Common Peas Soup
Source: Eliza Acton, 1845
History
"Common Peas Soup" is one of six pea-soup receipts in the Soups chapter of Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families, an English domestic cookery book first published by Longmans in London in 1845. Acton's own text directs the cook to wash a quart of good split peas and float off any that rise, soak them overnight, and boil them soft "with a bit of soda the size of a filbert in just sufficient water to allow them to break to a mash"; the mash is then stewed in "from three to four quarts of good beef broth" for an hour, worked through a sieve, seasoned "with salt and cayenne or common pepper," cleared of scum, and "sent it to table with fried or toasted bread," with celery "sliced and stewed in it as directed for the rich peas soup" offered as "a great improvement". The book was among the first to give exact ingredient lists, quantities, and cooking times, and it was a best-seller running through thirteen editions by 1853 before its sales were overtaken by Mrs Beeton's later manual.
Beyond what the receipt itself records, the historical record consulted here does not document who ate this particular soup or that it carried any social status. No opened source ties Acton's Common Peas Soup to a specific class, and the earlier claims of an Iron-Age "primary protein" lineage and a working-class "pease pudding" versus middle-class "potage" split are not supported by any source about this dish.
Ingredients
- 1 quart split peas
- soda
- 3 to 4 quarts beef broth
- salt
- cayenne or common pepper
- fried or toasted bread
- celery, sliced
Instructions
- Wash the split peas well and float off any that rise to the surface of the water.
- Soak them for one night.
- Boil the soaked peas with a piece of soda about the size of a filbert in just enough water to allow them to break down to a mash, approximately 2 to 2½ hours.
- Put the broken peas into 3 to 4 quarts of good beef broth and stew gently for 1 hour.
- Work the entire mixture through a sieve to create a smooth purée.
- Heat the soup as much as needed for serving.
- Season with salt and cayenne or common pepper, and clear it perfectly from scum.
- Send to table with fried or toasted bread.
- Optionally, add sliced celery stewed in the soup as an improvement.