Mum’s Pease Pudding Recipe

This is my mum’s recipe for Pease Pudding, which made a regular appearance on the family dinner table whilst I was growing up. 

This is my mum’s Pease Pudding recipe, which made a regular appearance on the family dinner table whilst I was growing up. Mum used to make it when she was boiling a ham, usually a ham shank as that was a cheap and cheerful joint. But she also made a veggie version too, which I am sharing here today. It’s a family recipe originating from the North East of England, where mum was born and brought up.

I will also be sharing her recipe for boiled ham in another blog post, where you can boil your Pease Pudding with a ham or gammon joint. I have copied mum’s recipe as she sent it to me, but I have adapted the recipe into imperial (and metric) measurements on the recipe card for ease. Serve this with boiled ham or gammon, or as we often ate it, with slices of ham inside a Stotty (Stottie) Cake sandwich.

Pease pudding is one of England’s oldest recipes, and you can see why it might have been popular when times were hard. It’s a simple dish of boiled pulses, namely split yellow peas, and apart from seasoning and a little butter that’s it. It’s mainly served in the North East of England and to a lesser extent, Yorkshire, but you rarely see it in the South of England.

Affectionately called “Geordie Caviar” or “Geordie Hummus” due to its regional popularity, many visitors to that part of England may have enjoyed it in a Gregg’s Stotty Cake sandwich, along with ham. Other names for it are “Pease Porridge” and “Pease Pottage”. There is a variation called “Peasemeal Brose” in Scotland, which is eaten for breakfast with honey and butter.

You can buy pease pudding in tins, and it’s not that bad actually. It’s much smoother than home made pease pudding but it still makes a great accompaniment to a ham dinner or in a stotty cake sarnie. And, when I was in Newfoundland a few years ago, I enjoyed a fabulous home-cooked Jiggs Dinner that was served with pease pudding. A recipe that jumped the pond with some of the new settlers to the island.

Called Peas Pudding in Newfoundland, a Jiggs dinner comprises Salt Beef (Corned Beef), Cabbage, Carrots, Turnips (Swede/Rutabaga), Potatoes, Peas Pudding (Pease Pudding), Dressing (Stuffing) and Gravy. Very much like an Irish dinner for St Paddy’s day or for Sunday lunch, it’s an example of where Newfoundlanders originally came from.

To make Mum’s Pease Pudding recipe vegan, just omit the butter and add a plant-based spread. Boil the peas in salted water with an onion.

To boil with a ham or gammon: Add the bag of split peas as in step 4 above and proceed as stated for the rest of the recipe. You don’t need to add the onion if you cook it this way.

Some people add an egg to the cooked pease pudding mixture, and then cook in a basin, in a steamer for a further 30 minutes to one hour. Or in a microwave for 10 minutes.

In mum’s original recipe above, she doesn’t add the onion, but I remember her adding an onion to the water, and then mashing it up with the pease pudding sometimes.

The cooking liquor and the cooked onion can be used a lovely stock and a base for soup.

I’ve compiled a little side show here to see how Mum’s Pease Pudding is prepared.

I hope you will try this fabulously thrifty store cupboard recipe, it only has TWO main ingredients in it, being split yellow peas and butter. It’s so easy to make, and is delicious as the nursery rhyme says, hot or cold, but maybe not NINE days old! Do let me know if you make Mum’s Pease Pudding in the comments below, and how you served it. Bye for now, stay safe, Karen

NB: I will be sharing the recipe for Boiled Ham in another post.

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

You’ll find the full and printable recipe at the end of this post.

• Wash the split peas in a colander and then put them into a large bowl. Fill the bowl with water to cover the split peas, and then allow them to soak them overnight or for 12 hours.
• Rinse the peas, and then place them into a clean pudding bag, or a large piece of muslin. I use a large muslin jelly bag for mine. You can also use a thin cotton tea towel. Make sure you allow room for the peas to expand in the bag.

• Place the quartered onion and the bag of split peas into a large sauce pan and fill with water. Add some salt to the water and bring to the boil.
• Boil for two and half hours, then remove from the pan, squeeze the bag over the pan to extract excess water, then sit the bag in a colander to finish draining for a minute or two.

• Remove the peas from the bag and put them into a large pudding basin. Mash them with the salt, pepper and butter until smooth.
• Serve straight away with boiled ham or gammon, or serve cold in slices with ham, or in a stotty cake sandwich.

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