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Cream Of Green Split Pea Soup

You'll need: Large pot, Fine-mesh sieve or food mill, Small bowl (for the butter and flour mixture). Adapted for home kitchens by Halite from the U.S. War Department's Army Recipes (TM 10-412, 1946): scaled down from 100 servings, 1946 ingredients swapped for ones sold today, and the method rewritten. The recipe as printed is the Original version in this recipe's history.

6 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 218g (7 ¾ oz) Green split peas
  • 20g (2 tbsp) Onions, sliced
  • 41g (2 tbsp) Salt pork, diced
  • 1.1L (4 ½ cups) Water
  • 5.1g (¾ tsp) Salt
  • Pepper, as needed
  • Nutmeg, as needed
  • 502ml (2 ⅛ cups) Evaporated milk
  • 27g (2 tbsp) Butter, melted, or vegetable oil or meat drippings
  • 27g (3 ½ tbsp) Flour, sifted

Instructions

  1. 1

    Rinse the split peas, then combine with the onions and salt pork in a large pot. Add enough water to cover; let soak 5 hours or overnight.

  2. 2

    Add the remaining water. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer about 45 minutes, or until the peas are soft.

  3. 3

    Press through a sieve or food mill; return to the pot and reheat.

  4. 4

    Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and evaporated milk; continue simmering 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. 5

    Mix the melted butter and flour together; stir until smooth. Add slowly to the hot soup and mix thoroughly. Heat to boiling, then reduce the heat and simmer about 20 minutes, or until the soup is slightly thick, stirring constantly.

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Cream Of Green Split Pea Soup

100 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 8 pounds (4½ No. 56 dippers) Peas, split, green
  • 12 ounces (1 mess kit cup) Onions, sliced
  • 1 ½ pounds Pork, salt, diced
  • 4 ¾ gallons (19 No. 56 dippers) Water
  • 3 ounces (6 mess kit spoons) Salt
  • As needed Pepper
  • As needed Nutmeg
  • 21 — 14½-ounce cans Milk, evaporated
  • 1 pound (½ No. 56 dipper) Fat, melted
  • 1 pound (1 No. 56 dipper) Flour, sifted

Instructions

  1. 1

    Wash peas; add onions and salt pork. Add enough water to cover peas; soak 5 hours or overnight.

  2. 2

    Add remaining water. Cover and heat to boiling point; reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes or until peas are soft.

  3. 3

    Rub through sieve; reheat.

  4. 4

    Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and milk; continue simmering 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. 5

    Mix melted fat and flour together; stir until smooth. Add slowly to hot soup; mix thoroughly. Heat to boihng point; reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until soup is slightly thick, stirring constantly.

Typed from the page scan above. If the two disagree, go with the scan.

What we changed

  • Cut from the book’s 100 servings to 6 servings.
  • Swapped “Fat, melted” for “Butter, melted” (or vegetable oil or meat drippings).
  • Scaled 10 amounts and rounded each to a kitchen measure, like ½ cup.
  • Fixed 5 fractions the scan of the 1946 page misread.
  • Tidied 3 ingredient names.
  • AI rewrote the method for a home kitchen. Tap As printed at the top to compare.

Taken from the log we keep of every edit to this recipe. We left out the line-by-line unit conversions.

Where this recipe comes from

It’s from Army Recipes (TM 10-412), the cookbook the U.S. War Department printed in 1946 for Army mess halls. As a U.S. government work, it’s in the public domain.

See the scanned book →

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