Ham and Beans

I grew up in Washington State, kind of far from the Deep South. But my paternal grandmother came from a long line of Southerners, dating all the way back to Jamestown, Virginia. After much journeying – from Virginia to North Carolina to Georgia to Missouri to Texas – her family ended up in Globe, Arizona, mining copper. Grandma took the final road west and settled in San Diego, California, where she worked as a nurse, at one time in a TB ward.

One of my father’s favorite dishes was collards, which he cooked for himself when my mother was off to meetings of whatever archaeological society where she was presenting a paper. She hated collards, and truth be told, I am not a huge fan, either, one of the few things Mom and I agreed on. Daddy loved fried okra and boiled peanuts, too, also foods that got a hard pass from Mom.

But a Southern heritage dish neither Mom nor I could pass up was ham and beans. With cornbread. Nothing else on the table except a napkin and a glass of milk. Bliss.

Cooking the dish was a somewhat involved process.

Today, it’s rare to find a whole ham stretching from the meaty thigh to the bony hocks. Back then, usually before Easter but also at other times of the year when ham prices hit bottom, Daddy would take one of his hacksaws and cut off the hock end, always leaving a generous amount of ham at Mom’s request. Then Mom soaked the pinto beans overnight in a large ceramic bread bowl. In the morning, she dumped the beans into a huge aluminum pot and covered them with water. Once the water came to a boil, she simply thrust the rather large ham hock down into the hot beans, covered the pot, lowered the heat, and simmered everything until 5:15 p.m., dinner hour.

I loved coming home from school on a cold, snowy day and sniffing the air, rich with the aroma of ham and beans cooking. A little while later, upstairs in my room, reading, I would smell cornbread baking in the scuffed cast-iron skillet Mom owned. Then sitting at the yellow Formica table and savoring that first, tongue-burning bite! Sheer heaven.

These days, ham and beans isn’t the cheap dish it used to be because real hams take time to, well, become hams. So many manufacturers now plump up their “hams” with saline solution, ensuring their quicker trips to the supermarket. Those hams just aren’t the same.

Here’s my redo of Mom’s, with a bit more depth of flavor!

Ham and Beans

2 cups dried pinto beans

2 cups coarsely chopped ham (chopped if not on the bone)

1/2 yellow onion, peeled and chopped finely

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with the side of a knife

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, or to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Prepare the beans: rinse and drain, soak overnight in water to cover by 3 inches, then boil for 2 minutes, cover, and let sit off the heat for an hour.

Add ham and other ingredients, cover the pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 6 hours. [Note: I’ve started using my oven for prolonged cooking at 325 F. You could also use an Instant Pot. Do not add salt. There’s enough salt in the ham!]

Don’t forget the cornbread. These days, I prefer Allrecipes’s Sweet Cornbread Cake, but you can make do with whatever cornbread recipe you prefer.

Enjoy!