Jack Harlan's Ham and Beans

It's the Bougie Edition

Jack’s been making his Bougie Apocalypse ham and beans forever it feels like. And I figured maybe some of you might like to make them, too. So here’s Jack’s recipe in all its glory. Feel free to wear a pistol while making them if you want to feel more like Jack :-)

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Bougie Ham and Beans

Ingredients (serves 6-8 or makes good leftovers):

• 1 pound dried white beans (Alubia Blanco, Marcella, navy, or whatever you have — Rancho Gordo preferred)

• 2 smoked ham hocks (or 8 oz good smoked ham)

• 6–8 slices bacon (Jack uses his maple-whiskey bacon when he has it)

• 1 medium onion, peeled and left whole (plus half an onion, diced)

• 1 medium carrot, peeled and left whole

• 2–3 stalks celery, chopped (added later)

• 3–4 whole garlic cloves

• Bouquet garni: bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and celery leaves tied in cheesecloth

• 1 tsp black peppercorns

• 1 quart chicken stock

• 8 oz lager beer (any decent, non-bitter one)

• Water as needed

• Salt to taste at the end

Method:

1. If using regular grocery store beans, soak overnight. Rancho Gordo beans usually don’t need soaking.

2. In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, cook the bacon slowly until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp. Remove and reserve the bacon.

3. Cook the diced half onion in the bacon fat over medium heat for 3–4 minutes until it begins to blacken and becomes aromatic. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute.

4. Deglaze the pot with the lager beer.

5. Add the whole onion, whole carrot, bouquet garni, peppercorns, chicken stock, ham hocks (or ham), beans, and reserved bacon. Add water until the beans are covered by at least 1 inch.

6. Bring to a boil and boil uncovered for 10 minutes.

7. Reduce to a bare simmer (3–4 bubbles per minute), cover with the lid cracked open, and cook for about 90 minutes.

8. Remove the whole onion, carrot, ham hocks, bacon, and bouquet garni. Chop the bacon, carrot, ham, and onion and return them to the pot. Discard the bouquet.

9. Continue simmering for another 90 minutes or so, until the beans are creamy but the skins are still firm.

Add the chopped celery and cook 10 more minutes. Taste and adjust salt.

Serve with crusty bread and drinks of your choice. Jack recommends a good rye whiskey, a red wine from the Pacific Northwest, or the same beer you used to cook the beans.

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In the apocalypse, we shoot the Walkers… then we go back to the beans.

Bougie Apocalypse

A daily serial about heirloom beans, carbon steel skull-crackers, and refusing to let the apocalypse win.

#BougieApocalypse #StayHuman #HamAndBeans