took out the meat, cut it up and put the small pieces back into the stock. I drained the beans and added them to the soup with 2 tsp. salt.  It lasted 4 days and fed a guest one night as well.  It was so wonderful I anticipated it all day at work. 

Ingredients:
8 cups water
4 pork hocks
3 cups dried white beans
10 peppercorns
1-2 dried or fresh bay leaves
1 onion, chopped
1 bunch summer savory, fresh or frozen
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped with stems
1 Tbsp. salt
cream or sour cream (optional)

Instructions:
Soak beans in a large quantity of water for at least 4 hours, depending on the type of beans. Drain the beans and reserve.
Put the peppercorns and bay leaves into a spice ball.
Simmer pork hocks and spice ball in the 8 cups water for 2 hours to make the stock. Remove the meat and set aside.
Add onion and beans to the stock and cook until the beans are tender.
Add parsley, summer savory, and salt and cook another 10 minutes.
Serve soup in bowls with a platter of meat, sour cream and brown bread on the side.