Senate Bean Soup

A hamhock inspired preparation of this dish. We found a giant hamhock among the meats offered by our local organic pork farm, and couldn't resist purchasing it.

The soup is great. Navy beans are soaked over night, then early this morning they were boiled with the hamhock for 1 hour. You pour off that liquid (which made me sad because it smelled so good), add onion, potato, and celery, and put them all into the slow cooker. The instructions say to add water, but I had freshly prepared chicken stock, so used that instead.

The beans turned out delightfully creamy, the meat nice and stringy, and the broth had a good, but mellow, flavor. There might be some seasoning missing.... I was thinking thyme?