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Split Pea Soup (Cup dried split peas)
1 cup dried split peas 3 tablespoons butter 2 1/2 quarts cold water 2 tablespoons flour 1 pint milk 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 onion 1/8 teaspoon pepper 2-inch cube fat salt pork Pick over peas and soak several hours, drain, add cold water, pork, and onion. Simmer three or four hours, or until soft; rub through a sieve. Add butter and flour cooked together, salt, and pepper. Dilute with milk, adding more if necessary. The water in which a ham has been cooked may be used; in such case omit salt.
A plain nineteenth-century pea soup finished with a butter-and-flour roux rather than cream. The proportions are sound; only the times and a couple of the ingredient names need translating.
- Soaking is optional nowModern split peas are cleaned and dry-processed and will soften without soaking. If you skip the soak, add 20-30 minutes to the simmer and keep the water level topped up.
- Three to four hours is too longSplit peas collapse in 45-60 minutes at a gentle simmer, or about 15 minutes at pressure. The long time here reflects older, harder-dried peas; cook until the peas break down and stop there, or the flavour goes flat.
- Fat salt porkA two-inch cube is roughly 4 oz of salt pork belly. Unsmoked pancetta or a piece of bacon works; if you use smoked bacon the soup becomes a different, hammier thing. Fish the piece out before sieving.
- Sieving versus blending"Rub through a sieve" was the usual route to a smooth soup. A stick blender does it in seconds, though passing it through a sieve afterwards still gives a noticeably silkier result.
- The rouxCook the 3 tablespoons butter with 2 tablespoons flour for a minute or two until it smells nutty but takes no colour, then whisk it into the hot purée off the boil. Adding raw flour to the pot gives a pasty taste.
- SaltSeason at the end. Between the pork and the 1 1/2 teaspoons called for, it is easy to overshoot; taste after the milk goes in. The note about ham water is good advice and the instruction to omit added salt in that case should be followed.
- MilkA pint of whole milk stirred into a purée this thick can look curdled if it boils. Warm it first and hold the soup just below a simmer once it is in.
- YieldSomewhere between 2 1/2 and 3 quarts depending on how much water boils away, so eight or more servings as a first course, fewer as a main with bread.