Bacon hock and yellow split pea soup?

[BML]

I am close to eighty years of age and can still remember the Bacon and Split Pea Soup my Grandmother and Mother used to make. I asked my sister for the recipe but it was not a success.
I soaked the yellow split peas for 24 hours but after cooking them for quite a few hours they didn't break up and dissolve as they used to in my Grandmothers or Mothers creation. I have looked for recipes on this forum but obviously do not know how to use it properly because I found no recipes for Bacon hock and yellow split pea soup. So the one word I often use has to be HELP.

[Westi]

Welcome to the Forum BML!

Funny you should bring up the fact that split peas don't cook down. I buy this mix from the health food shop with green split peas & barley to add to soups which has instructions for cooking, but it always needs much longer than they state. (At least 30 mins)! Find the same with lentils too now days!

I vaguely remember something about not adding salt, but unsure in what context! Someone will come along that are way cleverer than me & answer your question though - & probably provide you with a new recipe!

Westi

[Primrose]

I make this soup fairly regularly but these days prefer to use red lentils because they break down far more quickly. One of the problems may be that the dried peas may be rather too old. Not necessarily old in your store cupboard but held too long in a warehouse or grocery shop before you buy them. My last batch were soaked for about 12 hours and the soup simmered for almost an hour and they were still a little crunchy/chewy,

I cook the bacon hock in a pressure cooker first and than save the liquid it was cooked in for stock for the soup.. Finely chop a selection of onion , carrot, celery, turnip (depending on what you have , not necessarily any fixed quantity, add to the liquid with the drained split peas or red lentils and cook until soft. Don't add salt as the ham stock usually quite salty enough already from having cooked the ham.

If you use red lentils instead of split peas, put the dry lentils in a basin, pour over plenty of boiling water and soak for 20 minutes while you're chopping up the other vegetables. They will swell quite a lot and it helps reduce the cooking time.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I do more or less the same as Primrose but after soaking them over night I cook them in the pressure cooker then add the cooked ham hock, stock and all the other veg and cook them all together for 10 minutes in pressure cooker or until tender in a pan.

[robo]

Lentil and pea soup are both one of my specialties, I make either the old fashion way no pressure cookers just simmer in a pan for around four hours then let it cool and reheat it I do this three times before I eat it each time I rewarm it the soup thickens

[Primrose]

This soup is a real winter warmer and meal in itself. The ham stock is delicious in itself and will often set to jelly if left to cool long enough. I couldn't believe that my late sister-in-law used to simply pour her chicken and ham stock down the sink after cooking the meat,having no further use for it. She must have been one of Dynarod's best customers.

We're fortunate that our local butcher will often given us a big plastic bag of carcass bones for soup stock. I don't know whether the the supermarket butcheries will so this. Probably not much of their meat is butchered on site.

[Pa Snip]

We're fortunate that our local butcher will often given us a big plastic bag of carcass bones for soup stock. I don't know whether the the supermarket butcheries will so this. Probably not much of their meat is butchered on site.

What is even more fortunate is that you still have butchers, none in our town, note I say town. Amazing how some local villages can still support a butchers shop yet this town can't.

[Marigold]

I think with all these old recipes it is slow cooking time? I am in a rental that has a small range and I cook in the side oven in winter. eg flaked barley pudding and sweet pasta milk puddings are great and far better there than on a cooker. I use lentils but had noticed the hardness of peas too so maybe will try in the range. Used to get ham hocks in Donegal for 50 cents but her ein Kerry they are five times that.. I use the round ham fillets they sell off and that makes a grand soup. Sweet potato is my favourite soup with ham or chicken.