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Pease Pudding Recipe
Pease pudding is a traditional British recipe from North East England. It is savoury dish which goes perfectly with boiled ham or gammon.
It was not until I moved to the North East that I became familiar with Pease pudding. Pease pudding is a simple dish which you can eat hot or cold. Usually found served with ham in stotties (large bread rolls) or alongside boiled gammon. The simple earthy sweetness of the peas is a wonderful complement to the salty ham.
Read more: Traditional recipes from North East England
You make Pease pudding by boiling yellow split peas. The dish is born from poverty, the peas often cook in the same pot as the ham or bacon. The stock adding a subtle flavour to the finished dish. There is almost a magic in watching the split peas transform from their hard yellow roundness to a soft slushy paste. Use Pease pudding in a sandwich to transform it to a lunchtime delight.
Cook the dish slowly, the cooking time depends on the freshness of the peas. It can take anything from ninety minutes to two hours.
Origins of Pease Pudding
Pease pudding is one of the oldest printed English recipes. It was a common part of the diet of mariners in the seventeenth century. You can find mentions of Pease pudding in many maritime books It was part of a sailors daily rations alongside salt beef and salt pork.
In medieval times poor families would only have one pot or kettle for cooking in. Everything edible would go into the pot including beans, grains, peas and occasionally meat. This would make a stew or pottage which could last for days. Pease pudding began as medieval pease pottage and is now commonly found across North East England.
Why is it called pease pudding?
Pease in the middle English word for pea. The name Pease pudding refers to a type of porridge made from peas. It was not made from fresh peas but dried split peas which keep well all year round. The addition of water, spices and a ham or bacon joint turn the peas into pease pudding.
Pease pudding is also known as Pease pottage or Pease porridge. The invention of a pudding cloth made it easy to cook a joint of ham and the dried split peas together. This is probably why it became known as Pease pudding.
Pease pudding is popular in North East England and also known as Geordie Hummus.
You can find variants of Pease pudding in other countries. In Germany the name is erbspüree. In Greece fava is similar but uses split yellow beans instead of peas.
How do you make Pease pudding
The Pease pudding recipe uses yellow split peas. Boil the split peas with an onion and some herbs until they become soft. Mash the resulting mixture to make a thick paste which is Pease pudding.
When using split peas the packet usually recommends to soak them overnight before cooking. This will shorten the cooking time but is not strictly necessary. Rinse the peas thoroughly until the water is clear before using them.
Peel an onion and add to the pan with the split peas and water. Leave it whole so it is easy to remove later. Simmer until the peas become soft. It usually takes around 90 minutes but it could be more or less, depending on the peas. Adding a stock cube will add more flavour.
Split peas absorb a lot of water as they cook so keep an eye on the pan and add water if necessary. The finished consistency of the Pease pudding should be similar to wallpaper paste.
When the Pease pudding is ready remove the onion and mash up with a wooden spoon or potato masher. Season with salt and pepper.
If you are boiling a ham you can cook the Pease pudding in the same pan as the meat which will add flavour. Tie the peas in a muslin cloth with the onion and suspend the cloth in the broth where the ham is boiling. You can remove the cloth at the end and mash the pea in the same way.
Read more: Northumberland ham broth recipe
Pease Pudding Recipe
Pease Pudding
Pease pudding is a savoury dish made from split peas. It is perfect spread on boiled ham.
Ingredients
- 200 g yellow split peas
- 750 ml water
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 1 onion
Instructions
- Rinse the split peas until the water becomes clear
- Peel the onion and add to the pan whole
- Add the split peas to the pan with the water and the stock cube
- Simmer until the peas are tender, about 90 minutes but it could be more.
- If you need to add more water do, the consistency should be that of wallpaper paste
- Remove the onion and mush the peas with a wooden spoon.
- Season with salt and black pepper
What does pease pudding taste like?
Pease pudding is similar in texture and taste to hummus. It has a yellow appearance and is quite thick.
How long does it keep?
You can keep Pease pudding in the fridge covered for a few days.
What can you eat with Pease pudding?
You can pick up Pease pudding in pots in the supermarket but home made is much tastier. This recipe makes a big bowlful which you can enjoy all week.. Serve with roast gammon and red cabbage and use the rest on ham and Pease pudding sandwiches.
To make a more luxurious meal the serve the ham with a marmalade glaze. An ideal meal for a Sunday afternoon. If there are any split peas left over you can use them in a hearty warming soup. Ham and split pea soup and Scotch broth both call out for the addition of split peas and are perfect soups for colder days.
If you have not tried pease pudding you definitely should, it adds another dimension to a sandwich.
Pease pudding rhyme
As a child I was very familiar with the nursery rhyme about pease pudding and indeed what child isn’t. The rhyme goes:
Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold,
Pease pudding in the pot, nine days old;
Some like it hot, some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot, nine days old.
and is often sung as part of a clapping and singing game.
The origins of the rhyme are unclear but it was possibly thought up by supporters of Queen Mary to celebrate the downfall of Lady Jane Grey, the nine days Queen. It was a way to indicate that she was of common stock, as Pease pudding was a dish enjoyed by the commoners.
Have you ever tried Pease pudding? Let me know below.
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This is fascinating! I Had never heard of pease pudding… i love yellow split peas so chances are I would love ths too!
I think it is very much a North East thing but definitely worth a try. Let me know if you make it, would love to know what you think
I’m wondering if I would like the taste of this now. I have bad memories from childhood of being served this by my grandparents and hating it. I wasn’t allowed to leave the table until my plate was empty
Tastes to change as you get older but memories like that wouldn’t help. Its much nicer when its home made
I can honestly say i had never heard of pease Pudding before! Thanks for sharing #CookBlogShare
I think it is very much a north east thing
Coming from the north east if England it’s ready available but I going to try it for myself. It’s become very popular with slimming world using it as a pie crust which I have had and was fabulous
I would never have thought of doing that, will have to give it a try!
I confess I make this every week now. Being born and bred in the North East it was a very familiar food in Ibbotsons butchers who sold lovely ham and pease pudding stottie cakes (flat bread) or with roast pork. My nanna in Sunderland used to make wonderful stotties. That was 50 years ago and I came across it recently on Weight Watchers. I didnt realise how good it is, I thought it was just a sandwich filler but its more than that. I first used Waitrose yellow split peas which took a while to cook but then found Tandoor Dal in Asda which are bigger perhaps they are split beans but the result is the same and take less time to cook. Add a bay leaf and vegetable stock or even as is traditional a ham joint. Definitely worth a try.
ooh nice tip, will have a look for the tandoor dal when the supermarkets get back to normal. I hadn’t realised Weight Watchers were using now but I can understand that is its so low in fat.
I was born in Northumberland and remember my Mother making pease pudding so I decided to try it. It was as good as I remember, a very distant memory. I cooked the split peas in muslin at the same time as I cooked the ham and it turned out to be extremely tasty.
So glad you enjoyed it. It is really hard to find pease pudding if you do not live in the northeast but so easy to make
My family were from London and Norfolk. I ate this regularly as a child, loving it and have made it often myself. No connections to the North-east.
That’s interesting, I have never seen it outside of the North East. It should be more widespread
Perhaps the NE is its last redoubt, but It was much more widespread: look, there’s the Pease Pottage motorway services on the M23, at the opposite end of the country to you. I was disappointed not to find any pease pudding on sale there when I visited 🙂
oooh that is interesting, I wonder why its now only local to the North East
Coming from the North East and now living in Turkey (18 years) l miss the ham and pease pudding stotties, this brings memories flooding back. l’ve made enough to feed an army, just hope it freezes.
I hope you enjoyed it. It should freeze perfectly in freezer bags
I add some butter, salt and pepper when mashing. Makes it tastier and creamier and less prone to dry out. Delicious
Never thought of adding butter. Will try that next time I make it. Thanks for the tip
i was brought up on it and now at 75 i still eat it, always use the water from boiling a ham.
never put onion in before gives it s nice flavour, nice on crackers with some shredded ham.
I have never tried it on crackers, I bet that is tasty
Always had pease pudding with our boiled bacon in South London as a kid and have continued throughout adulthood. Was sold cold in a slab years ago, You would get as much as you wanted. Or cooked at home in muslin with the boiled bacon and carrots.
Yes, you can only get little pots of it now. It is delicious with boiled bacon.