Pea soup

“ Thicken the soup with pearl barley. Some add sliced tomatoes, or the juice and rind of a lemon. Use half a tea-cup of rice if you have no pearl barley.
Pea Soup.
Soak dry peas over night, putting a quart of water to each quart of peas. Next morning boil them an hour59 in this water, and ten minutes before the hour expires put in a teaspoonful of saleratus. Change them to fresh water, put in a pound of salt pork, and boil three or four hours, till the peas are soft. Green peas need no soaking, and must boil not more than an hour. When taken up, add butter. ”

“ The general mistake people make is, they do not have sufficient mint.
Pea Soup, from Dried Green Peas.—Proceed as in the above recipe in every respect, substituting dried green peas for ordinary yellow split peas. Colour the soup green by adding a large handful of spinach before it is rubbed through the wire sieve, or add a small quantity of spinach extract (vegetable colouring sold by grocers in bottles) ; dried mint and fried or toasted bread should be served with the soup, as with the other. ”

“ Leave a pint of peas in the pot, with the water they were boiled in; make a thickening of flour, milk and butter, seasoned with salt, pepper, parsley and thyme; toast two or three slices of bread; cut it up in the tureen; and when the soup has boiled about ten minutes, pour it over.
Children are mostly fond of pea soup, and it seldom disagrees with them. A few slices of fat ham will supply the place of butter. ”

“ Green Pea Soup.—Take two quarts of green peas, a quarter of a pound of butter, a quarter of a pound of ham cut very fine, two small onions, and a little parsley, and put it into a soup-digester or kettle; add just a little water, enough to allow it to stew slowly, stirring it well together, and cover closely. When quite tender, add two quarts of veal, beef, or mutton broth, a great spoonful of sugar, and pepper and salt to season it to your taste. Let it boil up once, then rub through a hair-sieve into another kettle, and pour to it one pint of boiling milk ”

“ Pea Soup Drain peas from their liquor, add sugar and cold water, and simmer twenty minutes. Rub through a sieve, reheat, and thicken with butter and flour cooked together. Scald milk with onion, remove onion, and add milk to pea mixture, season with salt and pepper. Peas too old to serve as a vegetable may be utilized for soups. ”

“ Make white sauce of the milk, flour, and butter. Add the spinach purée, made by forcing freshly cooked or canned spinach through a sieve. Season with the salt and pepper, heat thoroughly, and serve.
56. Cream-of-Pea Soup.--Either dried peas or canned green peas may be used to make cream-of-pea soup. If dried peas are used, they must first be cooked soft enough to pass through a sieve. The flavor is quite different from that of green peas. With the use of green peas, a fair amount of both protein and carbohydrate is added to the soup, but more protein is provided when dried peas are used. ”

“ An ordinary bread pudding becomes veritably a queen of 14puddings as, indeed, it is called, merely by having a layer of jam through its center and a simple icing spread over the top. Ordinary pea soup exhibits chameleon-like possibilities merely through the addition of a little celery-root, a dash of curry or the admixture of a few spoonfuls of minced spinach, and tomato soup has for most an appeal that even this favorite of soups never had before when just the right amount of thyme is added while it simmers, along with, perhaps a bayleaf. ”

“ The ordinary brown is the most economical, as in white soups milk is essential, and if the soup is wished to be very good it is necessary to add a little cream.
Soups owe their thickness to two processes. We can thicken the soup by adding flour of various kinds, such as ordinary flour, corn-flour, &c., and soup can also be thickened by having some of the ingredients of which it is composed rubbed through a sieve. This class of soups may be called Purées. For instance, Palestine soup is really a purée of Jerusalem artichokes; ordinary pea soup is a purée of split peas. ”

“ Then rub the whole through a wire sieve, add a little butter, pounded sugar, pepper, and salt. The amount of liquid added must entirely depend upon the size of the carrots. It is better to add too little than too much, but the consistency of the soup should be like ordinary pea soup; it does not do to have the soup watery. ”

“ Bring slowly to a boil; add a bone or bit of ham, one turnip and one carrot peeled, one onion stuck with three cloves, and simmer three hours stirring occasionally to prevent burning; then pass the soup through a sieve with the aid of a potato masher; and if it shows any sign of settling stir into it one tablespoonful each of butter and flour mixed together dry; this will hold the meal in solution; meantime fry some dice of stale bread, about two slices, cut half an inch square, in hot fat, drain them on a napkin, and put them in the bottom of the soup tureen in which the pea soup is served. ”

“ They are to be cooked in plain water without any seasoning and with the addition of neither fats, starches nor other vegetables. When the beans are done, meat stock and other vegetables may be added, if desired. Pea soup is made in the same way.
The reason for not draining away the water in which the beans are soaked is that it takes up some of the valuable salts, the phosphates for instance. The addition of seasoning or fat while they are cooking makes the beans indigestible. ”

“ Let them boil till soft, and then add the sweet herb seasoning, or take it up without any other seasoning than a little pepper and the salt of the meat.
Beef, cooked thus, is excellent when cold, and the pea soup, thus made, is highly relished. No dish is cheaper, or more easily prepared. ”

“ Thrown in a little time before,
The soup from the fire I move,
Then seldom a better soup is seen,
Than the old familiar Soup Pea Green.
Since first I began my household career,
How many my dishes have been!
But the one that digestion never need fear,
Is the simple old soup Pea Green.
The giblet may tire, the gravy pall,
And the turtle lose its charm;
But the Green Pea triumphs over them all,
And does not the slightest harm.
Smoking hot in a smart tureen,
A rare old soup is the true Pea Green!
Punch. 1852.
“Official Routine.”
(A New Song to an old Tune, as sung in the War Office.) ”

“ It is perhaps not generally known that pea-pods, usually thrown away as useless, impart a most delicious flavour to soup if boiled fast for two or three hours in a large saucepan, strained, and the liquor added to the soup, stock, or beef tea. ”

“ These seasonings, with the addition of salt, pepper, and parsley, are the essential flavorings for stock soups. Flour, cornstarch, arrowroot, fine tapioca, sago, pearl barley, rice, bread, or eggs are added to give consistency and nourishment.
In small families, where there are few left-overs, fresh meat must be bought for the making of soup stock, as a good soup cannot be made from a small amount of poor material. On the other hand, large families need seldom buy fresh meat, provided all left-overs are properly cared for. ”

“ Dilute the pulp thus obtained with as much well-flavoured stock as will make it of the right consistency; make boiling hot, add a dash of pepper, and at the time of serving put a pat of fresh butter in the soup tureen.
Spring Soup (jardinière, printanier) .—Cut some new carrots and new turnips in the shape of peas; put them in separate saucepans with enough stock to cover them, and a pinch of sugar; keep on the fire till the stock has all boiled away, but mind they do not catch or burn. Cook some peas and some asparagus points in the same way. Have equal quantities of each of these vegetables. ”

“ Soups and broths when done, ought not to be covered, nor put away with vegetables in them.
Use soft water to boil white peas, and let the peas be whole; but pump water will make green peas-soup of a better colour.
A good tureen of peas-soup may be made from the liquor of pork, mutton, or beef.
The lean of hams or gammon of bacon should be used when Stock is made; but if the former, first give it a boil in water, before you put it in, else it will turn the soup red.
The sediment of gravies, &c. that have stood to be cold, should never be used. ”

“ Then add a sliced onion, several sprigs of parsley, small pieces of chopped celery tops, well-scraped roots of celery, and allow to simmer three-quarters of an hour longer. Season well with salt and pepper, 1 level teaspoonful of salt will season 1 quart of soup. Strain through a fine sieve, stand aside, and when cool remove from top the solid cake of fat which had formed and use for frying after it has been clarified. It is surprising to know the variety of soups made possible by the addition of a small quantity of vegetables or cereals to stock. ”

“ When the vegetables can be got fresh from the garden nothing is more delicious than these soups, and in winter, canned peas and dried beans make excellent substitutes. In making potato purée two onions boiled with the potatoes improve the flavor. Potato soup without onion is tasteless; a little celery boiled in with the potatoes and onion, makes it still nicer. Tomato soup is also better slightly flavored with onion and a little carrot. A little cold boiled rice, simmered for a half-hour in the soup after the milk has been added, is an excellent addition. ”

“ Root celery, parsley, onions, carrots, asparagus and potatoes are the best vegetables to add to the soup stock. Never use celery leaves for beef soup. You may use celery leaves in potato soup, but sparingly, with chopped parsley leaves.
Vegetables, spices and salt should always be added the last hour of cooking. Strain into an earthen bowl and let cool uncovered, by so doing stock is less apt to ferment.
A cake of fat forms on the stock when cold, which excludes air and should not be removed until stock is used. To remove fat run a knife around edge of bowl and carefully remove the same. ”

“ Boil four cupfuls of green peas in salted water with an onion, a small bunch of parsley, and two sprigs of mint. Rub through a colander and reheat. Add a cupful of veal stock, season with salt, pepper, and sugar, and thicken with one tablespoonful of butter blended with one tablespoonful of flour, and rubbed smooth in the soup, while boiling. Serve with croutons. ”

“ Potatoes, corn, asparagus, spinach, peas, tomatoes, and onions are the vegetables that are used oftenest, but cream soups may also be made of vegetable oysters, okra, carrots, watercress, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, lentils, and dried peas. The vegetables may be cooked especially for the soup, or left-over or canned vegetables may be utilized. It is an excellent plan to cook more than enough of some vegetables for one day, so that some will be left over and ready for soup the next day. ”