Some recipes are always in style, no matter what season it is or what the latest food trend is. One of them is Ham and Bean Soup. For generations, people have ladled this kind of food into bowls in farmhouse kitchens, church hall basements, and grandmothers’ homes who knew that the best cooking is not about being fancy, but about being patient, resourceful, and respecting every ingredient on hand. The soup turns a leftover ham bone, which most people would throw away without a second thought, into one of the most flavorful and satisfying meals you will ever eat.
The philosophy of “zero waste, maximum flavor” is what makes this Ham and Bean Soup so popular. While modern cooking culture often looks for new and complicated things, this recipe goes in the opposite direction: it uses fewer, simpler ingredients and cooks them slowly and patiently until they become something more than the sum of their parts. The ham hocks are full of collagen, the ham bone is meaty, the Great Northern beans are creamy, and the nutmeg, thyme, and dry mustard give the dish a warm, earthy flavor. Each ingredient has a role that can’t be easily replaced or skipped. This is the most honest and satisfying example of traditional American “slow food.”
This is the best, most accurate, and most flavorful guide to making this soup right, whether you’re making it for the first time with a holiday ham bone that has been sitting in your fridge or going back to a recipe that has been in your family for decades. You shouldn’t hurry this soup. You plan, make, and wait for this soup, and the reward for your patience is a broth that is so rich and deep that one bowl will show you why this dish has been around for generations. Get your biggest stockpot ready and clear your schedule. Let’s get started.
Recipe Overview
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Cuisine | American Country / Traditional |
| Course | Main Course / Soup |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Servings | 8–10 Servings |
| Prep Time | 1 Hour (plus overnight chilling) |
| Cook Time | 3 Hours |
| Calories per Serving | Approx. 380 kcal |
Ingredients
The Ham:
- 1 leftover ham bone, with meat attached
- 3 ham hocks
The Beans:
- 1 lb dry Great Northern beans
The Aromatics & Vegetables:
- 2 cups carrots, chopped
- 1½ cups yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
The Fats:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
The Liquid:
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 6 cups water
The Seasonings:
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp seasoned salt
- ½ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 bay leaves
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1 — Prepare the Beans
Start by rinsing the dry Great Northern beans very well under cold running water. Pick out any beans that are shriveled or discolored, as well as any other debris. Put a different pot of water on the stove and bring it to a full, rolling boil. Add the beans that have been rinsed, turn off the heat right away, cover the pot with a lid that fits tightly, and let the beans soak for an hour without being disturbed. This “quick soak” method is a planned technical shortcut. It uses residual heat to start hydrating the beans’ outer skin without cooking the inside. This makes sure that they will evenly absorb the ham broth and cook to a perfectly creamy consistency during the long simmer instead of staying hard in the middle.
Step 2 — Sauté the Aromatics
Over medium heat, heat the olive oil and butter together in your biggest stockpot. The two fats work together on purpose: the butter adds its rich flavor and texture, and the olive oil raises the smoke point of the mixture, which keeps the butter’s milk solids from burning before the vegetables are fully cooked. Mix in the chopped carrots, onion, and celery with the hot fat. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring every so often, until the onion pieces are completely soft and see-through. You want it to be sweet and soft, not brown. Add the minced garlic and cook for one more minute, stirring constantly, until the garlic smells good. Take it off the heat right away. Garlic burns quickly, and burned garlic adds a bitter, acrid flavor that will last for the soup’s entire three-hour cooking time.
Step 3 — Build the Broth
Add the chicken broth and water, and stir to lift any vegetables that may have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add the three bay leaves, dried thyme, dry mustard, black pepper, seasoned salt, paprika, and ground nutmeg. Mix everything together well by stirring. Take a moment to smell the pot. The nutmeg and dry mustard will be there, but not too strong. This is exactly what you want. These are background notes, not headline flavors. Their full role will only become clear in the finished soup, where they add a warm complexity that most people can’t put their finger on but everyone can taste.
Step 4 — The Ham Infusion
Gently lower the ham bone and all three ham hocks into the seasoned broth, making sure they are completely submerged. Don’t worry if the bone doesn’t fit all the way in. It will be easier to handle once the broth starts to heat up and the pot contents settle. Raise the heat until everything comes to a full boil, then lower it to a low, steady simmer. Put a lid on the pot and let the ham and broth simmer together for a full hour without being disturbed. The collagen-rich connective tissue in the ham hocks is breaking down into gelatin, the marrow from the ham bone is releasing minerals and fats into the broth, and the smoked, salty flavor of the pork is fully infusing every cup of liquid in the pot. This is what gives the soup its amazing body and depth.
Step 5 — Add the Beans and Continue Simmering
Take the beans out of the water they were soaking in and add them directly to the simmering ham broth. Stir the beans into the pot so that they are all submerged and evenly spread out. Keep simmering, covered, on low heat for two more hours, stirring every 20 to 30 minutes to make sure nothing settles and burns on the bottom of the pot. As time goes on, you’ll see the beans get softer and start to release their starch into the broth, which will naturally thicken it. At the end of the two-hour mark, the beans should be completely soft all the way through. If you press one between two fingers, it should give way without any resistance.
Step 6 — Prepare the Meat
Take the ham hocks and bay leaves out of the pot with tongs or a big slotted spoon and throw them away. They are done. The broth has taken in all of the flavor, collagen, and smokiness from the meat over the past three hours. Take the ham bone out carefully and put it on a cutting board. Let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it is safe to touch. Then, use two forks or your hands to pull all the meat off the bone. Cut up any big pieces into smaller ones that are good for soup, and then put all of the shredded ham back in the pot. Stir the meat into the beans and broth so that it is evenly spread out.
Step 7 — The Critical Overnight Chill
This step is what makes a really great ham and bean soup stand out from a good one. There is no way around it if you want the best result. Allow the soup to cool to room temperature on the stovetop, then transfer the entire pot (or a sealed container) to the refrigerator. Don’t touch it for 12 to 18 hours; overnight is the best and easiest way to do this. As the soup cools, the pork fat that has been floating in the hot liquid while it cooks will rise to the top and form a thick, yellow-white crust. The gelatin from the hocks will make the soup below cool down and become a jelly-like, semi-solid. This isn’t a problem. This is a sign of a very good bone broth, and you should be happy about it.
Step 8 — Degrease, Reheat, and Serve
Take the pot out of the fridge. Using a large spoon, systematically remove and discard the solidified fat layer from the surface of the soup. This works much better than trying to skim off liquid fat from a hot soup, and it gets rid of a lot more grease than any other method. After removing the grease, put the pot on the stove over medium heat and bring it back to a full simmer. Stir gently as the gelatin melts back into a clear, glossy broth. At this point, taste the soup and add more salt if you need to. The ham will have released more sodium while it was resting overnight, so be careful. Put in big, deep bowls and serve with warm cornbread or a thick slice of crusty sourdough.
Old-Fashioned Ham & Bean Soup
Slow-simmered Great Northern beans with ham bone, hocks, and a deeply savory country broth
- 1 leftover ham bone, with meat attached
- 3 ham hocks
- 1 lb dry Great Northern beans
- 2 cups carrots, chopped
- 1½ cups yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 6 cups water
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp seasoned salt
- ½ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 bay leaves
Prepare the Beans
Rinse and sort beans. Quick-soak: boil water, add beans, turn off heat, cover, and soak 1 hour. Drain and discard soaking water.
Sauté the Aromatics
In a large pot, heat olive oil + butter. Cook carrots, onion, and celery 5–7 minutes until soft. Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
Build the Broth
Add chicken broth and water. Stir in thyme, dry mustard, pepper, seasoned salt, paprika, nutmeg, and bay leaves.
Ham Infusion
Add ham bone and ham hocks. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low. Cover and simmer 1 hour.
Add Beans & Simmer
Add drained beans. Cover and simmer 2 hours more, stirring every 20–30 minutes, until beans are completely tender.
Shred the Meat
Remove ham hocks and bay leaves; discard. Remove ham bone, cool briefly, shred meat, chop if needed, and return to pot.
Overnight Chill
Cool to room temp, then refrigerate 12–18 hours. Fat will solidify on top and broth will gel — that’s a good sign.
Degrease, Reheat & Serve
Remove solid fat layer. Reheat gently to a simmer, stirring as gelatin melts. Taste and adjust salt, then serve hot.
Conclusion: Patience Is the Secret Ingredient
Traditional Ham and Bean Soup teaches any cook who takes it seriously that the best food can’t be rushed. The one-hour bean soak, the three-hour simmer, the overnight chill, and the degreasing are all difficult parts of this recipe, but they are not just annoying; they are necessary steps in making something truly amazing. If you cut any of these corners, your soup will only be okay. If you follow all of their steps, you will make a broth that is so silky, rich, layered, and satisfying that it will become a regular part of your cooking schedule every year.
The step of putting the food in the fridge overnight deserves special praise because it does two things that can’t be done any other way. First, it gets rid of the extra rendered pork fat that would make the soup taste greasy and heavy on the palate. This makes the finished soup much cleaner, easier on the stomach, and more appealing to the eye. Second, and maybe more importantly for flavor, it lets the nutmeg, dry mustard, thyme, and bay leaf sit in the pot for 12 to 18 hours at a low temperature. During this time, their volatile aromatic compounds move slowly and evenly into every cell of every bean and every shred of ham in the pot. The soup you heat up the next morning is definitely more complex and harmonious than the one you put in the fridge the night before.
Serve this with a skillet of warm, golden cornbread or a thick slice of crusty sourdough. Both are great ways to soak up the last drops of that amazing liquid gold broth. This soup is as healthy as it is delicious. Each serving has about 380 calories, a lot of protein from the ham and beans, a lot of fiber from the Great Northern beans, and the amazing nutritional value of slow-simmered bone broth. Once you make it with a leftover holiday ham bone, you’ll find yourself, like so many other home cooks before you, looking for any reason to bake a whole ham again so you can start the process all over again.
Common QnAs about Ham & Bean Soup
Why are dry beans preferred over canned for this recipe?
Dry beans have an intact cellular structure that lets them slowly soak up the rich ham broth during the long simmer. This gives them a much more complex flavor on the inside than canned beans, which have already been fully cooked in a neutral liquid and can’t absorb more flavor in any meaningful way. Dry beans also have a texture that is more satisfying and slightly chewy, and they don’t fall apart after three hours of cooking.
What is the scientific mechanism behind the “quick soak” method?
When dry beans are added to boiling water and then covered off the heat, the hot water starts to get into the seed coat through a combination of osmotic pressure and heat-driven diffusion. This adds water to the outside layers of the bean and makes the skin a little softer, but it doesn’t use heat that lasts long enough to start the process of gelatinizing the starch. When the bean hits the simmering broth, it will be ready to cook evenly from the outside in.
Why are three ham hocks added in addition to the ham bone?
Ham hocks are the part of the pig’s leg that connects the bones, and they are very rich in connective tissue that is full of collagen. When this connective tissue is simmered on low heat for a few hours, it breaks down into gelatin. This is what gives the soup its rich, silky body and the jelly-like texture it gets when it cools down. A ham bone by itself, which is mostly bone and meat, can’t add as much gelatin without extra hocks.
What flavor role does ground nutmeg play in a savory soup context?
Myristicin and elemicin are two aromatic compounds found in nutmeg. These compounds have a warm, slightly sweet, and faintly resinous smell. Most people don’t notice nutmeg as a distinct or identifiable spice flavor in savory dishes. Instead, it enhances the natural sweetness of the caramelized onion and carrot while adding a subtle warm complexity to the overall flavor backdrop that makes the soup taste “deeper” and more complete without pointing to any identifiable source.
What is the precise reason for using both chicken broth and water rather than all broth?
A cup of store-bought chicken broth usually has between 800 and 1,000 mg of sodium. Using 4 cups of broth to 6 cups of water strikes a balance: the broth gives the soup a savory glutamate-rich base that water alone can’t provide, and the water keeps the soup from getting too salty before the ham has even released its own large sodium load into the liquid. If you use only broth, the finished product will probably be too salty and not balanced.
What happens on a molecular level during the overnight refrigeration step?
When the soup cools down to about 65°F (18°C), two things happen at once. The first step is to melt the pork fat, which has a melting point of about 86–104°F (30–40°C). This causes the triglyceride molecules to order and crystallize, forming a semi-rigid layer on the surface. Second, when the broth cools, the dissolved gelatin proteins form a three-dimensional cross-linked network that traps water molecules in the protein matrix. This makes the broth turn into a semi-solid gel. Both of these things can be completely undone by reheating.
What is the emulsifying function of dry mustard in this recipe?
Mucilage compounds, mainly sinigrin and sinalbin, are found in dry mustard powder. These compounds work as natural emulsifiers. These compounds help keep the interface between the fat droplets and the broth stable by making it less likely that the fat will pool on the surface of the hot soup as a separate, greasy layer while it cooks. This makes the finished soup feel smoother and more integrated in the mouth before the degreasing step.
How does the acid content of cured ham affect the cooking of the beans?
Cured ham, especially the kinds that are made in factories and brined, still has some lactic acid and acetic acid left over from the curing process. Acidic cooking environments (pH below 7) slow down the softening of beans by making the pectin cross-linking in the cell walls of the legumes stronger. This is why the beans are soaked separately before being added to the ham broth instead of cooking raw beans directly in the ham-infused liquid from the start. Pre-soaking the beans makes sure they are already a little bit wet and soft before they come into contact with the ham, which is a little bit acidic.
What distinguishes hickory-smoked ham as the preferred choice for this recipe over other ham varieties?
When you smoke ham with hickory, the phenolic compounds in the burning hickory wood, especially guaiacol and syringol, stick to the surface proteins of the meat and give it a very woody, slightly sweet smokiness. These phenolic compounds can dissolve in fat and easily move into the broth during the long simmer, giving this recipe its signature “smoky ham soup” flavor. Honey-glazed or oven-roasted hams are tasty on their own, but they make a broth that is sweeter and less smoky than what this recipe calls for.
How does black pepper function differently from cayenne in a cream- or starch-thickened soup?
Piperine is the main pungent compound in black pepper. It is a different alkaloid than capsaicin, which is found in cayenne. Piperine makes a sharp, bright, and fragrant heat that mostly affects the front and sides of the tongue and goes away quickly. The heat from capsaicin goes deeper into the throat and builds up over time with repeated exposure. Black pepper’s quick, strong “bite” cuts through the richness of a thick, hearty, starchy soup and cleanses the palate between spoonfuls in a way that capsaicin’s lingering burn does not.
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