Senate Navy Bean Soup with the Leftover Ham Bone
The soup the US Senate restaurant has served for more than a century: dried navy beans simmered three hours with a meaty leftover ham bone, finished with diced ham and onion browned in butter.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
Bean soup has been a required daily dish in the Senate's restaurants for more than a century, and the Senate itself publishes the recipe. It also admits nobody agrees how the rule started: one account credits Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho, who chaired the committee over the Senate Restaurant and passed a resolution requiring bean soup every day; another credits Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who loved the soup and in 1903 insisted it be served daily. Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, unsurprisingly, takes the Dubois side, and notes that the recipe credited to Dubois includes mashed potatoes, an Idaho staple (December 18, 2023:). The Senate says the version served today has no mashed potatoes but adds an onion browned in butter. The Dubois recipe uses ham and a ham bone; today's uses smoked ham hocks. We use the holiday ham's bone, which is what most home cooks have the day after.
🇺🇸 This one is American
The soup the US Senate restaurant has served for more than a century: dried navy beans simmered three hours with a meaty leftover ham bone, finished with diced ham and onion browned in butter.
🇺🇸 The original
The old American ham is the salt-cured country ham: soaked, simmered and sliced thin, a Virginia tradition older than the country. See the Virginia Country Ham, Soaked and Simmered recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
No soak
The Senate simmers dried beans for about three hours instead of soaking them overnight; navy beans are small, and the long simmer also melts some of them into the broth so the soup thickens itself.
Browned onion at the end
Adding the onion browned in butter just before serving, instead of boiling it for hours, keeps its sweetness and gives the soup a toasty, buttery finish.
🧰 You'll need 4 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Pans and pots
Tools
Step by step
- Step 1
Pick over the beans for stones, then rinse them under hot running water until they look slightly whitened, the Senate's own step.
- Step 2
Put the beans and 4 quarts hot water in an 8-quart pot, add the ham bone and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Step 3
Lower the heat, cover and simmer about 3 hours, stirring now and then, until the beans are completely tender and starting to break down.
✓ What it should look like - Step 4
Lift out the bone and let it cool 10 minutes. Pull off any meat, dice it and return it to the pot with the 2 cups diced ham.
- Step 5
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and cook the onion 6 to 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir it into the soup.
- Step 6
If you like the Dubois version, stir in the mashed potatoes now. Bring the soup back to a boil, season with salt and pepper, and serve.
Senate Navy Bean Soup with the Leftover Ham Bone
Serves 8 · about 4 quarts · 3 hr 35 min total
Soup
- 2 lb dried navy beans
- 4 quarts hot water
- 1 meaty leftover ham bone (from a fully cooked ham, used within 3 to 5 days)
- 2 cups diced leftover ham (about 10 oz)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 tbsp butter
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Optional, the Dubois way
- 1 to 2 cups mashed potatoes, stirred in to thicken
Equipment: Pot, Skillet, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons
Method
- Pick over the beans for stones, then rinse them under hot running water until they look slightly whitened, the Senate's own step.
- Put the beans and 4 quarts hot water in an 8-quart pot, add the ham bone and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Lower the heat, cover and simmer about 3 hours, stirring now and then, until the beans are completely tender and starting to break down.
- Lift out the bone and let it cool 10 minutes. Pull off any meat, dice it and return it to the pot with the 2 cups diced ham.
- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and cook the onion 6 to 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir it into the soup.
- If you like the Dubois version, stir in the mashed potatoes now. Bring the soup back to a boil, season with salt and pepper, and serve.
Adapted from the US Senate's current "Senate Bean Soup" recipe (serves 8), as written, with one swap: a meaty leftover ham bone plus 2 cups diced ham in place of the 1 1/2 lb smoked ham hocks, following the ham-and-bone version the Senate credits to Dubois. The Senate gives no times beyond "about 3 hours"; the browning time for the onion is ours. The leftover-ham storage limit (3 to 5 days) is from USDA FSIS. U.S. Senate. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- Taste before salting; the ham and bone already carry a lot of salt.
- If the soup gets too thick, add hot water a cup at a time.
- It is even better the next day. Cool it quickly, refrigerate, and reheat leftovers to 165°F.
- No ham bone? Use the Senate's original 1 1/2 lb smoked ham hocks.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Fred Dubois started the daily bean soup rule. Disputed: the Senate gives two accounts, Dubois of Idaho (a committee resolution) and Knute Nelson of Minnesota (1903), without choosing; Senator Crapo prefers Dubois.
- Senate bean soup has mashed potatoes. Disputed: the recipe credited to Dubois does; the Senate says today's soup does not.
- Bean soup has been served every single day since 1903. Disputed: food sites repeat that it missed one day in 1943, during wartime rationing (search summaries only); the Senate page we read does not say so.
- Beans must be soaked overnight. Folklore: the Senate's own recipe does not soak them.
- The House has its own bean soup thanks to Speaker Joseph Cannon. Folklore: repeated in search summaries; not checked.
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