No. 724

Puree of Split Peas

Puree de Pois Secs

Wash well and drain one pound of dry split peas, set them in a saucepan with two quarts of veloute stock (No. 422), seasoning with salt and sugar, and adding half a pound of onions, a bunch of parsley garnished with a bay leaf, and two ounces of butter. Cook slowly, suppress the parsley, then drain and pound the peas in a mortar with a pint of bechamel (No. 409) added, press the whole through a tammy (No. 170), heat it well again, and just before serving incorporate into the puree two ounces of fine butter.

← No. 723 Puree of White Onions Soubise and Puree of O Garnishings No. 725 Puree of Potatoes →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward split pea purée used as a garnish or bed for meats rather than as soup. The two supporting recipes it references are both easily replaced.

Velouté stock (No. 422)The cross-reference is to Ranhofer's own preparation; a light white veal or chicken stock will stand in for the two quarts. Salt lightly, since the purée is reduced and then enriched.
Béchamel (No. 409)A pint of medium béchamel (roughly 2 oz butter, 2 oz flour and a pint of milk, infused with onion and a bay leaf) will serve; period béchamels were frequently enriched, so a richer white sauce is no less faithful than a bare milk roux.
Cooking the peasSplit peas need no soaking but do need time. Simmer 45 to 60 minutes, uncovered enough that they do not boil over, until the peas collapse entirely. Undercooked peas will not pass a sieve no matter how hard they are pounded.
Drain, but keep the liquidTwo quarts is more liquid than a pound of peas will absorb. Reserve the drained stock; you will want a few spoonfuls to loosen the purée when reheating.
Mortar and tammyA tammy (No. 170) is a fine worsted cloth through which the purée was forced with two people twisting the ends. A food mill on the fine plate, or a food processor followed by a fine-mesh sieve, gives the same smooth result. Skip the mortar entirely.
The onionsHalf a pound of onions to a pound of peas is a lot by modern habit, and deliberately so — they cook down into the sweetness of the dish. Leave them whole or halved so they are easy to fish out if you prefer a cleaner pea flavour, or purée them along with the peas as written.
Finishing butterThe final two ounces of butter go in off the heat, cold and in pieces, stirred until just absorbed. If the purée boils afterward the butter breaks out and the texture turns grainy.
YieldRoughly six to eight cups of finished purée, enough as a garnish for eight to ten plates, or four to six as a vegetable side.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) was written out of thirty-odd years at Delmonico's in New York, and its structure reflects a professional kitchen rather than a home one: purées like this one sit in the Garnishings chapter because their job was to be spooned under or beside something else, not served on their own. The cross-referencing is the giveaway — a cook was expected to have velouté stock and béchamel already standing. Dried split peas were among the oldest and cheapest larder staples in Europe, and the classical repertoire's habit of pushing them through a tammy with butter and cream sauce is a good illustration of how nineteenth-century haute cuisine treated humble ingredients: not by disguising them, but by refining the texture until they could appear on a Delmonico's plate. By classical convention, the related soup made this way is known as puree Saint-Germain.