I agree with the chicken broth...
I use a ham bone, beans, onion, carrots...just a small one, grated fine....and some chicken broth and some water to cook it.
But...when you cook the beans with a ham bone you are in fact making ham broth.
I wouldn't use ketchup but rather about a T. of tomato paste.
Frankly though....even though my name is Campbell, I don't see why you would want to copy a canned soup?
It's been years since I have eaten that soup, but as I recall it had a strong flavor of carrots....and suspect that some of the red color was from carrots.
Linda C

LOL, Linda... The reason I want to copy a canned soup is because I love that canned soup. I don't, these days, care to eat canned or processed foods and so I make most things from scratch. I would imagine that this soup originated from someone's scratch soup, so I'm trying to recreate it at home. Minus the bad stuff. Most people have their food quirks... Campbell's soup is mine. I also love their chicken noodle soup. I've made scratch versions a hundred times but none are better than Campbell's. Probably because that is the only chicken noodle I had until my mid 20's when I first tried scratch. If I had grown up on the real deal I bet I would prefer that.

As far as ham broth goes you have a point. I was thinking ham broth as in the water that you simmer a ham in before you bake it. That is very 'hammy' tasting.

I was considering ketchup because the canned soup has a slightly sweet taste. That could be from all the carrots, I suppose. I'll just wing it and see what happens.

Thank you for your input. Are you one of THE Campbells?

That used to be my fave Campbells soup too when I was a kid and I did manage to copy/perfect it. I think I like mine even a little bit more. Smiles. I don't like to eat flabby bacon so I do use ham. I like it so much I make 3#'s of navy beans at a time and freeze a gallon or so. I am eating on a large container right now. The red does come from tomato paste, and yes, the sweetness is from alot of carrots.

1 lb navy beans soaked in brine overnight then rinsed. 1/4 to 1/2 cup salt to gallon of water.

1 small ham hock or hunk of ham or some ham skin and fat

1 medium onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 stalks of celery with tops

2 medium carrots or a good handfull of little carrots

1 lrg or 2 small bay leaves

1/3 can of tomato paste [I used roasted garlic paste if have it]

Cook the ham hocks or ham or ham scraps in water to cover for about half an hour. Add beans and rest of ingredients. Add water to cover by a few inches. I don't use broth because it changes the taste. Bring to boil and then turn to low/simmer until tender. Because you have brined the beans it will only take about an hour. Add salt to taste as the beans become tender.

It's quite simple and very good. When I have ham I take all the skin and much of the fat and bone of course and make small bags to use for this and for lentil soup. My other fave. I don't care that much for eating the meat so that works well for me. If you like the ham, use bit more meat or the ham hocks. Hope you enjoy.

This is a super easy, and super good bean & ham soup recipe. I think I may have had Campbell's Bean and ham or Bean and Bacon soup when I was a kid. Trust me....this one is waaaaay better!

I made this one for last year's Soup Party and there were no leftovers at all!

Navy Bean Soup
From Food Network Kitchens

1 lb navy beans, picked over, rinsed and drained
10 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 large smoked ham hocks, about 1-1/2 lb
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
8 c cold water
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Butter for garnish

Place beans in a large saucepan and cover with cold water by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let sit for one hour. Drain and reserve. Tie parsley, thyme and bay leaf together with kitchen twine.

In large soup pot or dutch oven, combine the beans, herb bundle, hocks, onions and garlic with the water. Bring to a boil, cover and adjust the heat so that the soup cooks at a gentle simmer. Cook until the beans and hocks are completely tender, about 1-1/2 hours.

Turn off heat and remove hocks. Cool slightly. Remove meat from hocks, discarding the bones, fat and skin. Cut meat into small cubes. Remove herb bundle from soup and discard.

Puree about 3 cups of the beans with some of the liquid in a blender. (For a smooth soup, you may puree all the beans). Stir the puree and diced meat into the soup. Heat the soup and adjust seasoning as needed with salt & pepper.

Ladle into heated bowls, place a small pat of butter on top of each bowl of soup, serve.

Linda

I've made this recipe from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook and it tastes just like Campbell's Bean with Bacon soup.

Navy Bean and Bacon Soup

1 lb. dry navy beans
9 cups water
1 lb. bacon diced
2 large onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 chicken bouillon cubes or
4 tspns chicken stock base
1 bay leaf
1/2 tspn salt
1/4 tspn pepper
1/8 tspn ground cloves
16 oz. can tomatoes

1. In 8-quart Dutch oven or large saucepot over high heat, heat beans and waer to boiling; boil 2 minutes. Remove Dutch oven from heat; cover and let beans stand 1 hour.

2. Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until golden brown, stirring occasionally; spoon off all but about 1/4 cup fat.

3. In same skillet, with bacon and in remaining fat, cook onions and celery until onions are tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

4. Stir bacon mixture into undrained beans; add bouillon, bay leaf, salt, pepper and cloves. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover; simmer mixture 1 1/2 hours.

5. When beans are tender, stir in tomatoes with their liquid, breaking up tomatoes into small pieces.

6. Cook, uncovered, 30 minutes longer or until beans are very tender and soup has thickened.

Bean with Bacon was always a favourite Campbell's soup with me when I was going to school. I still buy a couple of tins when I come to Canada, along with Habitant French Canadian Pea Soup.
I see they're even selling Habitant on Amazon. C'est delicieux!

I will watch here to see what recipes turn up.

SharonCb

I suspect that even the "foodiest" among us have secret penchants for some canned/prepackaged food or other...most often because it was a comfort food from childhood.

My brother and I were "latchkey" kids before it was fashionable. When I was sick, my mother would leave me with a glass of juice and a carafe of water by my bed, and a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and Saltine crackers in the kitchen for me to heat up if I felt able to eat.

To this day, when I am perfectly capable of making wonderful Chicken soup from scratch (and often do), when I am sick I want Campbell's. I know I am on the mend if I heat some up and the noodles seem too squishy and the broth too oily/salty.

Thanks everybody! These all sound like they would be a close match and darned good on their own even if they are not identical.

If anyone is ever involved in a swap with Sharon you know what bonus item you can send her now! :)

Yeah, Rachel, there are quite a few food memories from my childhood that I still stick to. Some home made some not. How I had them as a kid is how I want them now, lol.

Oh man I feel like your speaking to me just a little bit.
I grew up on processed foods and still eat a lot of them. My taste buds are conditioned, I like it. I love both the small can Cambells bean and bacon and the
large chunky soup can of Beans and Ham. And I'm a religious eater of the chicken soup, especially the second I feel a cold coming on.
I'm pretty loyal to a lot of the brands I ate growing up, Bernea sour cream and chip dip, Eckrich smoked sausages - all additive laden "crap" at some level but I guess I'm a bit like an addict. I try to buy some organic and read labels - but not because I think it tastes better :(

Mary, I think you're right, it's what you are used to and equate to as "comfort food".

I grew up eating fresh farm type food, we seldom had any of the pre-packaged convenience type foods. As a result my idea of upset tummy food is homemade gingersnaps and 7-up or a soft egg on really dark toast, food for colds is homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles, broken heart food is peanut butter off the spoon followed by dark chocolate. Well, some prepackaged stuff, I guess because I don't make my own peanut butter or grow my own cocoa beans. (grin)

As a result, I make bean soup much like LindaC, I don't add any tomato products at all, and it doesn't taste anything like Campbell's. Still, it's pretty darned good.

And, of course, now I'll have to buy a can of that Campbell's stuff just to see what it DOES taste like....

This reminds me of a kid I knew that ate her Bean with Bacon straight out of the can, spread on white bread.

ooooooh! Try your bean with bacon soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. That was my favorite as a kid. I just bought a can last week (after years of not buying it) because I had craving. Must be somethin' in the air :-)

I just made smoked pork neckbones. I used some of it to make navy bean soup.

1 cup beans, washed, then well covered with water and brought to a boil. After which let sit for an hour. Pour off liquid, add enough fresh water to make soup. Add smoked pork, bring to a boil, then simmer for a hour or so. Remove pork from pot.

Have ready.
1/2 cup diced onion, diced celery, diced carrot in a pan, add liquid from beans to cover, cook on medium until soft, add to beans. Add chicken base/or salt and pepper to taste. Remove meat from bones and chop, add to soup. Then add 1 teaspoon Kashmiri ground pepper [I grow and grind my own.] Sold in Indian stores. It gives the soup the color of Campbell's Bean and Bacon Soup.

Crackin' Corn Bread goes good with it.

coconut_nj,
Made your soup yesterday. My husband and I loved it. I made corn muffins, too, and we crumbled them up in it as we ate it. Really tasty. I passed your recipe on to family member who will, I'm sure, enjoy it also. In fact, my sister is making it today.

Judi

I'm planning to try coconut's recipe first as well. The brining of the beans has me really interested. I've never heard of that before.

Well thanks ya'll. I just dug up this thread when ysop was looking for senate bean soup recipe. Glad you and your family enjoyed it Judi. Smiles. I eat soup for breakfast and lunch generally until I'm done with the curernt batch that is unfrozen. I just finished my first gallon of lentil soup, so tonight I am going to brine the beans for this bean soup. I just started brining the beans in the past six months or so and can't believe the difference. The skins are so much more tender and it takes a lot less time to cook the whole soup. The outcome is that you can cook it till the beans are tender without having all the skins come off and floating around.

I had just bought a ham to use mostly for soups and froze quart bags of meat and skins to use, but also have the big bone, soooo.. this time I'm making 4 lbs at a time so I can use the big bone. Ah... happy camper. Time to start some artisan bread to go with.

I made it again this past Sunday, and my dh said, "I think this is my new favorite bean soup." I think the carrots and the bit of tomato paste added give it really nice flavor.

Thanks,

Judi