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PEAS, ASPARAGUS HEADS AS. (See ASPARAGUS HEADS AS PEAS.)
PEAS "BROSE."
In Scotland "peas brose," as it is called, is made of the fine flour of the white pea, by forming it into a mass merely by the addition of boiling water, a piece of butter, and a little salt. It is a favourite dish with not only the working classes, but is even esteemed by many of the gentry. It was introduced into fashion chiefly by the recommendation of Dr. Cleghorn, at one time Professor of Chemistry in Glasgow University. Peas brose is usually eaten with milk, and is a sweet nourishing article of diet, peculiarly fitted for persons of a costive habit, and for children.
A brose is not cooked in a pan: boiling liquid is poured onto meal in the bowl and stirred just enough to bring it together. The whole point is speed, and the whole risk is lumps.
- The hinge: pour, do not stir longPut the pea flour and salt in a warmed bowl, make a well, pour boiling water into it and stir briskly for a few seconds only, then cover and let it stand a minute or two. Overworking turns brose into a stiff, gluey paste; it should be thick but still soft enough to fall from the spoon.
- "Fine flour of the white pea"This is pease meal (pea flour), still sold by some Scottish millers and grocers; it is not the same thing as besan, which is chickpea flour and tastes noticeably different. Split yellow or green peas ground fine in a spice mill are the nearest substitute.
- Proportions, since none are givenThe original leaves them out entirely. As a starting point, about 4 tablespoons of pea flour to 4-5 fl oz of boiling water per person, with a teaspoon of butter and a good pinch of salt. Adjust the water as you go; pea flour absorbs differently depending on grind.
- Toasting the mealRaw pea flour tastes chalky and slightly green. Dry-toasting it in a pan for two or three minutes until it smells nutty, before adding the water, makes a considerable difference.
- ServingServe immediately, in the bowl it was made in, with cold milk poured round or over rather than mixed in. It sets firm as it cools and is not good reheated.
- The medical claim"Peculiarly fitted for persons of a costive habit" means it was thought good for constipation — pea flour is genuinely high in fibre, but read the line as period dietary opinion, not advice.
- YieldThe quantities above make one substantial breakfast portion. Scale straight up; the only limit is having enough boiling water to hand at once.
Brose is the Scots name for any dish made by pouring boiling water or broth over meal in a bowl — oatmeal brose was the everyday form, kail brose used the liquor from boiled greens, and Atholl brose swapped water for whisky, honey and cream. Pease meal brose belongs to the same family and to the same economy: pease was among the cheapest field crops in Scotland, ground at the local mill, and a brose needed no pot, no fire beyond a kettle and no cooking skill, which made it the standard fuel of farm servants and labourers. Cassell's repeats the claim that its wider respectability was owed to a Dr Cleghorn of Glasgow University; the attribution is the kind of medical endorsement Victorian cookery books liked to attach to peasant foods, and is best treated as received tradition. What the entry really records is a moment when a labourer's dish was being talked up on nutritional grounds to readers who would otherwise never have eaten it.