A thoroughly Authentic British Mushy Peas recipe! The right flavor, the perfect texture, just like you know and love them from your favorite English pub or chippy!
What are fish & chips without mushy peas?? They are inseparable!
Where Did Mushy Peas Originate?
Fried fish & chips as a unified meal is thought to have originated in northern England just outside of Manchester in the mid-1800’s. To this day the Northerners remain proud of their fish & chip legacy. And they’re also quite insistent that fish & chips be served with mushy peas, the traditional side for generations. While most areas throughout Britain offer mushy peas with fish & chips, you could say that in northern England it’s practically sacrilege not to.
When visiting Britain, even Michael Jackson insisted on mushy peas with his fish & chips. So there you have it. Inseparable.
Besides being the fish-and-chip-and-mushy-peas champion, Northern England is home to breathtaking landscapes, stunning historic cities and beautiful villages. And I can’t talk about British food without talking about the country, so let’s take a brief tour.
A Brief Tour of a Beautiful Northern English City
One of my many favorite places in northern England is the city of Chester, which borders the northeast part of Wales. I have ancestors from all over Great Britain including numerous parts of England, Scotland and Wales. But my most recent ancestors, my great grandparents on my father’s side, come from Wales on one side of the family and from Cheshire, England (home of Chester) on the other.
Chester was originally founded as a Roman fort in 79 AD and later became a major civilian settlement. It was 20% larger than any other fortress built at the time and historians speculate that Chester, not London, was meant to become the Roman capital in Britain. A particularly powerful fortress, Chester was one of the last cities in England to fall to the Normans.
Chester remains one of the best preserved walled cities in all of Britain and features a number of medieval buildings. During the years I lived in England, Chester was one of my favorite cities to visit. It’s a remarkable and unique city with a gorgeous town center and stunning cathedral.
On a side note, Chester also used to have the world’s best fudge shop and you could sample the most wonderful, creative flavors of fudge while watching the fudge makers at work. We were there this past May and it was gone! Replaced by some good-but-not-nearly-as-good fudge chain store :(
I love Chester’s town center. Just look at those gorgeous buildings!
And Chester even still has an official Town Crier – our kids are posing with him below.
The Chester cathedral is stunning. The building of it began around 1093 AD and the process continued over several centuries with modifications and additions made over time. As a result its construction incorporates every major style of English medieval architecture. The cathedral is still in use for worship services and aside from being a major tourist attraction it also hosts concerts and exhibitions.
And circling back to our original topic of FOOD, should you ever order fish & chips at a chippy in Chester (that’s a tongue-twister!), you can be sure they’ll have mushy peas!
So let’s talk about how to make authentic mushy peas. Most recipes you’ll find online improvise using fresh English peas or frozen peas and there are cooks in southern England that do the same. Friends, those are completely the wrong peas. Ask any Northerner and they’ll tell you that mushy peas must be made with marrowfat peas.
What Are Marrowfat Peas?
Marrowfat peas are mature green peas that have been deliberately left to dry out naturally in the field rather than being picked while they’re young like regular garden peas. Marrowfat peas are what are traditionally used to make English Mushy Peas and they’re also the variety of pea used to make wasabi peas. They much larger than regular peas and have a particularly high starch content. This creates a very different consistency to mushy peas than regular peas will. Cooked into Mushy Peas, marrowfat peas will give you a smoother, creamier consistency.
They’ll give you both a significantly different flavor and texture than regular peas and if you’re interested in making authentic mushy peas – the real deal – it will be worthy your time to hunt down the right peas.
Where Can You Buy Marrowfat Peas?
Unless you live in Great Britain, they’re hard to find. I stock up on them when I go to England but fortunately you can also find them online. You can buy genuine British marrowfat peas on Amazon. Bachelor’s is probably the best-known brand of marrowfat peas.
Amazon recently added another brand that claims to be marrowfat peas in a larger volume at a better value but I haven’t tried these ones and cannot vouch for their authenticity.
A Few Important Tips
Again, if you want to make authentic mushy peas like the way they’re served at pubs and fish & chip shops throughout Britain, with the right flavor and right texture, be sure to use marrowfat peas.
The other key to making authentic mushy peas is to avoid embellishments. Mushy peas are simple: Marrowfat peas, baking soda (for softening), water and salt. That’s it! They’ll taste just like you remember them.
And as for green food coloring….NO WAY!!!!!
A really good fish & chip shop knows they don’t have to try and win you over by artificially making their peas look prettier. Good mushy peas speak for themselves the moment you taste them.
How to Make Mushy Peas
Let’s get started!
Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water. Place the dried marrowfat peas in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them so they’re covered by at least 3 inches of water. Give the peas a stir then leave them to soak for at least 12 hours.
Drain and rinse the peas and place them in a pot with about 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the desired consistency is reached. Note: How long you have to simmer the peas will depend on the particular crop and the age of the peas.
If it seems like it’s taking them forever to soften up, don’t worry, the peas will begin to break down within a few minutes (photo bottom right).
Once the peas have fully broken down add the salt.
If the peas are too watery, continue to simmer with the lid off until it thickens to your liking. If the peas are too thick, add a little water. Taste again and add more salt if needed.
Once the peas are done they will start to thicken the longer they sit. If reheating them later or the next day, add a little more water.
Serve the mushy peas with fish & chips or traditional meat pies.
Enjoy!
Serve these mushy peas with British Fish and Chips or traditional meat pies.
© Travelling-light | Dreamstime
For more authentic British recipes try our:
- Fish and Chips
- Yorkshire Pudding
- Cornish Pasties
- Bangers and Mash
- Crumpets
- Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Mincemeat Pie
- Beef and Guinness Stew
- Spotted Dick
- Yorkshire Parkin
- Toad in the Hole
- Chicken Tikka Masala
- Eccles Cakes
- Pickled Onions
- Scottish Shortbread
- Homemade Golden Syrup
- Treacle Tart
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Authentic British Mushy Peas
Ingredients
- 9 ounces dried marrowfat peas (there is no substitute, marrowfat peas are larger, have a higher starch content, and contribute the right flavor and texture for traditional mushy peas)
- Boiling water
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 cups water
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water. Place the dried marrowfat peas in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them so their covered by at least 3 inches of water. Give the peas a stir then leave them to soak for at least 12 hours.
- Drain and rinse the peas and place them in a pot with about 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the desired consistency is reached. Once the peas have fully broken down add the salt. Note: How long you have to simmer the peas will depend on the particular crop and the age of the peas.
- If the peas are too watery, continue to simmer with the lid off until it thickens to your liking. If the peas are too thick, add a little water. Taste again and add more salt if needed.
Once the peas are done they will start to thicken the longer they sit. If reheating them later or the next day, add a little more water.
Nutrition
David Williams says
I was looking for a recipe , not a history lesson. Finding the actual recipe and more importantly the ingredients was a joke!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
If using your finger to click on “Jump to Recipe” at the very top of the page is too much effort for you in order to obtain a free recipe, then by all means purchase a cookbook.
Anonymous says
Can cannedmarrowpeas be used instead of dried ones.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
They can but they won’t have as good of a texture (just like making hummus from dried garbanzo beans has a much better texture than making it from canned garbanzo beans). Cooking time will obviously be much less using canned.
Eric L. says
Found you after reading James Joyce Dubliners, trying to find out what in the world one of the characters was eating — “peas with vinegar”. Love the background on Chester, the photographs, and what a well-done blog you have! Can’t wait to cook the peas. Looks almost identical to my recipe for split pea soup in color and consistency (we cook the peas too long and like it that way!), but the flavor will be very different, I’m sure. I will try the vinegar and mint sauce, too.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thanks so much for the compliment, Eric, and I hope you enjoy the peas!
diana irie says
I cannot buy marrowfat peas in New Zealand but find dried blue peas are a good substitute
Amna Bibi says
thanks for sharing such a beautiful and amazing informations.
Nigel Smith says
As northerner (from Liverpool, a stone’s throw from Chester) I can vouch for this as a proper, authetic recipe for mushy peas. Far too many recipes exist online that simply boil garden peas until softer than usual and then mash them, which although undeniably a tasty way to serve peas is a quite different thing altogether, and is really crushed peas or pea puree.
This recipe using dried marrowfat peas is the real deal, and gives a completely different flavour and texture altogether.
The note about adding the salt at the end of cooking is important, as salt in the cooking water at the beginning will inhibit the process of the starchy peas breaking down, and they will stay like bullets even if you boil them for hours!
Personally, I would also add a twist or two of black pepper (not too much) and stir in a little butter to give the peas a nice gloss.
Mushy peas freeze well, so I make a big batch from 500g of dried peas and put them in portion size pots for the freezer. A portion will thaw and reheat in about 1½ mins in the microwave. Prior to freezing, adjust the water to make them a little looser than you want them, as they will thicken up more during reheating.
And yes – I agree – NO extra colouring is necessary. These are supposed to be a subtle, muted green colour on the plate, not glow-in-the-dark neon green like the ones sometimes found in less discerning takeaways!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thank you very much for your valuable insights, Nigel!
Angela C. Taylor says
Top tier, amazing spectacular show-stopping. will definitely make it again.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Awesome, Angela, thanks so much! :)
Michael Dunn says
I’ve just seen my Mum and talked about the famous peas. She told me that it wasn’t sugar, they used a teaspoon of the syrup from the pineapple rings which they used for fritters (this was the old days so it was sugar syrup not fruit juice which is what we use now we are healthy!). I’m not sure if this makes any difference but maybe worth a go. So……1 each of syrup, salt, vinegar, mint sauce at the end of cooking and you have award winning peas!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thanks for sharing those the tips from your Mum, Michael!
UK Mike says
My parents had an award winning chip shop in Cambridgeshire in the 1980s and people went mad for the peas. This recipe is fine but ignore the salt. Instead, at the end of cooking, add one teaspoon oF salt, one of sugar, one of mint sauce (the cheapest you can find!) and one of malt vinegar. As other people have said, it has to be marrowfat peas as nothing else makes proper mushy peas.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thanks for the tip on your parents’ way of preparing these, Mike, I look forward to trying it.
Connie says
My husband is from Scotland. So I am making Mushy Peas for the first time. Had to order Marrowfat peas from Amazon because I can’t find them in the states. But I am with you. My favorite fish and chip shop in Dumphries Scotland always serve them with malt vinegar. Absolutely fantastic. Wish me luck!
Aysha says
Hi, what would be the right way to describe the texture of mushy peas?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
“Mushy” :)
Antony Crowley says
priceless ha ha