Pease Pottage

[Black Syren]

Pease Pottage was one of the most common dishes eaten at sea in the 1600s, using the shipboard staples of dried peas and salted meat. This simple dish, with perhaps a few herbs added was also frequently eaten by landsmen in the winter and spring. Many generations of New Englanders have grown up this dish by its modern name -- pea soup.

Another Recipe for Pease Pottage:

Take the best old pease you can get, wash and boil them in fair water, when they boil scum them, and put in a piece of interlarded bacon about two pound, put in also a bundle of mince, or other sweet herbs; boil them not too thick, serve the bacon on sippets in thin slices, and pour on the broth.

Robert May, The Accomplish’t Cook (London, 1666), p. 95

Modern Recipe Notes

1 1/2 cup whole peas, rinsed and picked over

8 cups water (plus additional water for soaking peas)

4 oz. thick sliced bacon, coarsely chopped

Place peas in a bowl and add water to cover by 3 inches. Leave overnight for cooking in the morning or soak all day to cook for dinner.

Drain peas and discard water. Place peas and bacon in a large pot and add 8 cups fresh water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn heat down to gently simmer for 2 hours or until peas are soft and easily mashed. Add water if necessary to keep from burning.

Serve with pilot crackers (the modern equivalent of ship’s biscuit) and beer for a true shipboard meal. Generously serves four hungry sailors.