[Sca-cooks] Period recipe for Pea Soup?

[Gretchen Beck]

--On Wednesday, March 03, 2010 7:25 PM -0500 Kean Gryffyth
<kad.dsl at verizon.net> wrote:

> Greetings all,
>      We're looking for a period recipe for Pea Soup. The little data
> we've been able to find indicates that while everybody seems to have had
> one. but because it was low-end peasant food, no-one wrote the recipe
> down. Any leads, clues or even recipes! would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> -Kean
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> 

I've got a couple that I've fixed with some success (unfortunately, I'm not
sure I can find my reconstructions():

Perre. (2 15th C Cookery Books)
¶ Take grene pesyn̄, and boile hem in a potte; And whan̄ they ben̄
y-broke, drawe the brotℏ a good quantite þorgℏ a streynour into a
potte, And sitte hit on̄ the fire; and take oynons and parcelly, and hewe
hem smaƚƚ togidre, And caste hem thereto; And take pouder of Caneƚƚ and
peper, and caste thereto, and lete boile; And take vynegur and pouder of
ginger, and caste thereto; And then̄ take Saffron̄ and salte, a lituƚƚ
quantite, and caste thereto; And take faire peces of paynmain, or elles of
sucℏ tendur brede, and kutte hit yn fere mosselles, and caste there-to;
And þen̄ serue hit so fortℏ. 

(This is, pretty much, the recipe on the back of the dried peas bag, I
think, with vinegar, cinnamon, saffron, and ginger to taste, then serve
over croutons or slices of bread). Here's what I did when I made it:
2 cups lb dried green peas
2 quarts water
3 small onion
a handful parsley
spices to taste (cinnamon, pepper, ginger, saffron, salt)
3 Tbsp cider vinegar

Boil peas until they are "broken", then puree. Add finely chopped onions
and parsley with cinnamon and pepper and boil awhile. Add vinegar, ginger,
saffron and salt to taste and boil for a little longer. Sprinkle with
croutons or diced bread and serve.  This is best made at least a day ahead
and reheated before serving.


There is a cream of fresh pea soup in one of the French cookery books (the
Viander, perhaps?) I cooked it for an event, but seem to have lost the
recipes for it in one of my various computer crashes.  It is a rich, yummy
thing, though.

toodles, margaret