Soup beans are a beloved staple dish in the cuisine of Appalachia. From hearty pinto beans simmered with smoked ham hocks to creamy white beans flavored with country ham bone, beans cooked low and slow in broth are a classic mountain meal. But where did the tradition of soup beans come from?
This iconic dish has its roots in the early frontier days of Appalachia Let’s explore the history and origins of how soup beans became a dietary mainstay in the mountain South
Beans as an Ideal Mountain Crop
The hearty dried beans used in soup beans have been cultivated in Central and South America for over 7000 years. Varieties like pinto kidney, black and white beans were a dietary staple among Native American tribes.
When European settlers arrived in Appalachia in the 18th century, they adopted beans from the Cherokee, who grew several types. Beans thrived in the rocky mountain soil when other crops struggled. They also grew well without constant tending, freeing up time for hunting and gathering.
As settlers moved deeper into rugged Appalachia, beans became a lifeline. They provided protein when meat was scarce and could be dried and preserved to last through cold winters when fresh produce was unavailable. The self-sufficiency beans provided made them essential for survival.
Beans as a Native American Food Staple
Beans weren’t just embraced by white settlers – they were one of the “Three Sisters” core crops grown by Cherokee and other tribes in the region for centuries.
The Three Sisters were beans, corn and squash. Cherokee women traditionally planted them together, with each providing benefits to the others:
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Corn provided structure for bean vines to climb.
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Beans fixed nitrogen in soil for the other plants.
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Squash provided ground cover to retain moisture.
This inter-planting provided a balanced diet. Beans were a vital source of protein to complement corn and squash. They were eaten fresh or left to dry for months of sustenance.
The Three Sisters method was passed down to Appalachian settlers, helping beans spread as a staple mountain food.
Beans Become Central to Appalachian Cuisine
As Appalachian communities became more established in the 19th century, beans took on even greater importance, especially for poorer families.
Dried beans were one of the only affordable sources of protein and nourishment through the fall and winter. Without refrigeration, fresh meat and produce were rarely available out of season.
Simmering beans provided warmth and comfort during cold months. And they could be seasoned with salt, pepper and cured pork for flavor. Beans required no special ingredients – just water, time and a pot.
People relied so heavily on beans that the dish was simply called “soup beans” since they were often cooked in broth with any available vegetables or meat. Beans were synonymous with soup.
Beans Remain at the Heart of Mountain Cooking
Today, soup beans are still beloved in Appalachia for economical, filling and delicious meals. Specific recipes vary by region, family and taste.
Pinto beans, white beans, black beans and heirloom varietals all find their way into soup pots and simmer for hours until tender and full of flavor. Served with corn bread, greens, potatoes and onions, soup bean suppers are a taste of history.
From Native American fields to pioneer homesteads to modern mountain kitchens, beans have nourished generations in Appalachia. The simplicity, versatility and hearty comfort of soup beans make them a lasting staple.
Their story is intertwined with the history of mountain culture itself. Beans sustained communities when times were tough and remain a beloved regional food today. Their legacy is as rich as their flavor.
Interesting Facts About Soup Beans
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Pinto beans are the most traditional soup bean, known as “brown beans” in Appalachia. But many types from white to black beans work.
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Settlers adopted beans from the Cherokee, who had cultivated them for centuries.
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Beans were one of the Three Sisters along with corn and squash grown by Native Americans.
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They thrived in poor mountain soil when other crops struggled.
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Beans provided protein through cold winters when fresh meat was scarce.
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They were affordable and could be stored dried for months.
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The simple dish was known as “soup beans” since beans were often simmered in broth.
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Soup beans remain a staple of Appalachian cooking today, often served with corn bread, greens, potatoes and onions.
So in many ways, beans helped build and sustain Appalachian food culture thanks to their versatility as a mountain crop. Their hearty flavor continues to comfort and nourish rural communities today. Soup beans are a delicious legacy.
Appalachian Soup Beans Recipe and History (aka Pinto Bean Soup)
When it’s cold outside, almost every Appalachian home has a pot of soup beans cooking on the stove almost every day. A bowl of creamy soup beans flavored with smoky ham is considered a taste of comfort.
“If I ate twice what there was, it would’ve been half what I wanted. Documentary music artist Doc Watson talked about how much he loved soup beans and said he could never get enough of them.
Television cooking competition, Top Chef season 16,was hosted in the backdrop of Kentucky. One of the contestants was Top Chef finalist and local Kentucky chef, Sara Bradley. Born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky, Chef Sara learned how to cook from Michelin-starred chefs on the east coast. She then opened her own restaurant in Paducah called Freight House Food, which focuses on Kentucky foods and agriculture. Sara did her state proud in the Top Chef competition by taking traditional Kentucky meals to new heights. I found myself routing for her to win. One of the Kentucky staples she wowed the judges with was her take on Soup Beans. Appalachian mountain people love a hot bowl of soup beans with corn bread, fried potatoes, and pickled chow chow in the winter.
It interested me to learn more about soup beans because I like bean recipes. All around the world you find the most wonderful and homey recipes made with beans. I was so excited to learn how to make pinto beans into a bowl of comfort after cooking and trying many regional recipes with humble roots and simple ingredients. I was happy to learn that homesteaders in Appalachia already knew: that cooking pinto beans slowly with ham hock and fatty bacon made a bowl full of silky smooth, smoky goodness.
From New York all the way down to Alabama and Georgia in the South, the Appalachian mountain range is there. It divides the Eastern United States from the Midwest. The Appalachian Mountain Range in the south goes all the way down to Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and North Carolina. In the 18th century, eastern Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas ran out of land for people to settle. As a result, new European immigrants were forced to move west into the Appalachians. The majority of the immigrant population were Scotch-Irish and also included Swedish and German settlers. When the Cumberland Gap was found in 1750, it drew settlers even deeper into the mountain ranges that cover upper East Tennessee, northwest North Carolina, upstate South Carolina, and central Kentucky.
Mountain Folk Way of Life
The Native American Cherokee Indians taught the new settlers how to live in the mountains and how to farm so they could grow crops like corn and squash. High mountain ranges cut homesteaders in the Cumberland Gap off from the rest of society. They lived in relative isolation and learned to live a rough life, becoming self-sufficient. They were dependent on hunting, foraging and growing their own food to provide for themselves. People saved garden seeds for the next year’s crop, and this tradition has been passed down from generation to generation. This hearty breed of homesteaders are known amongst themselves and outsiders as “Mountain People” or “Mountain Folk”.
For the mountain folk of the Southern Appalachian Mountain region, farming was a difficult task and nearly impossible. They had to deal with dry, rocky ground on steep mountains that were shaded from the sun by thick forests. People who moved there brought cows and sheep with them, but most of their meat came from raising pigs and letting them roam freely in the forest. The entire hog could be put to use for meats and flavoring foods. They raised hogs and grew their own fruits, vegetables, and nuts. One person said, “The only part of the hog that wasn’t used was the squeal!” The most common foods to grow were black walnuts, chestnuts, corn, pinto beans, apples and wild greens. Corn was abundant and an essential vegetable in the Appalachians. There was no part of the corn that went to waste. It was eaten on the cob, fried, creamed, hominy grits, made into corn meal or moonshine. Even the corn shucks were used for stuffing furniture cushions like bed mattresses.
Wintertime Survival and Food Preparation
Wintertime in the Appalachian mountains did not match typical mild Southern winters. Instead they faced colder weather conditions similar to the Northeast region of the United States. To survive the chilling winters, families had to be skilled at preserving food. Dried pinto beans and corn were among the essential pantry stock ingredients. Pinto beans were the only pantry essential the Mountaineers did not grow themselves. The least expensive source of protein they could find, and they probably thought it would cost more to grow them than to buy a bag of dried pinto beans. The phrase “ain’t worth of hill of beans” may have come from this. It means something has little to no value. Pinto beans are still often sold in mountain markets in 25-pound and even 40-pound bags in the fall so that climbers can stock up on winter foods. End of summer vegetables from the garden were pickled together in a spicy sweet medley and canned. Southerners call this group of pickled vegetables “Chow Chow,” and it was an important part of many meals to make them taste better.
Wintertime Meal Staple: Soup Beans
On a cold winter day, soft, creamy beans in a delicious pot likker come from beans that are slowly simmered all day with ham fat solids. The ham bone and fat is the heart and soul of the flavor. Soup beans, served in a bowl with corn bread, are both a simple way to get food and a comforting meal. “To a native of Appalachia, soup beans is just a name for a pinto bean soup everyone makes. To outsiders it’s an exotic specialty. Simple traditional and mountain through and through. ” Soup beans refer to brown beans (such as pinto beans) that are cooked with pork for flavoring. You can also use white beans, butter beans, or black-eyed peas, but mountain people love pinto beans the most. Soup beans are often re-cooked as fried bean cakes, or made into mountain chili the next day. Since beans are known for causing flatulence or excessive gas. One old wives’ tale says, “To prevent this, cook a potato in the beans. The potato soaks up the gas, but be careful how you throw it away—you now have a “Hillbilly” hand grenade. ”.
A food source that people used to eat just to stay alive is now eaten on purpose to remember happy times spent with family and enjoy the smell of familiar foods cooking on the stove.
Traditional soups beans use very basic ingredients such as water, beans, pork fat, salt and pepper. My recipe gets a little “fancier” with onion and garlic added in. It’s the simplicity of this dish that is so delicious. Toppings like onions and chow chow that are put on top of your bowl of soup beans give it a little acidity and spice.
- 1 pound dried pinto beans
- 8 cups water (for stove top and slow cooker instructions)
- 4 strips fatty bacon chopped
- 1 large onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or 1 chopped jalapeño pepper for extra heat
- 1 smoked ham hock or ham neck bone
- 32 ounces chicken stock
- water
- salt
- black pepper
Garnishment Options
- Chopped raw onions
- Pickled Chow Chow (see recipe below)
Instructions Stove Top Instructions
- Put dried pinto beans in a colander and run cold water over them. Pick through and discard any shriveled beans or stones. Put the beans in a big bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by 2 inches. Let the beans soak for several hours or overnight. The beans will have grown twice as big by the next day because they will have soaked up most of the water. Drain the beans and rinse.
- Put chopped bacon in a 6-quart Dutch oven and set it over medium-high heat. Let each side cook for a few minutes. Remove the bacon strips and set aside on a plate. Next, put the chopped onion in the Dutch oven and cook it in the bacon grease for a few minutes until it softens. Then, add the garlic and cayenne (or jalapeno) and cook for another 30 seconds until the garlic and cayenne smell good. It should have about a cup of chicken stock added. Use a spatula to scrape up any food that is stuck at the bottom of the pot. Note: If you add salt at the beginning of cooking beans, it will take longer for them to soften the beans. Before adding the salt, wait until the beans are almost done cooking and feel soft.
- Put the pinto beans, ham hock, onion mixture, and bacon in the Dutch oven. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the beans by two inches. Add the rest of the chicken stock. Stir everything together. Once the beans begin to boil, lower the heat to medium-low and let them cook over low heat. Cover the pot with a lid, but leave some space around the edges for air. This will ensure the beans result in a creamy texture. Let the beans simmer for 45 minutes, stirring them every now and then to make sure they’re done. If the top of the beans looks dry, add more water to make sure they stay submerged while they cook. Add a teaspoon of salt and stir. Let the beans simmer for another 30 to 45 minutes, until they get soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Put it in bowls and top with chow-chow or chopped raw onions. With corn bread on the side to soak up the tasty pot likker
- It tastes even better the next day when heated up, and the beans get softer and thicker, making it more like mountain chili.
- How to Store: Soup beans can be kept in the fridge for up to a week in an airtight container.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Put dried pinto beans in a colander and run cold water over them. Pick through and discard any shriveled beans or stones. Put the beans in a big bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by 2 inches. Let the beans soak for several hours or overnight. The beans will have grown twice as big by the next day because they will have soaked up most of the water. Drain the beans and rinse.
- Put chopped bacon in a medium-sized skillet set over medium-high heat. Let each side cook for a few minutes. Remove the bacon strips and set aside on a plate. Next, add the chopped onion to the pan and cook it in the bacon grease for a few minutes until it softens. Then, add the garlic and cayenne (or jalapeno) and cook for another 30 seconds until the garlic and cayenne smell good. It should have about a cup of chicken stock added. Use a spatula to scrape up any food that is stuck at the bottom of the pot. Note: If you add salt at the beginning of cooking beans, it will take longer for them to soften the beans. Before adding the salt, wait until the beans are almost done cooking and feel soft.
- Put the pinto beans, ham hock, onion mixture, and bacon in the slow cooker. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the beans by two inches. Add the rest of the chicken stock. Stir everything together. For 4-5 hours on high heat or 8–10 hours on low heat, cook the beans until they are soft.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Put it in bowls and top with chow-chow or chopped raw onions. With corn bread on the side to soak up the tasty pot likker
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Instructions
- No pre-soaking required with pressure cooker method
- Put dried pinto beans in a colander and run cold water over them. Pick through and discard any shriveled beans or stones.
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté mode and high heat. Adding chopped bacon and cooking for a few minutes on each side Remove the bacon strips and set aside on a plate. Next, add the chopped onion to the pan and cook it in the bacon grease for a few minutes until it softens. Then, add the garlic and cayenne (or jalapeno) and cook for another 30 seconds until the garlic and cayenne smell good. It should have about a cup of chicken stock added. Use a spatula to scrape up any food that is stuck at the bottom of the pot. Note: If you add salt at the beginning of cooking beans, it will take longer for them to soften the beans. Before adding the salt, wait until the beans are almost done cooking and feel soft. Press the Keep Warm/Cancel button to turn off.
- Mix the onions and bacon with the pinto beans and add them to the Instant Pot. Fill the pot with enough water to cover the beans by two inches. Add the rest of the chicken stock. Stir everything together. Cover with the lid and seal. Make sure the pressure valve is set to closed. Press the Manual/Pressure Cook button, at high pressure setting. Set the time to 50 minutes. Let the pressure drop naturally for at least 20 minutes after the cooking time is up. Add salt and pepper to taste after opening the lid.
- Put it in bowls and top with chow-chow or chopped raw onions. With corn bread on the side to soak up the tasty pot likker
- It tastes even better the next day when heated up, and the beans get softer and thicker, making it more like mountain chili.
This is a small batch recipe for pickled chow chow that is quick to make for garnishment. There are many variations of Chow Chow relish recipes to make large batches for canning.
- 1 cup cabbage or 1 green tomato finely chopped
- 1 red bell pepper chopped with core and seeds removed
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 small cucumber finely chopped
- 1 cayenene pepper minced *Optional for spiciness
- 1 liter white vinegar divided
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/3 cup water
Instructions
- Placed chopped vegetables in a saucepan. Add enough vinegar to cover the vegetables, and then turn the heat up to medium-high. Bring the vegetables to a boil and cook them until they are soft. Take the vegetables off the heat, drain them, and throw away the rest of the vinegar.
- Add sugar, ground mustard, turmeric, celery seed, 1/3 cup vinegar, and water to the pot of cooked vegetables. Stir them in. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Let mixture boil for 5 minutes.
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Growing and harvesting pinto beans, growing pinto beans
FAQ
Are soup beans and pinto beans the same?
What culture is bean soup?
Where did beans originally come from?
What is the meaning of soup beans?
What are soup beans?
Soup beans is a term common in the Southern United States, particularly the regions around the Appalachian Mountains. Soup beans are usually served with cornbread, greens (such as boiled cabbage, cauliflower, or sauerkraut and sausage ), and potatoes (stewed or fried) and may be topped with raw chopped onions or ramps ( Allium tricoccum ).
What is soup beans & why should you eat them?
Served up in a bowl with a side of corn bread, soup beans are both an essential source of sustenance and comforting meal. “To a native of Appalachia, soup beans is just a name for a pinto bean soup everyone makes. To outsiders it’s an exotic specialty. Simple traditional and mountain through and through.”
What are the different types of soup beans?
While soup beans are traditionally pinto beans (called brown beans in the mountain region), other types of beans are also used. White beans — Great northern beans and Navy beans are often used to make a soup bean dish.
Do Appalachians eat soup beans?
Although few Appalachians will turn down a bowl of beans at almost any meal, soup beans usually are the meal, needing nothing more than good cornbread and maybe a little chowchow, if it’s handy. Some people top them with a bit of chopped raw onion or a couple of home-canned tomatoes mashed with a fork.