General Chat

oooh the hock one sounds nice, thing i will try that one xx

OK thanks, that is what I thought. the small pieces of gammon I buy to cook for us I don't soak as they are not salty.

Ann, what I do is, when I get my hock home, I soak it in cold water for 24 hrs. to remove the salt. Same if you are going to boil a piece of Gammon or bake it as you do at Christmas. I too have to watch the BP.

Good Luck

Julia in Derbyshire

Might be but depends on the ham are we talking bout a piece of gammon/ham weighin a pound or more, if so, soak overnight before cooking.

ok, but is pea and ham basically more likely to be more salty than the chicken soup?

Ann if soup appears to be salty cook a potato in it and then lift out - it absorbs the salt.

Tell me if you make pea and ham soup, is it very salty. We like boiled ham or bacon but have been put off making soup from it because I need to keep my salt level down (BP).

Buy a large pkt of cooking bacon in Sxxxsburys for just over £1 - good value. We use it similarily to Julia.

Ooh Sandie, I make pea and Ham Soup, and is now one of our favourites. I can buy a ham hock to boil of the Cold meat counter in M***sons, for £1.78 approx. I then boil it and save the stock after skimming and turn into the soup. I make a meal of some description from the meat, but save the little bits. Some of these i put back into the soup after it has been blitzed. Other bits I freeze then at any time I use these to make homemade Pineaple and Ham Pizza, put towards a Chicken and Ham Pie, serve in Omelettes, aor anywhere else requiring Ham to cook. To me, these are the most worthwhile buy I have found for ages, and I only seem to be able to get them in M*****sons.

Julia in Derbyshire

PS. Also meant to say, I put it in the base of a Quiche. It is suprising just what you can put Ham in. I also use Pulses in soups, and Pearly Barley.

Yes Brenda , I often use lentils and barley in my soups and stews.

Another soup I started making during that 3 month strike in the 80's was Pea and Ham..a boiled piece of Gammon would make many meals for just the 2 of us, I would then the 'stock..remaining water' to make the soup with dried peas,add some onion which hubby always grows, whoosh it in the blender. If I made too much I'd freeze it.
I don't make it as much now cos the children don't like boiled Gammon as a hot meal. ....( delicious with Parsley sauce..parsley home grown of course ;-) )

Oh how I. Love home made chicken soup!
I am sitting out here in the sunshine in Sydney and while son is working from home I am reading and looking on my iPad(luxury?)
I am missing some aspects of winter and after living on lots of salads and stir fries could just eat a bowl of chicken soup.
does anyone add pulses like barley,lentils to make a broth?My mother always added them to bulk it out and thicken.I do like it this way ,also with celery as well as carrots.onions and anything else handy.
I watched my son the other night pick all the meat off the bones and throw the carcass away ....and had to stop myself from saying anything as they think it's me penny pinching!!....how wrong!,,
Times have changed! :-

Lol Puss~~

The saying goes that the 'little ones chewed on the bones'
Not in our house.. I always have what some call the leftovers, but like Ann I find chicken breast sometimes dry, tho I do cook it upside-down for half the cooking time.
Everyone else likes it so we're OK.

Sandie.

sandie, my ex husband, used to inite his friends and partners often on a sunday, chicken was the meat, i really disliked one of his friends so i used to give him the underside of the chicken, they found it funny as i didnt know it was his favorite :-0 that shoewd me xx :-D

My favourite part of the meat too Sandie, I find breast meat too dry.

Julia~~

What do you mean by under meat ? If it is the underside , to me it is the best part after the roast chicken has gone cold. I don't like breast meat cold.

Sandie.

i will try it chris, i havent made chicken pie before, could i have your recipie pleased xx

sandie its really good, cant believev no matter what you do to the bones or chicken you never loos that chicken taste, if anything with the bones its better xx

Puss - Campbells is condensed so very thick - ideal for a quick sauce to mix with chicken for a pie.

British Steel Workers went on strike in 1980, my hubby and a few of my friends hubby's were involved, it was for about 3 months.
Myself and my friends used to try and see how many meals we could get from one chicken . We were quite inventive, since then I have never thrown a chicken carcass out. ...and made up many soups from the stock.
I can't eat tinned chicken soup any more either puss.
Only tinned soup I do occasionally have is He**z tomato .
Sandie.x

after having the home made stuff i couldnt eat the tin type x

Julia a cheat's way is to use a tin of Campbell's condensed chicken or mushroom soup - makes a lovely sauce in a chicken pie.