Senate Bean Soup: The Daily Menu Rule That Survived War and Budget Cuts

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The U.S. Senate has served its bean soup every day for more than a century. The modern recipe uses navy beans, ham hocks and onions, while earlier versions added celery, garlic, parsley and sometimes mashed potatoes as a thickener. A 1967 memo from the Architect of the Capitol to the Librarian of the Senate fixed the standard at two pounds of small Michigan navy beans. The Senate's own history lists competing legends about which senator ordered the soup served daily, none of them corroborated. Food historians, including John Egerton, note that flavoring slow cooked beans with smoked ham hock is a Southern technique, and the Capitol kitchens in the early 20th century were staffed largely by Black Southerners.

On September 14, 1943, wartime rationing left the kitchen out of navy beans, and the Washington Times-Herald reported the missing soup the next day. In a 1988 floor speech Bob Dole recounted how more beans were found by the following day and the streak continued. Cold War planners made sure the soup could be served in Project Greek Island, the secret congressional bunker. In the 1980s cost cutters quietly replaced the ham hocks with a commercial soup base until a new dining manager restored them in 1984. The Senate Dining Room still requires a senator's letter and a dress code, though the public can order the soup at the Capitol Visitor Center restaurant and the Longworth cafeteria.

• A bowl cost 15 cents in 1940 and did not reach $1 until 1996.
• The price rose to $4.50 by 2004 and $6 by 2010 as dining services were privatized and subsidies cut.
• By 2014 a 16 ounce bowl was priced at $3.60.
• The bunker's supplies were planned so the Senate could keep its ritual after a nuclear attack.
• The book The Best Soups in the World said the famous soup unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired.