Ham bone soup???? Help please

[mom23boyz]

I have brought home the ham bone(honey baked type) for the last few years BUT never cooked it. I am going to this year as well as the turkey carcass(fried). Any tips or suggestions for either soup?TIA

[Contrary Housewife]

In my experience the honey hams are too sweet to make soup from, but if you have a smoked one you can start by making ham stock:

1 ham bone
1 quart water
1 small onion
1 celery stalk
2 parsley sprigs
1 bay leaf
6 peppercorns
Salt to taste

1. Combine all ingredients, except salt in a soup kettle. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cover. Simmer for 2 hours or longer.
2. Season with salt to taste, if necessary. Strain in a cheesecloth-lined colander. Use cooked meat and vegetables as desired.
3. Cool. Refrigerate and remove hardened fat from top of stock.
4. Refrigerate in covered container for up to 1 week or freeze in measured portions for easy use for up to 6 months.

[Laurie in Bradenton]

I've used hoeny baked ham bones in soup its alittle on the sweet side but no overly so, by our standards. I do my soup in the crockpot.

1 bone or more if you have them (I've used up to 3)
Any ham scraps you've got
4 to 6 cups of water (depends on how much soup you need or want)
4 to 6 cans of navy, great northern or other white beans (rinsed)
one chopped onion
a bay leaf
leftover mashed potaotoes or 2 cups potato flakes
leftover bacon bits

I put the water, ham bones, meat scraps and bay leaf into crock pot. Cook over medium for 4 hours. Pick meat off bone and removed bay leaf and any icky looking pieces of fat from mix. Add beans and potatoes. If adding potato flakes I add them slowly and stir them in. If adding leaftover mashed or other tye of cooked potato just stir them in. Cook another hour on low. Taste and season for your family. At this point I add my bacon bits and pepper. No salt for me, high blood pressure.
A pot lasts 4 to 5 days here depending on the weather. The colder it is the faster it goes.
Laurie in Bradenton

[Darlene]

Here's our family fav, this recipe is in the village cookbook.
[ame="http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110212"]Green Split Pea Soup - Frugal Village Forums[/ame]

[thriftstorequeen]

I just cover the hambone with water a bring to a boil and then simmer for about and hour. Then I remove the bone and take off any meat and throw in back into the stock. Then I put it in quart jars and pull it out to cook greens or make bean or pea soup. We love pinto bean! I just soak the dried beans over night and then drain and put into the soup pot.Then I cover them with the ham broth. I cook this for about a hour. Sometimes I cut up an onion and cook that slightly before adding the beans and broth. I serve these with chopped raw onions and chow-chow that you get from Craker Barrel.
I take the leftover turkey bones and throw them into the roasting pan after the meal and cover them with water. I add some salt, pepper and poutry seasoning and cook for about an hour. Then I take any meat off and throw it back into the stock. I freeze this and pull it out to make turkey soup or turkey and dumplings. I just got done eating some soup that I made the other day from some of it. All I added to the broth was some cooked rice and heated it up. It was yummy!

[Thrifty Mom]

I made bean soup a couple weeks or so ago & I put the beans in right away. I would not do that again, (if I remember). Next time, I plan to cook the the ham bone off, cool, pick the meat off, skim the fat & then use the broth to cook the beans. Mine was just too "junkie". It had fat & stuff in it. I ate it anyway, it just could have been better.

[Iansmommy]

My favorite is split pea. So easy and so good.

[zakity]

Put a tablespoon of vinegar into the water you boil the ham in. It will leach some extra nutrients out of the bone and make the broth healthier.