Made this for Easter breakfast, Too sweet, too much butter. I would make it again with half of the brown sugar and half of the butter called for.

Reviewed On: Apr. 12, 2009

IMPORTANT, please read the original recipe writer - Benevolent Empress’s follow up "review" dated Mar. 24, 2008 for her comments about the recipe as shown not being as she wrote it. Myself, following both her recipe and her follow up review, I made this slowly over two days on a winter weekend. I used the bones, meat and all from a picnic ham of a previous day’s diner that was kept frozen until just the right weekend. I was not sure about the use of tomato products in my bean soup; I used V-8 juice as the vegetable juice called for. This soup is flavorful, aromatic and delicious. I froze five quarts and will look forward to every one of them. If I was to use (and will use) a previously cooked picnic ham again I would not put the lean meat trimmings in the soup pot until the last two hours or so. I had put the meat in at the beginning and it broke up more than should be. Also, as large a batch this makes I too would use more beans. Maybe two packages... But I like beans and it is a BEAN soup. Take the time and love making this soup per the recipe as it is – “The Best”, not like your Mama's bean and ham soup, but way better.

Reviewed On: Apr. 7, 2009