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Peas Pudding
790. Peas-pudding is made as follows:-Soak split peas for twelve hours in soft water, then tie them in a cloth, but not too tightly, or they will not have room to swell; boil them from three hours and a half to four hours, then take them out and rub them through a hair sieve, adding afterwards a little butter and salt; return them to the cloth, boil again for half an hour, and serve.
A plain boiled pudding of yellow split peas, traditionally served alongside boiled salt pork or bacon. The method is sound but the timings belong to an era of hard peas and open fires.
- Soft waterSoft water means water low in dissolved calcium and magnesium. Hard water genuinely slows the softening of pulses; if your tap water is very hard, use filtered or bottled water for the soak and the boil.
- Cooking timeModern split peas, being fresher and more uniformly dried, generally soften in 45 minutes to an hour of simmering, so the full three and a half to four hours is likely to be far more than they need.
- The pudding clothA scalded, floured square of unbleached cotton or a large square of muslin, tied loosely with kitchen string, is the traditional vessel. A heatproof pudding basin covered with pleated foil, steamed rather than boiled, is easier to manage and less likely to let water in.
- SievingA hair sieve was a horsehair mesh; a fine metal sieve or a food mill does the same work. The purpose is to remove skins and give a smooth body, so do not skip it if you want the classic texture rather than a mash.
- QuantitiesNone are given. Allow 1 lb (about 2 cups) dry split peas, 2 to 3 tablespoons butter, and salt to taste; this serves six to eight as a side dish.
- The second boilingThe half-hour return to the cloth is what sets the pudding so it can be turned out and sliced. If you intend to serve it spooned rather than cut, that step can be reduced to reheating.
- SeasoningButter and salt are the whole of it here. Cooking the peas in ham or bacon stock, and finishing with black pepper, is a common variation and costs the dish nothing in authenticity.
Peas pudding is northern English household cooking of long standing, most closely associated with the North East, where it is still sold alongside boiled ham and eaten in a bread roll. Dried peas were the staple winter pulse of Britain long before the potato took hold, and boiling them in a cloth was simply the cheapest way to cook something substantial in a pot that already held the meat. The nursery rhyme "pease porridge hot" preserves the older name: pease was the singular and collective form, from which "pea" was later back-formed, and porridge or pudding depended on how much water stayed in. Its appearance in a general British cookery book, given in a few unfussy lines with no quantities at all, suggests a dish every cook was assumed already to know.