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Split-Pea Soup-No. 1
This soup may be made of dried, split, green, or yellow peas. Let a large cupful of the peas soak overnight. In the morning drain, cover with 2 quarts of water, and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the peas become soft, then rub them through a colander and return to the fire. Thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into 1 of butter, and season with salt, pepper, celery, and onion juice.
Stir the soup until it becomes very smooth, turn into a heated tureen, throw in a handful of dice of fried bread, and serve.
A plain puree soup that depends almost entirely on how far you take the peas and how well you smooth them. Everything else is seasoning.
- The hinge: cook the peas to collapseSplit peas must be soft enough to fall apart before they go through the colander, or the puree stays grainy and the soup separates on standing. Figure 45 minutes to an hour and a half at a bare simmer, depending on the age of the peas.
- "A large cupful"Read this as a generous cup, roughly 8 oz of dried split peas. With 2 quarts of water that gives a soup on the thin side by modern taste; hold back a cup of the water if you want it heavier, or thin at the end.
- Rubbing through a colanderA perforated colander or sieve, the puree worked through with a wooden spoon or pestle. A food mill or a stick blender does the same job in a fraction of the time; a countertop blender will make it smoother than the original ever was.
- The flour and butterA tablespoon of flour rubbed into a tablespoon of butter is beurre mani",Simmer the soup at least two or three minutes after adding it or the flour tastes raw.
- Celery and onion juiceJuice pressed or grated from fresh onion and celery, sometimes bought bottled as an extract. Substitute a stalk of celery and half an onion simmered with the peas and passed through with them, or a small quantity of celery salt with grated onion stirred in at the end.
- Hard water and old peasOld peas -- very old split peas can be slow to soften, and hard water makes it slower still. If they are still chalky well past the expected time, longer cooking may not rescue them; start again with fresher stock.
- YieldAbout 6 to 7 cups finished, serving four as a first course. The recipe throws the fried bread dice into the tureen; if you prefer them crisp, add them at the table instead.