🇺🇸 United States · Washington, D.C.
Senate bean soup
The navy bean soup served daily in the United States Senate restaurants since the early 1900s, made of dried navy beans simmered with smoked ham hocks, onion and butter (a braised onion), sometimes with mashed potato.
Origin and history
Senate bean soup is the navy bean and ham hock soup served daily in the United States Senate's restaurants. The Senate itself says that the stories of how it became a daily tradition early in the 20th century, one crediting Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho and another Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota in 1903, have not been corroborated. A Senate restaurant menu of 1962 printed the recipe on its back cover.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 8 servings
- Total time
- 3 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 25 min
Ingredients
- 900 g2 lb (about 4 1/2 cups) dried navy beans, sorted and rinsed; soaked overnight in cold water, then drained
- 3.8 litres4 quarts hot water
- 700 g1 1/2 lb smoked ham hocks
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 tbsp butter
- salt and black pepper, to taste, added at the end
Method
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1. Drain the soaked beans and rinse them under hot running water until they look slightly whitened.
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2. Put the beans in a large pot with the hot water and the ham hocks.
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3. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer gently for about 3 hours, stirring from time to time, until the beans are very soft and the soup is starting to thicken.
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4. Lift out the hocks and let them cool until you can handle them. Pull off the meat, dice it, and return it to the pot, discarding the skin, fat and bones.
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5. Melt the butter in a small skillet and cook the onion until lightly browned. Stir it into the soup.
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6. Bring the soup back to a boil, season with salt and pepper, and serve.
Notes
- Total time: 3 h 30 min plus overnight soaking.
- This follows the recipe the United States Senate publishes for the soup served in its restaurants: navy beans, smoked ham hocks and a butter-browned onion. The Senate states it serves bean soup every day.
- The origin of the daily bean soup is disputed and nothing has been confirmed. One story credits Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho, as chair of the committee overseeing the restaurant, with a resolution requiring it; another credits Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who in 1903 said he wanted it on the menu every day. The recipe attributed to Dubois includes mashed potatoes; today's does not.
- For a creamier soup, mash a cup of the cooked beans against the side of the pot, or add a little mashed potato, as in the Dubois version.
- Great Northern beans can stand in for navy beans; they are a little larger and give a similar result.
- Soaking is optional if you do not mind longer cooking, but it gives a more tender bean. Cooks who skip it to avoid split beans usually simmer gently and use less hock.
- It keeps well for 4 days refrigerated and thickens as it sits; thin with water on reheating. A larger version for a crowd was scaled up in the Senate's own recipe.
Adapted from Senate Bean Soup, Traditions and Symbols, United States Senate, Senate Bean Soup, Reference, United States Senate, and Senate Bean Soup (1903), American Table.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.