Pea-Pod Soup
2 quarts pea pods. 1 quart water. 1 cup shredded lettuce 1 pint cream stock Put the pea pods in the water over the fire, adding the lettuce if you have it, although this is not necessary. Boil down to one you have it, although this is not necessary. Boil down to one pint; strain and add to the cream sauce.
Left-over cooked peas, pressed through a colander to remove the skins, may be added if desired. skins, may be added if desired. 1 stalk celery
The page has come through the scanner badly: lines are duplicated, the ingredient list is broken across the instructions, and the quantity of pea pods and water never appears. What survives is a clear enough method for a thrift soup that is worth reconstructing.
- The missing quantitiesNo amount of pea pods or water is given. The pods from a few pounds of peas in the shell, generously covered with water, would be a reasonable starting point; boil down to the pint the recipe asks for and judge by volume rather than by a fixed measure.
- "Cream stock" and "cream sauce"The ingredient list says cream stock, the method says cream sauce, and both appear to mean the same thing here: a pint of thin white sauce made from roughly 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and a pint of milk. Add the strained pea liquor to it gradually, stirring.
- The celeryOne stalk of celery is listed but never mentioned again. Presumably it went into the pot with the pods and lettuce and was strained out with them.
- Straining is the whole pointPea pods are fibrous and stringy, and no amount of boiling softens them into something pleasant to eat. Press hard on the solids in the sieve to get the flavour and the pale green colour, then discard everything that stays behind.
- Don't boil it down too farReducing to a pint concentrates the flavour, but the recipe gives no timing; reduce only until the volume is right rather than boiling hard for long, as overcooked pods can dull the colour and flavour.
- Leftover peasThe recipe treats these as optional ('may be added if desired'), but pressed through a colander they add body and colour. A cup of them, or a cup of thawed frozen peas simmered two minutes and sieved, will make a greener soup than the base alone.
- SeasoningNothing is specified. Salt, white pepper and a little sugar are wanted; the sugar matters most if the pods are older and starchy.
- YieldAbout a quart, or four first-course servings.
Pea-pod soup belongs to a whole class of American and British recipes built on the parts of a vegetable that would otherwise go in the bucket — pea pods, celery tops, asparagus butts, the water from boiled greens. Shelling peas by hand leaves a cook with several pounds of pods for every pound of peas, and any household that put up its own peas in June had that waste in quantity, which is why the soup turns up in domestic-science books and wartime cookery pamphlets alike rather than in restaurant cookery.