Fart Thursday

« Creamy Green Pea Soup. »

The cliché of all clichés of Finnish food, akin to apple pie in the US, is pea soup. You read and hear about pea soup Thursday with great regularity from random tourists, visitors and journalists alike. Now, to be honest, I've never really cared much for pea soup given that it usually came from a Campbell's soup can and shared much texture and flavour characteristics with those of white school paste. I gave up my wanton paste eating ways years ago so I had no burning desire to give much attention to pea soup, even in Finland.

But, Gourmet magazine in Finland had an interesting article about pea soup in their regular Kitchen Classics feature that often spotlights the history of foods long since forgotten. I clipped it out and thought maybe I'd get around to trying it out since there's nothing like a hot bowl of soup when it's cold and dreary outside. The article reveals that, like so many other culinary traditions here and elsewhere, the tradition has religious roots.

Home Kitchen Classics - Pea Soup / Hernekeitto

by Inga Aaltonen

Pea soup has been firmly at the center of Finnish food culture that seemingly potato, pizza and pasta have been unable to replace over the centuries. In office cafeterias, pea soup has been established as a Thursday menu fixture, though there have been attempts to unseat this ubiquity. Even the Helsinki University teachers complained when the dining room attempted to take away Thursday pea soup.

"The warmest army memories of many are about the steaming hot dish arriving in the foxhole. Peasoup never tasted better", writes the Ruotuväki (Finnish army) magazine.

"In the field kitchens, peasoup simmers for many hours and the steaming soup tastes especially good for the company out in the woods. For vegetarians the peasoup is made without meat", says the Army superintendent in charge of food, Liisa Gröhndahl.

A Tradition of Fasting

The tradition of pea soup as the Thursday meal gained in popularity already in the 1400s. Then the effect of Catholic church was strong in Sweden, especially in Western Gothenland, where there were many monasteries. According to the church rules Friday was for fasting. In the day preceding the fast it became customary to eat as heartily as possible. Pea soup gave strength and kept the hunger away for a long time. The peas were held to be better raw material (for soup) than the ingredients of the common daily meal, swede and cabbage. Moreover, pea soup was handy to make back when food was most often prepared in one cauldron. Pea soup was fortified with a slice of lard.

Pea soup is strange in that it has been been enjoyed in Finland for centuries now also during the weekend and holidays. Pea soup has been offered as a valued feast food both in weddings and at funerals. The importance of pea soup as a feast food can be seen in that the task of making the soup was given to a special pea soup cook. In Finland the pea soup has been thickened with rye flour, oats, sometimes a little bit of swede has been added. Meat is added, usually pork, but also mutton or beef.

Traditionally also a pork foot has been put to boil in the soup. The salted feet have been first soaked over night in water, then smoked or dried, baked lightly in low heat, and then added to the soup.

In my home, father was always given a pig foot for laskiainen (Shrovetide), half of which he enjoyed with some self-made mustard and beetroot-in-vinegar. Us kids were not very interested in eating and sucking the pig feet. We just ate quietly hoping that eating the laskiais pea soup without making a sound would help to keep the mosquitoes away during the summer.

Tastes from Around the World

Konrad Hagger, who was born in 1666 in Württemberg, rose from a sculley cook to the cook in the court of the archbishop of Salzburg, Johann Ernst Graf Thun. There Hagger wrote an extensive cookbook based on what he had learned over the years, and the book was published in 1719. Konrad Hagger's Saltzburgishes Kochbuch is a beautifully illustrated cookbook with over 2500 recipes. Most of the recipes are fish and other fasting time recipes and tips.

There is also a pea soup recipe which is served in wintertime with smoked tongue. The soup can be made, in addition to peas, also from barley, lentils, or beans. The barley, peas, lentils, and the like are soaked, and prepared in the best possible way, and then either pureed or left whole. In any case, the soaked tongue is sliced very thinly, cubed, and then either added to the soup or served directly on the plates. If the soup is pureed, one can also enjoy toasted bread cubes. The serving ideas of Konrad Hagger are sensible even today!

The Swedish pea soup is made of yellow peas. In northern Sweden the soup is traditionally spiced with marjoram, and in southern Sweden with thyme. Later it became common to serve warm punch and, as dessert, pancakes or crepes with jam along with the soup.

I never quite understood the whole fasting your way to holiness thing. I'll confess now that I used to eat meat on Fridays during lent and, well, any other day I wasn't supposed to. So, pea soup Thursday is a mini-version of Lent's Fat Tuesday which, after having made and eaten a bit of this soup, could easily be renamed to Fart Thursday. If methane will take you closer to heaven, this stuff will rocket you right on past Pluto. It could be a viable biofuel option in years to come.

Gourmet offered a recipe for pea soup that I started with but altered slightly since boiling stuff together generally doesn't make for a lot of flavour and, aside from not usually being able to find a pork knuckle at the local grocer, a good stock from bones tends to take a lot of time and patience, both of which I don't often have in large quantities. Sautéing the onions, spices and meat before adding the stock and the peas gives the soup a much richer flavour. The rye croutons along with the sour cream with mustard really, really make for a delicious bowl of soup with a pleasant texture. Beano served beforehand is also recommended. :)

Chunky Pea Soup

Makes: about 6-8 servings of hearty soup
Time: about 10 minutes prep, but 3 hours cooking time
Source: Gourmet (FIN)

• 6 dl (500g) or 1 lb dried peas
• 2-2,5 L or 8.5-10.5 cups water
• 600-800g or about 1.5 lb pork knuckle or lean pork, cubed
• (chicken bouillon)
• 1 or 2 onions or leeks, chopped
• 2-3 medium carrots, chopped
• (a bit of minced garlic and/or ginger)
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• salt
• majoram or thyme

toppings

• sour cream or kermaviili
• mustard
• rye bread croutons

1. Rinse peas. Soak in cold water for 12-24 hours.
2. Chop onions/leeks and sautee with butter and seasonings until soft. If using lean pork meat rather than the knuckle, chop and quickly cook it with the onions and sesonings. Boil water and prepare chicken stock from bouillon and add to the onions and meat.
3. Pour the peas along with the soaking water into the soup pot with the meat and onions and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2-3 hours. Remove the pork knuckle if using and remove the meat, chop it up and put it into the soup.
4. Serve with a dallop of sour cream mixed with mustard and fresh rye bread croutons. (slice bread into squares, toss in a bowl with a little olive oil or butter, toast in the oven until brown.)
5. Open the windows.

After being happy with the chunky pea soup I noticed that creamy pea soup was also rather common in a lot of the local cookbooks. I was curious about the texture so I chose a recipe from CI that called for sautéing shallots or leeks and included iceberg lettuce for a bit of frothy lift which I thought was a nice touch.

One thing I do get annoyed with on many occasions are recipes that ask for a food processor since, as far as I'm concerned, all a food processor does is make more work for you as they are hard to clean, they're a pain in the ass to use and they consume a lot of precious counter space. I swear by the little hand blender I bought a few years back that does 99% of all tasks that a home cook could want from a food processor. The hand blender puréed the soup in the pot without a problem. The original recipe also directs the cook to put the purée through a strainer but the soup was so smooth I can't imagine why anyone would want to do this since, after straining, the result is a very thin, green liquid.

As with the chunky style pea soup, the addition of croutons, sour cream with mustard and a bit of reduced balsamic vinegar really make this soup. Of the two soups, I can't really decide which I liked more, but both were a massive improvement over the paste-like canned soups and cafeteria soups that generally have little, if any, flavour.

Creamy Green Pea Soup

Makes: about 6 1/2 cups, serving 4 to 6
Time: about 30 minutes
Source: CI

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 
• 8 medium shallots (about 140g), minced, or 1 medium leek, white and light green parts chopped fine (about 1 1/3 cups or 3 1/4 dl)
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour 
• 3 1/2 cups or 8,25dl chicken broth 
• 1 1/2 pounds or 700g frozen peas, partially thawed at room temperature for 10 minutes
• 12 leaves Boston/iceberg lettuce (about 3 ounces/85g) from 1 small head, leaves washed and dried
• 1/2 cup or 1,25 dl heavy cream 
• Table salt and ground black pepper 

 

toppings

• sour cream or kermaviili
• mustard
• rye bread croutons
• reduced balsamic vinegar

1. Heat butter in large saucepan over low heat until foaming; add shallots or leeks and cook, covered, until softened, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Stirring constantly, gradually add chicken broth. Increase heat to high and bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in food processor, process partially thawed peas until coarsely chopped. Or, if you don't have a food processor, use a hammer on the bags of peas to break them up a bit or the chopper attachment for a hand blender. Add peas and lettuce to simmering broth. Increase heat to medium-high, cover and return to simmer; simmer 3 minutes. Uncover, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue to simmer 2 minutes longer.
3. Puree soup with a hand blender or in a standing blender. When smooth, stir in cream. Heat mixture over low heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper; top with sour cream mustard, balsamic vinegar, and croutons. Serve immediately.