An Excellent Green Peas Soup

Modern cookery for private families · Acton, Eliza · 1845
Source
Modern cookery for private families
Status
success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (15)
Soup base
Elegant variety addition
Stock substitute
Optional addition to stock substitute
Common English peas soup variation
Instructions (19)
  1. Take three pints of fine large peas at their fullest size, but before they are of bad colour or worm-eaten.
  2. Boil the peas with half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda in the water, that they may be very green.
  3. When they are quite tender, drain them well.
  4. Put the drained peas into a couple of quarts of boiling, pale, but good beef or veal stock.
  5. Stew them in the stock gently for half an hour.
  6. Work the whole mixture through a fine hair-sieve.
  7. Put the sieved mixture into a clean pan and bring it to the point of boiling.
  8. Add salt, should it be needed.
  9. Add a small teaspoonful of pounded sugar.
  10. Clear off the scum entirely.
  11. Serve the soup as hot as possible.
Elegant variety
  1. Add a half pint more of stock to the peas.
  2. Add about three quarters of a pint of asparagus points, boiled apart, and well drained.
  3. Throw the asparagus points into the soup only the instant before it is sent to table.
Stock substitute preparation
  1. If no stock is at hand, boil four or five pounds of shin of beef slowly down with three quarts of water to two.
  2. Season the beef stock well with savoury herbs, young carrots, and onions.
  3. A thick slice of lean, undressed ham, or of Jewish beef, would improve it.
Common English peas soup variation
  1. Make the soup somewhat thinner than the one above.
  2. Add from half to three quarters of a pint of young peas, boiled tender and well drained, to the soup just before it is dished.
Original Text
AN EXCELLENT GREEN PEAS SOUP. Take at their fullest size, but before they are of bad colour or worm-eaten, three pints of fine large peas, and boil them as for table (see Chapter XVII.) with half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda in the water, that they may be very green. When they are quite tender, drain them well, and put them into a couple of quarts of boiling, pale, but good beef or veal stock, and stew them in it gently for half an hour; then work the whole through a fine hair-sieve, put it into a clean pan and bring it to the point of boiling; add salt, should it be needed, and a small teaspoonful of pounded sugar; clear off the scum entirely, and serve the soup as hot as possible. An elegant variety of it is made by adding a half pint more of stock to the peas, and about three quarters of a pint of asparagus points, boiled apart, and well drained before they are thrown into it, which should be done only the instant before it is sent to table. Green peas, 3 pints: boiled 25 to 30 minutes, or more. Veal or beef stock, 2 quarts (with peas): 1/2 an hour. Sugar, one small teaspoonful; salt, if needed. Obs.—When there is no stock at hand, four or five pounds of shin of beef boiled slowly down with three quarts of water to two, and well seasoned with savoury herbs, young carrots, and onions, will serve instead quite well. A thick slice of lean, undressed ham, or of Jewish beef, would improve it. Should a common English peas soup be wished for, make it somewhat thinner than the one above, and add to it, just before it is dished, from half to three quarters of a pint of young peas boiled tender and well drained.
Notes
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