Julie Bove wrote:

> My mom used to make bean soup and cornbread once in a while when I was a
> kid. It was always Navy bean soup. I liked it except that she put ham in
> it. I don't like ham and would have to pick out the chunks to eat it.


I make beans now and then and think the taste of pork or bacon
is great in there but can be too extreme at times. I want to say
though that only once did I try to make garbonzo beans from scatch,
and after 4 hours they were still hard as rocks. I tossed them out.
Maybe they were old, I have no idea.

Anyway, I love hummous which is made with garbonzos but have
never liked garbonzos in salads or other things. I was turned off by
it till one day I was with some friends down in St Augustine (a bit of
a touristy spot), and they wanted to eat, but all I wanted was soup.
I can't remember the name of the place, but I loved that soup. It had
small bits of sausage in it, very thin, like pepperoni or something -
and most importantly the beans were very soft. I asked if they were
canned and they said they were made fresh. I should have asked them
for the recipe. It was a nice thick soup and I admit now my love for
it could have been influenced by the fact that I was not expecting
anything great due past unpleasant garbonzo experiences - (the reason
I love the blindfold test concept) - but I am not sure, I only know
for a restaurant soup I really enjoyed the stuff even without a full
list of what went into it, and have enough fond memories of the
experience to put it on my list of alltime great bean soups.

TJ