Lib Slack's Green Beans

My maternal grandmother, Lib Slack, was a fine cook in the Southern home-cooking tradition.  I am grateful that she passed her talents down to my mother, who is a fine cook in multiple traditions.  Dinner at our house was an international pot-luck:  our mother cooked Italian, Spanish, Mexican, Texican, and more, and our father cooked French, Mexican, and more. 

Many of my grandmother's recipes have been lost or mislaid, but I have a few on recipe cards and others in the memory banks.  This one resides in memory, since I helped Lib with it many times as a child.  Southern-style green beans don't get any easier or better than this.

INGREDIENTS:

1 smoked ham hock

1 large brown-paper grocery sack full of string beans

water 

salt & pepper to taste

Optional: one or more grandchildren to pop the ends and pull the strings from the beans.  Otherwise, you'll have to do this yourself.

PROCESS:  Place the ham hock and the beans in a large pot; cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to lowest simmer and cook for an hour or more, until the green beans are completely soft and the ham hock is falling apart.  Add salt, if you like (the ham hock will provide some salt, so test first) and several grinds of pepper.  I (of course) recommend a cast-iron Dutch oven.

Regardless of whatever else you serve with the green beans, they are superb when accompanied by thick slices of freshly-picked, homegrown beefsteak tomatoes.