Solet (Hungarian Bean Soup)

Soup week! I've used up all the soup-appropriate containers in the house and I have at least a gallon in the freezer, so I guess it's time to take a break from soup making.

I don't remember Marie making this soup, but it's delicious. Exactly what should go in Solet, and whether Solet (Hungarian) and Cholet (Jewish) are varieties of the same thing or have nothing to do with each other, is a topic of debate online. So I'll just present my grandmother's recipe.

You do need either an oven-safe pot and oven or crock pot for this recipe. I recommend making late in the evening and cooking over night.

Solet
10 oz beans (kidney beans, pinto beans, or soup mix all work)
1/2 lb corned beef, cut in 1" pieces
5 oz fatty stew meat, cut in 1" pieces
1 marrow bone
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp flour

Place beans, meat, and onion in a large pot. In one cup water, mix salt, paprika, and flour, and add to pot. Fill pot with water to cover ingredients. Cook on high, covered, for 45 minutes, stirring frequently at the beginning to prevent burning. Place in low oven for 12 hours, or transfer to crock pot and cook on low for 12 hours. Add more water before leaving overnight to make sure the top doesn't dry out.

Notes: I never have half a pound of corned beef, so I've made this with bacon and with smoked turkey. Pretty much any meat will do, although it's traditional to used smoked meat. If your meat is pre-cooked, add it when you transfer to the low heat.

This recipe doesn't call for pre-soaking the beans. I always cook for the full 12 hours and have never had a problem. The early cooking time on high heat plus the slow cooking accomplishes the toxin reduction that soaking is for. I've used mixed soup beans, which give a more interesting texture and color, and white kidney beans, which look boring but taste fine.