Women's History Month: Recipe Spotlight - Ham Soup

Mom's vintage Ohio Art Company Recipe Box.

March is Women's History Month, so I'm looking at items owned, used, or made by some of my female ancestors, as well as my memories connected with them.

 

Mom and Me

This week I'm focused on my mom Ann Kozlina Gilbride's recipe for Ham Soup. Strictly speaking, it's actually my grandmother's recipe as noted in parentheses on the recipe card. Mom used to make this tasty soup quite often when I was a teenager. I remember not being quite sure about it after seeing it was made with ham hocks, but one taste had me convinced! Yum!

After Mom passed away in 2010, I took her recipe boxes home with me when we cleaned out her house. There were recipes written on cards, scraps of paper, clipped from magazines and boxes. The majority of them I don't ever recall her making but there were definitely some that I recognized. But other than some special cookie recipes I made for the holidays I rarely attempted to make most of the recipes. A few weeks ago, I finally decided it was time to try one. It was January and cold here in Texas. Time for soup!

One issue I have with old recipes is that I want them to taste exactly as I remember them. So often when I do try something it doesn't turn out the way my taste buds recall! In other cases, adjustments need to be made for items no longer available or in the same sizes that they were when a recipe was first created. I am not known for my creativity in the kitchen, so I was apprehensive as I was cooking because I needed to make several of these adjustments. 

First, while the recipe had some quantities and measurements for needed items, such as 1 cup barley, in other cases there were no quantities, just "celery," "onion," or "carrots." I also wanted to use dried rather than canned lima beans, and could only find quick barley. Would the recipe turn out?

I started the night before I planned to cook the soup and soaked the lima beans overnight. I cooked them the day of, and decided I would not put them into the soup until close to the end so they wouldn't get mushy. 

I also prepped the vegetables, deciding to use just two of each one called for: 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 2 potatoes. That seemed a good quantity. I halved the barley called for—no reason, it just seemed like a better quantity. The recipe called for 1 cup barley cooked with the ham hocks and veggies, but since the kind I bought was quick barley I cooked that ahead of time too and decided to add it last. I didn't want it to overcook. 

So, into the pot went the ham hocks, celery, onion, carrots, salt, pepper and 1 can of tomato sauce with additional water. The recipe called for these ingredients to cook for 3-1/2 hours. I checked the temperature of the ham hocks at about 2 hours and they were already at a done temperature, so it was time to take them out.

I used to help Mom make this soup when I lived at home, and I have recollections of pulling the ham hocks out of the pot after they cooked and cutting small chunks of ham from them. So that part I had down. Though the smoked ham hocks added a delicious flavor to the soup, they didn't offer much in the way of meat. I'll likely add some precooked diced ham next time I make it.

The result? It turned out great! It actually did taste as I remembered it, and my substitutions worked out well. The house was filled with that cozy soup smell. Husband Jim and I ate the soup with slices of warm, crusty, sourdough bread with butter. With the combo of lima beans and barley the soup was very filling. 

It was wonderful to enjoy this tasty soup again, and recall the times we ate it as a family.

 

Chunks of potato, ham, carrots, celery, lima beans, and barley fill up Mom's tasty Ham Soup.

Best of all, I am now a little less gun-shy to try another recipe. Next up: Halupki!

 

Here's Mom's original recipe card: 

 

Here's my updated version:

2 smoked ham hocks

2 celery stalks, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1/2 c. white onion

1 tsp. salt (more to taste if needed)

1/2 tsp. pepper (more to taste if needed)

1-16 oz. can tomato sauce

2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1/2 cup quick barley (precooked)

2 cups of lima beans (precooked)

Additional cooked ham, diced (optional)

In a large stock pot, place the first 7 ingredients, adding water to completely cover the ham hocks. Simmer on medium heat until the done temperature of the ham hocks is 150 degrees. Remove ham hocks and cut any meat from the bones; discard bones and fat. Add the cut ham to the soup, as well as the potatoes. Simmer until the potatoes are fork done, about 15 minutes. Add the precooked barley, lima beans, and diced ham (if using). Continue simmering until beans, barley, and ham are heated through, about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper as needed to taste.

This recipe makes about 6-8 generous servings.

Enjoy!

Until next time...

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