Split Pea Soup With Bacon Bones

                                                                                   

I go by tummy-time and I want my dinner.                              

When I was a lad money was tight, (cue; violins playing in the background, as a boy in short pants, with one sock hanging down, pushes his delivery bike up the steep hill) but we never starved, or wanted for much. (They say you never miss what you never had) and it is true. All right, we didn’t have all the electronic gismos that today’s children have, but we had plenty games to play and things to do. We didn’t have McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut. We couldn’t have afforded them anyway, there was no spare money, to waste on dinning out, or on takeaways.

After the Second World War, the country had to be rebuilt and while there were jobs there was also a glut of men looking for work and wages were low. Mothers, the mainstay of every family, had to make each penny count, if they were to feed and clothe their children.

Bacon bones, 12 or so

Water

1 large onion

1 carrot

2 medium potatoes

3 sticks of celery

Salt and pepper

8 oz Yellow split peas

Place the bacon bones in a large saucepan

Cover with water and bring to the boil

Boil for four minutes

then pour off the water, to get rid of excess salt.

Peel and chop onion, scrub and grate potatoes

Scrub and grate carrot and slice celery

Pour 3 pints of water into the pan containing the bacon bones

Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil

Place lid on pan and turn down heat

Cook gently for 1 to 1½ hours

(Can be done in 30 minutes, in a pressure cooker, under maximum pressure)

Taste before seasoning.

Remove the bones, scrape off any meat and add the meat to the soup

(we used to leave the bones, complete with any meat, in and then serve them with the soup. We each got a few bones to suck)