Pease Pudding from Dried Peas
Simmer yellow split peas until they collapse, chill the pot, and slice it. A few days in the fridge, or a month in the freezer. The nursery rhyme's nine days was a different kitchen.
A pot that becomes lunch twice
Pease pudding is dried peas cooked until they fall apart, seasoned, and left to set so you can slice them cold. Hot, it is a side dish. Cold, it is a sandwich filling or a slice with oatcakes and cheese. The rhyme — pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold, pease pudding in the pot, nine days old — describes that habit. Nine days in a pot by the fire is not a storage time to copy. Cooked peas are a leftover. Leftovers get three or four days in the fridge, then the freezer.
Peas show up in the 14th-century English cookery collection Forme of Cury. The useful fact now is the bag of yellow split peas, which is cheap, keeps in a cupboard, and cooks without a soak if you give it an hour.
Dry split peas are about 25 grams of protein and about 340 kilocalories per 100 grams in USDA tables. That comparison with meat only works while the peas are still dry. Once they have taken up water, a 200 gram cooked serving is closer to 230 kilocalories and about 17 grams of protein. Still a solid savoury food. No longer a magic slab that beats a steak on a label. Iron in peas is the non-haem kind, which the body takes up less readily than the iron in meat. Eat them with something that contains vitamin C, such as a squeeze of lemon or the cabbage on the plate, if you are counting.
The pot
For a dish that feeds four as a side, or two as a main with bread:
- 250 grams yellow split peas
- 750 millilitres water, plus more if they catch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, added once they are soft
- A spoon of butter, dripping or bacon fat, if you want it
- A small onion, chopped, optional
- Black pepper
Rinse the peas. Pick out any grit. Put them in a pan with the water and the onion. Bring to a boil, skim the foam, then simmer gently. Lid ajar. Stir now and then so the bottom does not glue itself to the pan. They are done when a spoon crushes them easily, often 45 to 60 minutes. Add water if they look dry before they are soft.
Salt, pepper, and the fat. Mash, or beat with a spoon, until you have a thick puree with a bit of texture left. It should hold a shape, not run like soup. If it is wet, cook it a few minutes more, stirring.
Oil a small dish. Pour the puree in. Cool it on the counter no longer than two hours, which is the USDA window for leaving cooked food out, then refrigerate overnight. In the morning it slices.
Green split peas work the same way and taste a little fresher. Marrowfat peas want a soak and stay more separate; they make a different dish.
Fridge, freezer, and the dry bag
USDA leftovers guidance is the rule here: into the fridge within two hours, used within three to four days. A cold slice on day two and day three is the point of the dish. Day nine is the rhyme, not the fridge.
Freeze what you will not eat in that window. Slice it first, wrap the slices, and stack them in a bag. They thaw overnight in the fridge or in a few minutes in a pan. Frozen cooked peas are a quality food for a couple of months. Label the bag with the date.
The dry peas themselves belong in a sealed jar in a cool cupboard. A year is a fair quality window. Older peas still cook; they just take longer and never get quite as soft. If the jar smells musty or you see insects, it is compost, not soup.
How to eat the cold slice
Fry a slice in a little fat until the outside colours. Or eat it cold with mustard, cheese, or pickled cabbage. It is plain on purpose. Pepper, vinegar and a bit of smoked fish from the fish guide are what make a second meal feel like you meant it.
A sack of peas you never cook is not thrift. Put one bag in the cupboard and make this pot the week you buy it, so you know whether your household wants a second bag.
Pease pudding questions
Do split peas need soaking?
Yellow and green split peas usually do not. Rinse them and simmer until they collapse, about 45 to 60 minutes. Older peas take longer.
How long does pease pudding last in the fridge?
Three to four days, covered, at 4°C (40°F) or below. Cool it within two hours of cooking. Freeze slices if you want them later.
Are dried peas higher in protein than beef?
Dry split peas are about 25 grams of protein per 100 grams. Cooked, they are about 8 grams per 100 grams because of the water they absorb. Compare cooked with cooked, and read it as a useful plant protein, not as a contest with meat.
Can pease pudding sit in the pot for nine days?
The nursery rhyme describes an old habit of eating it hot and cold over several days. In a modern kitchen the safe version is a few days in the fridge, then the freezer.
Where this comes from
Leftover timing is from USDA FSIS. Protein and calorie figures are rounded from USDA FoodData Central for split peas, raw, and split peas, cooked. Forme of Cury is cited only to say peas were already a written-down food in 14th-century England. The method is an ordinary split-pea puree set in a dish.
Related guides
Be prepared!