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Split-Pea Soup-No. 2
Pick over and wash 1 cup dried split peas; soak several hours in cold water. Put them on in 3 pints fresh cold water, and simmer until dissolved, adding water as it boils away, to preserve the original quantity. Keep it scraped free from the sides of the kettle; when soft, rub through a strainer and add water, milk, or stock to make the desired consistency-more a puree than a soup. When it boils again, add a large tablespoonful each of butter and flour, that have been cooked together, with a teaspoonful salt, and a saltspoonful white pepper; simmer ten minutes, and serve with fried bread dice. If not strained and thickened, it will separate as it cools. It is not necessary to boil salt pork with this soup, but it may be varied by using tomatoes, an onion, or remnants of any meat, removing these before straining. The split peas have had the hulls removed and cook much quicker than whole peas.
A straightforward puree that depends on two things: cooking the peas until they collapse completely, and binding the result with a roux so it does not separate in the bowl.
- QuantitiesOne cup of split peas to 3 pints (6 cups) cold water. That reduces to roughly four servings of thick puree once you thin it back to the consistency you want.
- Soaking is optional nowSplit peas will generally break down in 45 to 60 minutes of simmering without any soak. A soak still shortens the cooking a little and does no harm.
- Scraping the kettleThis is the instruction that matters. Split peas settle and scorch, and a single burnt patch flavours the whole pot. Stir down the sides and across the bottom every ten minutes, or use a heavy-bottomed pan over low heat.
- Rub through a strainerA food mill or a stick blender does the same work faster. The straining is not fussiness -- it is what makes the texture hold together with the roux.
- The butter and flour"cooked together" means a roux. The recipe does not say how far to take it; a pale one suits a light soup, a tablespoon each stirred in a small pan over moderate heat for two or three minutes. Whisk it into the boiling puree, not the other way round.
- A saltspoonfulAbout a quarter teaspoon. White pepper was preferred so as not to speck a pale soup; black pepper will serve if you do not mind the flecks, though it tastes noticeably different.
- Fried bread diceCroutons -- cubes of stale bread fried in butter or oil until crisp. Add them at the table, since they soften within a minute in a puree this thick.
- The variationsTomato, onion, or meat scraps go in during the simmer and come out before straining, so they season the liquid without muddying the texture. A ham hock or bacon rind used this way gives the salt-pork character the note says is unnecessary.
Split peas are field peas, dried and hulled, then split along their natural seam -- as the last line notes, removing the skin is what lets them break down quickly, where whole dried peas need long soaking and hours of heat. Cheap and shelf-stable, dried peas were a mainstay of household cookery through a winter when fresh vegetables were scarce. The instruction to strain and thicken rather than serve the peas whole shows the dish being treated as a puree rather than a plain pottage; the meat is optional here, mentioned only as a variation.