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French Green Pea Soup

A historical recipe from Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840).

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A historical recipe

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840). Project Gutenberg eBook #9624.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

France

Known as a French recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

Ingredients 8 ingredients

  1. four quarts of shelled green peas
  2. a handful of sweet basil
  3. a handful of green mint
  4. four quarts of water
  5. a pound of
  6. a quart of the additional peas
  7. three slices of toasted bread
  8. two large onions

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. This soup is made without meat.
  2. Put into a soup-pot four quarts of shelled green peas, two large onions sliced, a handful of leaves of sweet marjoram shred from the stalks, or a handful of sweet basil;
  3. or a mixed handful of both--also, if you like it, a handful of green mint.
  4. Add four quarts of water, and boil the whole slowly till all the peas are entirely to pieces.
  5. Then take off the pot, and mash the peas well against its sides to extract from them all their flavour.
  6. Afterward strain off the liquid into a clean pot, and add to it a tea-cup full of the juice of spinach, which you must prepare, while the soup is boiling, by pounding some spinach in a mortar.
  7. This will give the soup a fine green colour.
  8. Then put in a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter rolled whole in flour;
  9. and add a pint and a half more of shelled young peas.
  10. If you wish the soup very thick, you may allow a quart of the additional peas.
  11. Season it with a very little salt and cayenne;
  12. put it again over the fire, and boil it till the last peas are quite soft, but not till they go to pieces.
  13. Have ready in a tureen two or three slices of toasted bread cut into small squares or dice, and pour the soup on it.
  14. This soup, if properly made, will be found excellent, notwithstanding the absence of meat.
  15. It is convenient for fast days;
  16. and in the country, where vegetables can be obtained from the garden, the expense will be very trifling.
  17. What is left may be warmed for the next day.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Saucepan
  • Mortar and pestle
  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
  • Sieve
Source Public domain in the USA
Credit

From Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #9624 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9624). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.