Ronald Reagan's Hamburger Soup
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups diced onions
- 2 cloves chopped garlic
- 1 1/2 cup sliced carrots
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 can (10 ounce size) hominy
- 1 cup diced green bell peppers
- 3 quarts beef broth
- 1 can (16 ounce size) chopped tomato (or fresh)
- 2 cups sliced celery
Instructions
Brown meat in butter in six-quart sauce pan. Add onions, garlic, carrots, celery and green pepper. Simmer 10 minutes with the pan covered. Add beef broth or water with bouillon cubes. Add chopped tomato and pepper. Simmer soup on low heat for 35 minutes. Add hominy. Boil hamburger soup for 10 minutes more.
Notes
Some mean spirited Democrats of the time were critical of Reagan accusing him of being elitist for his fondness of fancy French soups. It is speculated that in response to accusations of elitism it was released that Ronald Reagan had a favorite soup recipe using common ingredients including canned hominy. It might be that the soup was simply one that he was fond of throughout his life. It has also been reported that he enjoyed plain hamburger cooked in beef broth without any other ingredients.
Variations of the recipe called for either beef broth or water with bouillon cubes. I would recommend avoiding the bouillon cubes as the majority of such products contains Monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Hominy is dried and processed field corn. The processing involves the dried hominy kernels being soaked in an alkali solution of lye or slaked lime. This process, called nixtamalization, removes the hull and germ, making the corn easier to grind and cook with. It is basically being re-hydrated in a food-grade calcium hydroxide solution. Cooked hominy kernels are about three times the size of raw sweet corn kernels. Yellow hominy tends to be sweeter than white hominy and both are more chewy as compared to corn.
Although one might mistakenly caution eating hominy over ordinary corn due to the processing involving "an alkali solution," nutritionists insist it is actually more nutritious. You don't have to be concerned about residual lye as it gets scrubbed out, leaving the hominy with a mild, earthy taste. Hominy is considered to be a nutritious food that is sold in a variety of forms. Whole and ground forms are available in both white and yellow variants. The alkali processing is not harmful and improves the nutritional value of the grain, by making the B vitamins more available and adding substantial calcium.
