Nigel Slater’s classic pea and ham soup

Serve up a hearty, heart-warming bowlful

Pea soup or split pea soup is soup made, typically, from dried peas. It is, with variations, a part of the cuisine of many cultures. It is greyish-green or yellow in color depending on the regional variety of peas used; all are cultivars of Pisum sativum.

Pea soup has been eaten since antiquity; it is mentioned in Aristophanes’ The Birds, and according to one source “the Greeks and Romans were cultivating this legume about 500 to 400 BC. During that era, vendors in the streets of Athens were selling hot pea soup.”

A well-known nursery rhyme which first appeared in 1765 speaks of

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.

“Pease” is the archaic singular form of the word “pea”–indeed, “pea” began as an incorrect back-formation. Pease pudding was a high-protein low-cost staple of the diet and, made from easily stored dried peas, was an ideal form of food for sailors, particularly boiled in accompaniment with salt pork which is the origin of pea (and ham) soup. Although pease was replaced as a staple by potatoes during the nineteenth century, the food still remains popular in the national diet in the form of “mushy peas” commonly sold as the typical accompaniment to fish and chips, as well as with meat pies.

In 19th century English literature, pea soup is referred to as a simple food and eating it as a sign of poverty. In a Thackeray novel, when a character asks his wife “Why don’t you ask some of our old friends? Old Mrs. Portman has asked us twenty times, I am sure, within the last two years,” she replies, with “a look of ineffable scorn,” that when “the last time we went there, there was pea-soup for dinner!” In Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Tess remarks that “we have several proofs that we are d’Urbervilles… we have a very old silver spoon, round in the bowl like a little ladle, and marked with the same castle. But it is so worn that mother uses it to stir the pea-soup.”

A soup of this sort made with yellow split-peas is called a London particular after the thick yellow smogs for which London was famous until the Clean Air Act.

The recipe

Soak 400g of dried, split peas overnight in cold water. The next day, drain them and bring them to the boil with a bay leaf or two, 1.5 litres of stock and a couple of onions, each stuck with a clove or two. When the stock starts to boil, turn down the heat so that it bubbles at a languorous pace for a good hour. When the peas are soft, remove the bay leaf and onions and purée the soup in a blender, then season it with salt and pepper and add about 200g of cooked ham torn into shreds. Serve piping hot.

The trick

When the peas first come to the boil, scoop off the froth that rises to the surface with a slotted spoon and then discard it. Add a ham bone to the broth as it cooks – it will deepen the flavour of the ham. Check that the ham stock isn’t too salty. If it is, then water it down with half the volume of water. Make sure you don’t add salt to the soup before you purée it.

The twist

You could use pieces of chorizo in place of the ham. Dried broad beans, soaked overnight, make a good alternative to the peas. Add tarragon or mint leaves to the soup directly after blending. A big knob of butter added at the end will give the soup a rich gloss. Keep the soup really thick and serve it as a side dish to baked pork chops or gammon steaks
Soup recipes with Bill & Sheila
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