Baked Soup for the Poor (1806)
Reader ratingsMaria Rundell’s baked soup for the poor, 1806: sliced meat, split peas, a little rice, onions and carrots, covered close in an earthen pot and baked slowly, made to give away.
- Recipe makes
- About 2 quarts, 6 servings
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Rundell baked it alongside the bread. In a modern oven it takes about 3 hours, covered, and needs no attention until the last hour.
Baked split pea soup with beef and carrots in an earthenware pot.
The story behind the recipe
Maria Eliza Rundell wrote A New System of Domestic Cookery for the mistress of a household, and near the end of its 1806 first edition she turned to the poor. Every family, she wrote, could help its neighbors “at a very trivial expence,” and the first soup she gives for the purpose is this one: a pound of any meat, onions, carrots, rice, split peas and a gallon of water, covered close and baked “with the bread.”
Why bake a soup?
Because the oven was already hot. A household that baked its own bread heated its oven for the loaves, and a covered pot set in the same oven as the loaves would cook slowly for hours. Rundell’s soup costs no extra fuel and no watching. Her next lines tell the cook to save the water from every boiled joint, the bones, and the scraps from the family’s plates, so there would be soup for the poor two or three times a week.
Read more about this recipe
Who was it for?
The laboring families of the villages around London, in Rundell’s telling. In “the time of scarcity,” she wrote, she had found that ten or fifteen gallons of soup could be given out each week at almost no cost. Years of scarcity like hers filled the soup house on Brick Lane, in What Was in London’s Penny Soup in 1799?
Making it today
Use any stewing cut: Rundell says “any kind of meat,” so beef chuck, lamb shoulder or a piece of pork shoulder all work. Split peas break down in the long, slow bake and thicken the water into a soup, and the rice disappears into it. Keep the lid tight, as she says, so little water is lost. The soup house made its version on a far larger scale in the Spitalfields Meat Soup (1799).
Put a pound of any kind of meat cut in slices; two onions, two carrots, ditto; two ounces of rice, a pint of split peas, or whole ones if previously soaked, pepper and salt, into an earthen jug or pan, and pour one gallon of water. Cover it very close, and bake it with the bread.
Recipe makes: About 2 quarts, 6 servings
Ingredients
For about 2 quarts, 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for about 2 quarts, 6 servings.
- Boneless beef chuck, or lamb shoulder0.5 lb
- Yellow split peas, rinsed1 cup
- Long-grain white rice2 tbsp
- Medium onion1
- Medium carrot1
- Water2 quart
- Salt, plus more to taste1 tsp
- Ground black pepper1/2 tsp
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- ½ lb boneless beef chuck, or lamb shoulder
- 1 cup yellow split peas, rinsed
- 2 tbsp long-grain white rice
- 1 medium onion
- 1 medium carrot
- 2 quarts water
- 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
Equipment
- Heavy ovenproof pot with a tight lid, about 4 quarts (earthenware, enameled cast iron or a Dutch oven)
- Cutting board and knife
Kettle
Ladle
Instructions
Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C).
Cut the beef chuck into thin slices about the size of a playing card. Peel and slice the onion and carrot.
Put the meat, onion, carrot, split peas, rice, salt and black pepper into the pot. Pour in the water, stir once and bring it to a boil on the stove.
Cover the pot tightly. If the lid is loose, lay a sheet of foil over the pot first and press the lid down on it.
Bake for 3 hours, until the peas have broken down and the meat is very tender. Check it after 2 hours, stir from the bottom and add a little boiling water if it has become too thick.
Stir well, taste and add more salt if it needs it. Serve hot, with bread.
Nutrition
240calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 2 quarts, 6 servings
- Servings
- 6
Estimated per serving (6) from USDA FoodData Central values for beef chuck, split peas, white rice, onion and carrot.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
This is half of Rundell’s pot, which took a pound of meat, two onions, two carrots, two ounces of rice and a pint of split peas to a gallon of water. Double it in a pot of 8 quarts or more.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
This is half of Rundell’s quantities. She gives no oven heat or time, since the soup went into the same oven as the bread; we bring it to a boil on the stove first and give it 3 hours at 325°F (165°C). Chuck stands in for her “any kind of meat,” yellow split peas for her split or soaked whole peas, and we chose the amounts of salt and pepper. An enameled pot replaces her earthen jug or pan, and we add a foil seal. Leftovers thicken as they cool; chill within 2 hours, keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator and thin with water when you reheat.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Maria Eliza Rundell, A New System of Domestic Cookery (London, 1806), A baked Soup
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Course
- Soup
- Dish family
- Soups & Broths
- Region
- British
- Era
- 19th century
- Main ingredient
- Beef
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Everyday meal
- Season
- Winter