Here's the original recipe from the Senate Dining Room. It was published in the Washington Post in 1982.

SENATE BEAN SOUP (8 servings)

2 pounds navy beans
1 ½ pounds smoked ham hocks
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

Wash beans and run through hot water until until they are white again. Put in pot with 4 quarts of hot water. Add ham hocks, boil slowly approximately 3 hours, covered. Braise onion in butter and when light brown, add to bean soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then serve. Do not add salt until ready to serve as this toughens the beans.

I don't exactly make senate bean soup...but close!
Unless you were hitting the bone with a cleaver I can't see why you should have had bone pieces....are you sure they weren't "stones" thata re often found in dry beans?

I put that ham bone into a pot, cover with at least 4 quarts of water...add a sliced onion and set it to simmer. No lid.
After about 3 hours or so... remove the ham bone and fish through the soup with a pierced serving spoon to remove pieces of fat that may have broken free and the onion...or some of it.
You could strain it but that's a lot of work...and an extra pot to dirty and a strainer.
To the pot of broth add more finely chopped onion, about 1/2 a carrot grated and the beans which have been washed and picked over to remove discolored beans and any "rocks".
Simmer about 1 1/2 hours until the beans are tender....mean while pick any shreds of meat from the bone and add to the soup...
Correct seasonings...I add about a teaspoon of salt...but not for a honey baked ham....and salt to taste and lots of black pepper.
Don't forget the corn bread!

And I really REALLY love a soup made just that way, but with dried baby lima beans.
Sigh....and it's too late for dinner...
Linda C

ysop, we just had a thread asking for a copy of Campbells Bean soup, so I went and dug that up for you. Quite a few good recipes on there, since Senate soup is basically that, bean with ham or bacon soup. I responded to the old thread just now so it will probably be on the first page. In case it's not, here is the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bean Soup

Campbell's pork and beans as not the same as Senate bean soup....which has been served in the dining room of the US Senate for a gajillion years.
No bacon nor carrots in Senate bean soup....just ham, beans onions and salt and pepper.

Linda, I'm sure you weren't trying to be as rude as your post sounds, but the bean soup recipes have nothing to do with pork and beans. There have traditionally been two recipes for the soup and one includes garlic and mashed potatoes. True the current recipe is the plain one, but we are cooks here and I see nothing wrong with trying to improve on what has often been described as a very plain soup or goo to some. As a matter of fact I do notice your own recipe says you use carrot in yours. Would it help if I called the other soups... Senate 'style'?

I only use ham in mine, but if all someone had was bacon... shrug, it's not illegal.

Rude? I don't see where Linda's post sounded rude at all.

I love bean soups of all kinds. But a soup of just beans, ham, onion, butter, salt & pepper would make me itch to add other things...some vegetables and herbs. I can't leave an easy recipe alone!

"coconut nj" That bean soup recipe sounds mighty goood, but I notice that they advise soaking beans in water with salt. Doesn't this toughen the beans and make them hard?

I have read other recipes that advise seasoning with salt at the very end of cooking, or the salt will keep the beans hard in spite of cooking time required by the recipe?

Lisbet, I'd always heard that about not adding salt to the end too. Apparently it's false. They do say that hard water/minerals in water might keep beans hard. If you think about it, if adding salt kept beans from cooking we'd never be able to get any beans cooked with ham or ham hocks to soften. The brining of the beans actually does do the opposite. They cook faster and are more creamy and keep their skins much better. Try it next time and see for yourself. I do have hard water and bean soup always took quite a long time to soften the beans. Now with this method the beans are cooked fully in about an hour. As a matter of fact I now cook the ham bone by itself first for a while since the beans cook so fast. lol..

Many thanks for the rapid response....I'll give it a try, I'm sure the recipe will be delicious....DH loves any dish made with dried beans!

That's good to know, about brining the beans. We have such hard water here, and it did seem to me that beans take so much longer than they did when I lived in a different area. I'll give it a try the next time I do garbanzos...Lordy those take a long time!

Thanks for the great suggestions. The soup is on the Cluny simmer plate. I didn't strain it, just put the butt end of the H.B. ham, diced celery, carrots and onion into the pre-soaked navy beans.

Rachelellen, I keep forgetting to buy some, but I'm very interested in trying some black beans brined. We could never get them to cook right with our hard water. Sounds like an excellent idea for the garbanzos too. They sure are some of the hardest. lol.. Let us know how you make out.

Cool ysop. I decided to wait until after thanksgiving to make my next batch of bean soup since the fridge will be full and I like to make such big batches and cool the big pot overnight before I portion it out for the freezer. Hope the method works for you.