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What is Pease Porridge?

S. N. Smith
S. N. Smith

Most people are familiar with the age-old nursery rhyme:

Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in a pot, nine days old.
Some like it hot, some like it cold.
Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

It’s likely that many have wondered, “Just what exactly is pease porridge?” For that matter, who would like the stuff after nine days in the pot?

Today's split pea soup is a variation of the traditional Pease pudding.
Today's split pea soup is a variation of the traditional Pease pudding.

Quite simply, it is a form of the dish that most people today call split pea soup. In Britain and elsewhere, dried pease, or peas, were added along with various seasonings to water and hung to simmer in a kettle over a fire. Vegetables were added as available, and sometimes the porridge was flavored with bacon or salt pork. At the end of the day, the soup cooled and thickened, remaining in the pot to congeal. Eaten cold and thick the next morning, water and additional vegetables might be added, to thin it out and extend it for that day’s meals, and so on for the next day and the next. It’s conceivable that the porridge in the pot would indeed be a few days old by the time it was finished off, or finally given up on and fed to the pigs.

Vegetables make up a large part of pease porridge.
Vegetables make up a large part of pease porridge.

Today, the split pea soup that warms the body and soul on a chilly winter’s day is not that much different from its old English cousin, albeit fresher. Flavored with ham hocks, onion, and carrot and celery, split peas are boiled with seasonings in water or stock until they soften, then the soup is pureed. The modern version is also usually much less viscous than the version of the 16th and 17th centuries, and it might have more in common with the hot pea soup sold by enterprising Athenian street vendors in the period from 500 to 400 BCE.

Pease pudding may include bacon.
Pease pudding may include bacon.

Alternate forms of pease porridge, thicker than soup, can still be found in modern cuisines throughout the world. Pease pudding in China is a warm dessert featuring sweetened, fried pea puree. Regional U.S. variations flavor cooked mashed peas with butter; spices such as ginger, nutmeg, cloves, or pepper; onions; celery; and bacon or ham. These puddings are then baked until firm.

Pease porridge is made with dried peas.
Pease porridge is made with dried peas.

Split pea soup is appreciated now for the same reasons early versions were popular enough to merit immortalization in verse: dried peas are nutritious, inexpensive, easy to store, and they pretty much cook themselves. All a cook needs is a little clean water, a sprinkle of salt, a large enough kettle, a heat source, and a stirring spoon.

Discussion Comments

anon238322

pease porridge is oatmeal actually.

anon65391

Peas are very high in carbs and bacon very high in fat. Ahh, it tastes so delicious but not diet friendly. Oh just 20 minutes more on the workout!

anon35498

I'm trying to lose weight by cutting carbs; I recently thought "if only I could have a porridge substitute but savoury & with less carbs" then I remembered pease porridge. I have a recipe that includes onion, bacon stock, pureed then add butter & an egg and bake. Can then be sliced & fried for breakfast. I like the beer story! JulieN

SNSmith

Hmmm. I didn't come across that one in my research. Sounds plausible (if a bit unappetizing!).

Thanks!

S.N. Smith

b0bc0x

I recognize that Pease Porridge was a food often available to the very poor. However, I always thought that "in the pot, nine days old" referred to the fermented "beer" obtained after steeping with some yeast for nine days and decanting off the liquid! Thus the poor man's beer!

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    • Today's split pea soup is a variation of the traditional Pease pudding.
      By: Igor Dutina
      Today's split pea soup is a variation of the traditional Pease pudding.
    • Vegetables make up a large part of pease porridge.
      By: monticellllo
      Vegetables make up a large part of pease porridge.
    • Pease pudding may include bacon.
      By: Viktor
      Pease pudding may include bacon.
    • Pease porridge is made with dried peas.
      By: Giuseppe Porzani
      Pease porridge is made with dried peas.