Vegetarian stock for Lent

Recipes from the seventeenth century

During Lent, between carnival and Easter, the catholic church (and after the Reformation several protestant churches as well) restricted the faithful to a meatless diet. During the Middle Ages all diary products were also banned during Lent, later the use of butter was permitted. Almonds were used instead of meat (almond milk, almond butter, almond cheese, comparable to modern coconut milk, peanut butter and marzipan). For meat stock the alternative was pea purée. A recipe from manuscript KANTL 15.1 indicates that this purée certainly was not as thick as modern pea soup, but fairly thin: to make a brown sauce, toasted bread must be sieved with beer, verjuice, wine, or ‘purey van eruijten’ (purée of peas).

On this page are some recipes for pea purée from the seventeenth century. The first one is from Pierre François La Varenne, from Le cuisinier François (1651, edition). His cookbook is generally known as the first innovative cookbook since the Middle Ages, but some recipes are still purely medieval, like the pea purée described below. So La Varenne’s pea purée can be used for recipes prior to the seventeenth century.
The two recipes from L.S.R. from L’art de bien traiter (1674, edition) are much more modern, using butter and fines herbes. The first recipe is for pea purée all year round, the second one especially for Lent. More about L.S.R. and his cookbook in the recipe for French peas.
Pea purée is used in the recipe for Potage au Jacobine.

The original recipes

Varenne’s recipe is taken from the facsimile edition by Hyman and Hyman, the English translation is from Scully’s edition(p.328). For the recipes from L’art de bien traiter I have used the edition from 1693. Comparison with the edition in modern French from the first edition (1674) shows that the recipe has not been changed. See bibliography for the editions.

Modern adaptation of the recipes

The peas have to be steeped in water overnight, according to the recipes, so whole green peas are used and not split peas. However, split peas are just green peas without the husk that keeps the halves together. So use split peas that don’t need steeping if you want to. On the picture below are the floating husks of boiled green peas. By the way, split peas with the husks already removed did not come into production until late nineteenth century.

Pea stock from La Varenne for Lent

What does La varenne mean with purée claire? Purée is never ‘clear’, least of all pea purée. I think it just means thin purée, and Scully has used the same interpretation.

Preparation in advance 1 night soaking (when using whole green peas); preparation 60 minutes.

150 gr (¾ cup) whole dried green peas or split peas
1 litre (1¾ pints) water
1 tsp salt

Preparation in advance

When using green peas, rinse them, and steep them overnight in ample water. Split peas can be used at once.

Preparation

Bring the green peas to the boil with the water. When using split peas, add about a quarter amount more water. Cook until the peas are almost done (45 minutes for split peas, 60 minutes for green peas). Purée the stock by straining or using a food mill (passevite). With split peas you can also use a blender.
The resulting liquid is thinner than peasoup, but when it has cooled it will be thick. Reheating will make the pea purée thin again.

Use this stock for Lent for all medieval recipes that need pea purée.

Pea stock from L.S.R. for Lent and outside of Lent

The recipe from L.S.R. makes it clear that the purée can thicken too much during preparation, you have to have warm water at hand to add if necessary. The addition of butter certainly is not medieval, especially not during Lent, when all dairy products were off limits. Because the recipes for Lent and outside of Lent are much the same, I have combined the two.
For these recipes split peas work best, as you won’t have to remove the husks first before puréeing using a blender. For 1 litre/2 pints.

150 gr (¾ cup) split peas
some sprigs of parsley, tarragon, chervil and chives
salt
1 litre (1¾ pints) boiling water
3 cloves
3 Tbsp unsalted butter

During Lent
1 bay leaf

Outside of Lent
2 onions, chopped
½ head butterhead lettuce, washed and chopped coarsly
1 tsp of combined spices (pepper, nutmeg, mace)

Preparation

Add everything but butter and cloves to the water in a pan, bring to the boil and let simmer for 45 minutes. For a stock for Lent add bay leaf. When preparing this stock outside of Lent, add onions, lettuce and spices. When the peas are done, purée everything in a blender or by working it through a strainer or food mill. Add butter and cloves to the still warm purée.

How to keep and use the stock for Lent

All the stock on this page can be frozen. Freeze in amounts varying from 1 tablespoon to a cup or a pint, because for some recipes you’ll only need a spoonful, other recipes have the stock as one of the main ingredients. See also the introduction to making stock on this site.

Ingredients

All descriptions of ingredients

Peas

The Pisum sativum belongs to the family of Leguminosae or Fabaceae s.l.. The seeds (peas) grow in pods which are some also eaten (snow peas). In the seventeenth century the eating of unripe, fresh green peas became very popular (see this recipe). Dried green peas have to be steeped in water before cooking, and the husks have to be removed. Split peas are dried peas from which the husk is already removed, and they can be cooked without steeping them first. Peas were an important part of the medieval diet, along with lentils and broad beans.

Fines herbes

Parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil.

Litron

French measure: 831cc or 8,3 deciliter (about 3 1/2 cups, in Parijs, elsewhere there were different values).

Bibliography

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.

• L.S.R., L’Art de bien traiter, Lyon, 1693 (online versie). Editie 1674 hertaald naar modern Frans: L’art de la cuisine française au XVIIe siècle (Payot), Paris, 1995 pp. 17/237.
• François Pierre La Varenne, Le cuisinier françois d’apres l’édition de 1651, Facsimile editie met een voorwoord van Philip en Mary Hyman. (Houilles, 2002).
• François Pierre, La Varenne’s Cookery: The French Cook, the French Pastry Chef, the French Confectioner. Engelse vertaling met inleiding en aantekeningen van Terence Scully (Prospect Books, 2006).

Recipes for Vegetarian stock for Lent
Three historical recipes for stock to be used during Lent in Medieval en 17th century recipes.
© Author Christianne Muusers