Home › Meatless Menus › Split Pea Soup
Split Pea Soup
1 pt split peas 4 qts. water 1/2 pound salt pork 1 large onion, sliced 2 tablespoons celery, diced 1 tablespoon flour 1 tablespoon shortening 1 teaspoon pepper 1 sprig parsley Pick the peas over, that there may be no blemished ones among them, then was and soak in cold water over night. In the morning drain off the water and put them into the soup pot with the cold water and salt pork, onion and celery. Simmer gently 7 hours, being careful that the soup does not burn. When it has cooked 6 hours, add the seasoning. At the end of 7 hours, strain the soup through a sieve and return to the soup pot. Beat the flour and shortening together until creamy, then stir into the soup and simmer 30 minutes longer. If the salt pork has not seasoned the soup sufficiently, add a little salt. Serves 8.
A long-simmered pea soup built on salt pork, thickened at the end with a raw flour-and-fat paste. Most of the changes a modern cook needs are about time and volume.
- The seven hours are the thing to changeSplit peas collapse in 45 minutes to an hour and a half; they have no skins to soften and no need of a long braise. Seven hours over any real heat will scorch the bottom and turn the flavor flat. Simmer covered until the peas break down, then judge by texture.
- Soaking is optionalWhole dried peas benefit from an overnight soak, split peas do not. If you skip it, add a little more liquid and expect the cooking to run slightly longer.
- MeasuresA pint of split peas is 2 cups, roughly 1 lb. Four quarts of water to that looks thin by current taste, though seven hours of simmering would have carried off a good deal of it; starting with 2 to 2 1/2 quarts gives a soup that needs little or no thickener.
- Salt porkHalf a pound of salt pork is fat-heavy cured pork, usually belly or fatback, saltier than modern bacon and generally sold in a slab. Blanch it briefly if you want less salt, and hold back all added salt until the very end, as the recipe rightly says.
- The flour and shorteningBeaten together raw and stirred in, this is a beurre manié rather than a cooked roux. The half hour of simmering afterward is what cooks out the raw flour taste, so do not shorten it. With a thicker pea base you can leave the thickener out entirely.
- StrainingPushing the soup through a sieve was the period method for a smooth purée. A blender or stick blender does the same work in a minute; return the diced pork to the pot afterward if you want texture.
- PepperA full teaspoon is assertive for eight servings. Add half, then correct after the soup is puréed and the salt is settled.
- ServingServes 8 as a first course, 4 to 5 as a meal. It thickens considerably on standing and will want thinning when reheated.