Recipe - June Meyers Authentic Hungarian Split Pea Soup

1 pound Split yellow peas
1 small Ham shank
or smoked pork butt
1 lg Onion chopped
4 md Carrots cut or sliced up
3 Ribs of celery
1 Parsley root minced
One fourth cup Chopped flat
leaf parsley
1 Parsnip root minced
1 Bay leaf
2 Whole cloves
6 Whole peppercorns
3 qt Water
One fourth cup Pearl barley optional

Hungarian pea soup is so thick and hearty you can spoon it up like a
porridge. Sweet and flavorful, I have tasted many other pea soups, but this
family recipe is most satisfying and memorable. This soup or porridge is
full of sweet carrots, parsnips and parsley leaves and roots, onions,
yellow peas and ham.

Winter and spring were always the times to make hearty pea soups. All the
dried peas stored from the previous harvest were dwindling in number and
the stored carrots, parsnips and parsley root were becoming sweet as they
lost moisture in the root bin. As a child I can remember dreading having to
go down into the root cellar which was cold and dark, and full of spider
webs, to collect the roots for peas soup. My father had dug out the root
cellar under our house in a neighborhood of Chicago bungalows that were
built right after the Chicago Fire. It was inconceivable to any European
immigrant not to have a dark, cold place to store food. Besides, roots and
potatoes, we stored bushels of apples, squash, onions, crocks of
sauerkraut, and home canned food and dried smoked Hungarian sausage.
Regards, June Meyer.

Wash and drain yellow peas and place in soup pot with 3 quarts of cold
water. Add ham or pork butt, along with vegetables and spices and optional
barley. Bring water to a boil, turn down heat and slowly cook until all
veggies and peas are soft. Taste for seasoning, and now add required salt.
(Ham and pork butt are salty, do not add salt at the beginning of cooking).
Cooking will take about an hour and a half.

If the soup is not as thick as you like it, cook it a little longer. The
soup should be thick, like a peas porridge.

Serve in a large bowl with a slice of ham or pork butt in each serving. Add
a crusty bread and salad for a satisfying one dish meal.

Makes 6 servings.

If you try one of my recipes please tell me what you think.
EMail me at: june4@interaccess.com WALT
Posted to EATL Digest 25 November 96

Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 22:50:04 0500

From: Walt Gray waltgray@MNSINC.COM