Sue Doeden's Country Style Three Bean Soup

Step 1: Rinse and sort beans, removing any small stones, shriveled beans and dirt.

Step 2: In a large soup pot, heat beans and 8 cups of water to boiling.

Step 3: Boil 2 minutes.

Step 4: Remove pot from heat.

Step 5: Cover and let stand for 1 hour.

Step 6: Drain beans in colander and rinse with cold water.

Step 7: Return soup pot to heat.

Step 8: Melt butter over medium heat.

Step 9: Add onions and carrots and saute for about 5 minutes, until onions are tender.

Step 10: Add pork hocks and 8 cups of water to the pot.

Step 11: Add bay leaves and peppercorns. (put the bay leaves and peppercorns in a tea ball before adding to the pot.) This makes removal very easy.

Step 12: Heat to boiling.

Step 13: Return rinsed and drained beans to soup pot.

Step 14: Simmer soup for 45 minutes.

Step 15: Remove about 2 cups of soup and place in a shallow bowl.

Step 16: Mash the soup with a potato masher.

Step 17: You could also put the 2 cups of soup in the blender and puree.

Step 18: Return mashed soup to pot.

Step 19: This gives the soup a thicker texture.

Step 20: Add sliced sausage.

Step 21: Cook 20 minutes more.

Step 22: At this point, soup can be covered and refrigerated overnight.

Step 23: At serving time, heat soup until piping hot.

Step 24: Remove bay leaves, peppercorns and pork hocks. Cool the hocks slightly.

Step 25: Trim the meat from the hocks and add to soup.

Step 26: Season with salt and pepper to taste.