When I was a kid, once a month, my mother would make the bean soup.  We'd eat it for dinner for four or five days.  While I did get a little sick of it by day 5, I loved when she made the soup, even more the day after, when the flavors had blended into an incredible melange of taste bud bursting savory heaven.  

I did not know we were poor when I was a kid.  We weren't poor like we were living on welfare or anything.  We had a house, new clothes to wear once a year for me and my 3 siblings.  We went to school happy and fed, and while I rarely got to buy the lunch at school, the peanut butter and jam sandwich was always freshly made that morning.  It wasn't until years later that I found out the the monthly bean soup occured when the mortgage was due, and that my parents could not afford to go grocery shopping that week.  It is one of the wonders of my parents that though they were struggling, they had 4 happy healthy kids who never knew how close to the edge we were living.

As a grown man, I finally asked my Mom for the recipe.  It was incredibly simple:  5 pounds of navy beans, a smoked ham hock, and two cans of stewed tomatoes.  She soaked the beans overnight, discarded the water, covered them again in a big cast-iron kettle with two inches of water, dropped in the ham hock, and simmered it all gently for 6 or 7 hours, pouring in the stewed tomatoes shortly before serving.  I think there may have been a couple of bay leaves in there.

Well, Mom, I'm sorry, I loved your bean soup, but I think I've improved upon your recipe.

 Ingredients:

3 pounds of dried 10-bean mix

2 pounds of navy beans

2 smoked ham hocks, bones cracked

1 pound of thick cut smoked bacon

1 pound of smoked lean ham

4 bay leaves.

1 tsp salt, or to taste (can be added at end)

2 tsp freshly ground black/white pepper mix

In a large cast-iron kettle or stock pot, soak the beans overnight in water, and discard the water.  Cover them again with water and bring it to a boil for 1 minute.  Discard that water too (everyone will thank you later).  Slice ham into  1/4 inch cubes.  Add the ham and the ham hocks to the beans in the pot and cover with 2 inches of water.  Add the bay leaves, the salt and the pepper. Bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer very gently.  Stir occasionally, add water as needed to keep the beans covered.  Be careful not to burn the soup at the bottom of the pan.  Simmer for a minimum of 6 hours, longer is OK as long as it doesn't burn. An hour before serving, cut the bacon into 1/2 inch lengths and separate the pieces.  Fry the bacon pieces in a frying pan until crisp and pour off the grease (one can also fry the bacon in strips and then crumble it, if preferred).   Take the soup off the heat.  Remove the ham hocks, and pick the meat off the bones.  Chop the ham hock meat into small pieces and re-add to the soup.  Give the bones to the dog.  Add water to the soup as necessary to attain the desired consistency.  Stir in the bacon and serve serve immediately, or whenever you feel like it. Like my mother's, the soup is wonderful right away, and super-wonderful on the second day.

The receipe makes a lot, but it freezes very well.   In fact, it may even be better after coming out of the freezer.

Serves 30 people or 6 people, five times.

Obviously, this is not my mother's poverty soup., but it's still relatively inexpensive for the number of servings, and if I may say so, it may be 10% better than my Mom's basic recipe.  But if you could have 10% more heaven, you'd take it, right?