Wow, that is quite the effort! Thanks for posting it, though. :-)

on Mon, 11 Jul 2005 08:28:49 -0500, OmManiPadmeOmelet
wrote:

Sure! :-) It's a long term project so I plan ahead for it.

Smithfield hams were on sale for 99 cents per lb. at HEB over the 4th of
July.

I skinned and de-boned the ham and froze the meat for later use but did
leave some meat on the bone. I took the bone and fatty hard skin and
placed that into my pasta pat (which doubles as a stock pot for doing
bone stock) and added garlic powder, salt free lemon pepper and a small
amount of chili powder.

Brought that mess up to a boil and simmered on low for 2 hours.

Pulled the insert which brought out the now cooked down bone and skin
then put the broth in the 'frige to cool so I could skim it with a
slotted spoon when the fat floated to the top and hardened.

Once the bone and skin were cool, I removed all remaining meat from the
bones and chopped it up, then scraped most of the fat off of the pieces
of skin and cut those into 1" strips. All the excess fat went to the
chickens.

Meanwhile, I took the amount of dry black soybeans I wanted to cook,
placed them into a screen colander and a bowl and soaked them.

For 3 days. ;-)

With frequent water changes. (4 or 5 water changes per day).

My housemate has this "thing" about beans that he will not eat them
unless they have begun to sprout, and that takes about 3 days. Once I
saw a little root "tail" coming out of the germ, I rinsed them one final
time then added them to the broth, cut up meat and skin and one whole
chopped onion into the pressure cooker, brought up to pressure and
pressured on a medium heat for 20 minutes, then let the pressure come
down on it's own.

We've been eating on that pot of beans now for 3 days and I swear they
get better by the day! They are nearly gone now.

They are VERY tender and I think the 3 day soak is responsible for
that... I'm not saying you HAVE to soak them that long, 24 hours is
probably enough, I just do it for my housemate since he insists on
sprouted beans.

Serve with a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese on top.

If you want to speed things up, you can probably add the canned black
soy beans to the hambone stock instead.

-----
Bev