Cold weather and inaugurations call for heartwarming soup. Senate Bean Soup is something the entire U.S. Congress has always agreed on and is purportedly served daily, in the Capital Building restaurant for over 100 years (perhaps like most great bean soups, they simply keep adding more water). My version uses a bit of liquid smoke in lieu of the ham hock, which is the traditional, rout and cubed potatoes (instead of mashed), so maybe this could be the start of some discord. Nah. This is great soup. Wright’s Liquid Smoke is the one we use in the BetterBaking.com test kitchen. Soak the beans overnight or in the morning and make the soup mid afternoon in time for supper. This is a non-partisan, crowd pleasing soup. Take it from a Canuck.