Filibuster Fuel: the famous Senate Bean Soup

[jmowreader]

Y'all might wonder what fueled the three thousand filibusters (give or take fifty) the Senate's Republican Caucus launched over the last couple of Congresses. Well, here's your answer.

It seems that a senator from the late 1800s--no one's really sure who it was--wrote, and got passed, a law requiring the Senate cafeteria to serve bean soup every day. Here is the recipe:

2 pounds dried navy beans
four quarts hot water
1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste

Wash the navy beans and run hot water through them until they are slightly whitened. Place beans into pot with hot water. Add ham hocks and simmer approximately three hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally. Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup. Lightly brown the onion in butter. Add to soup. Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Serves 8.

[villager]

1. hmm... we need a vegetarian alternative to that "ham hock" component for us hippie leftist types...

;-)

[Mariana]

3. You might try "Liquid Smoke". nt.

[ashling]

2. Joseph cannon was pissed that they didn't serve soup once in 1907

A resolution was introduced by Senator Knute Nellson of Minnesota, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, that decreed that while the Senate is in session, no day shall pass without Senate Bean Soup.