British Pease Pudding
This is a classic British Pease Pudding recipe. An easy, side dish made with yellow split peas that are cooked with vegetables and smoked ham. Typically served on a ham sandwich, or as a side to a meat dish.
What is Pease Pudding?
Pease Pudding is not even a pudding, it is more of a paste (like hummus). It is made by cooking yellow split peas with a smoked ham hock or shank with vegetables, then blended or mashed.
Not to be confused with Mushy Peas, this is a native dish to the North East of England from the 14th Century that has its own rhyme. It has been dubbed as ‘Tyneside Pâte’, or Geordie Caviar which. Also, the name is not a typo, there really is an ‘e’ on the end of peas. Not sure why.
What is the Pease Pudding rhyme?
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.
Ham in Pease Pudding
Some recipes don’t call for the use of ham broth to cook the split peas, including my own mothers. Cooking it this way gives a great depth of flavor and once you try it this way, I think you’ll prefer it too.
The ham shank is only used to flavor the broth. Once you have used it, you can save it to use the ham for Ham & Split Pea Soup.
If you don’t want to use ham at all, simply skip steps 2, 3 and 4 of the recipe and cook the peas in plain water.
What do you serve pease with pease pudding?
Traditionally, Pease pudding is served in a sandwich roll (traditionally Stottie bread, see picture below) with ham or as a side dish with sliced ham. It can be served warm or cold. Personally, I like it warm or room temperature because the flavors are better which makes it portable for road trips and picnics.
Another dish served in the North of England is a British pork sausage called a Saveloy, a cooked sausage. It is like the British version of a hot dog that can be served with Pease pudding.
Additional serving suggestion:
Blend with chicken stock to make a smoky lentil soup.
In a sealed container, refrigerated up to 1 week.
Can you freeze pease pudding?
Yes, in. well sealed container for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator.
British Pease Pudding
A side dish made with yellow split peas, flavored with smoked ham and vegetables.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (300 grams) yellow split peas, rinsed
- 1 ½ pound (711 grams) Ham hock/shank/ham bone or smoked bacon
- 2 carrots, peeled
- 1 onion, peeled
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Add the split peas to a bowl and cover with water, make sure they are well covered. Leave overnight, or 8 hours to soak at room temperature.
- To make with ham (if not using ham, skip to step 5)
- Add the ham hock/shank/bone or smoked bacon, carrot, onion, bay leaves, to a pan and cover with 3 liters (12 cups) water. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour, remove the ham shank/hock, vegetables and bay leaves.
- To a pan, add the split peas and pour over enough of the ham broth (or water if not using ham) to cover by about 1-inch (2.5cm), about 4 cups (1 liter). Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour, check to make sure the peas are soft. If not, continue to cook until they are, you may need to add more liquid as needed.
- Once soft (you want almost no liquid left). If you have too much liquid left, continue to cook, then stir in the butter and salt (this will depend on how salty your ham is so start off with only a little) . Mash or use a blender to achieve your desired consistency. Note: It will thicken as it cools. Taste for seasoning.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 178Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 37mgSodium 611mgCarbohydrates 14gFiber 5gSugar 3gProtein 14g
This nutrition calculation is provided by Nutronix that is only a guideline and not intended for any particular diet.
26 Comments on “British Pease Pudding”
We make this in the Canadian province of Newfoundland as part of our Sunday Jiggs Dinner – soak peas overnight and then in the morning drain and put in a pudding bag. Bag goes in a large stock pot filled with boiling water that already has a large portion of either trimmed naval beef (salt beef) or salt pork ribblets. Meat is also soaked over night (separate from pease of course). Boil the meat for an hour before adding your pudding bag of pease, tie pudding bag to pot handle so it doesn’t sink and stick to the bottom. If you do now have a pudding bag the same can be accomplished with any clean cotton bag like a corner of a pillow case, or several layers of cheesecloth. Simmer with salt meat 2 hours. Add cabbage (quartered), continue to simmer 30 mins, add carrots (peeled and halved) and turnip – this might be called rutabega depending on your location – (peeled, halved and sliced about 1/4 inch thick), continue to simmer 30 mins, add potatoes (peeled and halved), continue cooking until potatoes are desired tenderness.
Scoop out your boiled veggies and meat, remove pudding bag, put the please in their own separate bowl and whisk in butter, salt and pepper for your pease pudding!
Serve with roast of choice (chicken, turkey, beef, moose, etc) and gravy (make sure to use some of the pot liquor from the meat and veg in the gravy!)
Without a roast is good too, just make sure there’s plenty of salt meat to go around for the protein! Usually we’ll do without the roast if having this as a “boil up” outside in the country for a picnic, or while camping!
Thank you for sharing
Eaten regularly in childhood on Tyneside, and been making my own for 40 years! From poor man’s food to health food.
Rarely buy a ham or gammon joint without making Pease Pud. Butchers up here used to sell bacon bones, or a bacon knuckle, to make soup or Pease Pudding, but haven’t seen either for a few years. I add an onion and bay leaves to whatever bacon/ham I’m cooking, tie yellow split peas in muslin (a clean tea towel works) and when cooked blitz in food processor, adding butter.
Love it with ham, pork, or sausages.
Grew up in London & my Dad would make Pease pudding but he would put the split peas in a muslin square with a potato, tie up the four corners and boil then simmer in ham broth. Don’t know how long he cooked it, but it was always delicious served with whatever meat we had, usually ham.
I live in Durham …am 75 and have cooked pease pudding for many years. never added vegetables, but always use ham stock. I add a good portion of butter, salt & pepper and also a raw egg, beaten into the pud when hot( must beat well to stop the egg from curdling)…absolutely scrumptious!
Boiled ham or Savaloys and pease pudding was very common in East London when I was a child.
We used to have it for lunch on Saturdays and ate it hot on plates, never in bread.
Pease pudding was the same consistency as mashed potatoes and must have been mashed as there were no lumps.
You probably grew up.near me Lol!
I went yesterday and bought a ham hock , soaked split peas overnight and bought fresh bread buns, wish it was a Scottie cake and when it cools I’m going to have a ham and peace pudding in a bun .
Live in Australia, you can’t buy it ready made over here.
Same here, I live in the U.S and pease pudding doesn’t even exist. Enjoy.
Just seen a recipe with it served with a large lamb chop, and had malt vinegar stirred into the pudding, immediately before serving, looked good enough to try soon?
Don’t know where Saveloy in the NE derives from, it’s been nationwide in UK chip sops since Adam was a lad. Many legume recipes in UK, pre-date the arrival of potatoes!!!!
Apologies, Pork Chop!!!!
Also delicious with faggots and creamed potatoes ….
A very long time ago, “pease” meant a single legume seed, what we would now call a “pea”; in fact, the same word apparently served as both singular and plural. In more recent centuries, a sort of folk etymology took hold and refashioned the use of the word to make it similar to other English nouns, so “pea” was created as a singular, and “peas” (with the “e” dropped) became the new plural.
I live in New Mexico and I’ve never made this before and was wondering if it can be made in a slow cooker/crockpot?
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Please and thank you,
If I were to make this in the slow cooker, I would soak the split peas overnight. Then add everything to the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. I hope this helps and please come back and let me know how it turned out. Enjoy.
Yes you can.I live in the North east of UK. I make it regularly in my slow cooker. Give a good stir after a few hours. You can make it on high or low. We don’t add veg never have done, but do add butter at the end. When this is cooked it is thick but still thin enough to run. Once cold it goes solid but a soft solid. Very nice 👌
I don’t ever remember my nana putting veg is any of her pease pudding recipes but I can’t find her original one does anyone have or know the original pease pudding recipe I’ve always eaten it spread on bread & butter I’ve been craving it for years? I live in the north of the uk too
My Gran came from Durham and always put a potatoe in her Pease Pudding,, this was during the war years so may have done this because of the lack of butter being unavailable.
Cooked it yesterday, very nice; I have also made a modified version of the recipe to cook in my ‘Sage Fast Slow Go’ (type of instapot) which has also been a success as there is no soaking involved.
I’m a native Tynesider with another serving suggestion. Fry up some bacon and just before it fully cooked add a large tablespoon of pease pudding to the pan and heat it through in the shallow bacon fat and allowing it to crisp on the outside. Then serve it hot with the bacon in your sandwich. Delicious. My favourite way to eat it. Yum!
That sounds delicious and sounds like something my family would make. Thank you for the suggestion 🙂
I,m also from NE. I love it on toast.
Ham shank 110% never heard of it any other way other than not using it at all for vegetarians. Personally I put hint of garlic and ginger in mines but thays beauty of pease pudding its each to there own.
Thank you for garlic and ginger suggestions, I’ll give that a try 🙂
Never ever use smoked ham or shank to make peas pudding. Use boiled ham. Remove the ham when cooked, pour in your yellow split peas and leave to simmer for a couple of hours. Then blend it with an immersion blender stick. Then put a few dice sized pieces of ham into the pud and let it cool overnight. Nothing more complicated than that.
I’m not sure that you can say that considering that my Nana would make this recipe different to someone else’s, but thank you for your version.