Cretonnée de Pois (Split Pea Pottage)

“The Feast in the House of Levi” (detail), Paolo Veronese. Used here as period context for a Renaissance pottage.

Cretonnée de Pois (Split Pea Pottage)

Source: Odile Redon, Françoise Sabban & Silvano Serventi, The Medieval Kitchen (1998)

ℹ️ What is a Cretonnée?

A cretonnée is a type of medieval French pottage — basically a thick soup or stew — that usually combined a base of legumes or grains (peas, beans, rice, sometimes bread) with milk and egg yolks to create a rich, creamy texture.

• Name origin: From Old French cretonnée, related to creton (a kind of porridge or mash). It signals a dish that’s been enriched or bound together.
• Core structure: Unlike plain boiled peas or beans, a cretonnée always has that second stage of enrichment — eggs, milk (or almond milk on fast days), and sometimes saffron or spices.
• Variations: Surviving recipes include cretonnée of peas, beans, rice, and even bread. Meat or poultry could be added as garnish, but it wasn’t always necessary.
• Place in the feast: Because it was wet, spoonable, and thickened, it was served as part of the pottage course — after appetizers but before heavier roasts.
• Luxury markers: Saffron, ginger, and almond milk were expensive, so even though peas and beans were humble, the finished dish could be quite elegant.

In short: a cretonnée is a thickened legume (or grain) pottage with milk and eggs, often spiced and colored, that straddles the line between hearty comfort food and refined banquet fare.

🍽 Menu Placement

This dish belongs in the pottage course of a medieval feast:

• Form & texture: A wet, spooned dish thickened with peas and eggs.
• Balance: The warmth of ginger and richness of yolks offered contrast to lighter appetizers and heavier roasts.
• Flexibility: With or without meat, it fit either lean days or richer spreads.

⚖️ Humoral Qualities

Peas were considered cold and dry, best balanced with warming spices and saffron. Eggs and milk added moist warmth, making the dish more nourishing and suitable for colder seasons or balancing excess dryness in the body.

📜 Original Recipe

Middle French:
Cretonnée de pois: Prenez pois, et les lavez bien, et mettez à cuire; et quand ils seront cuits, mettez lait d’amandes, saffran et jaunes d’œufs, et faites cuire ensemble; et y mettez des pièces de char ou de poulaille, se vous voulez.

📜 Original Recipe (translation)

Cretonnée of peas: Take peas and wash them well, then boil them; and when they are almost cooked, add warm milk, egg yolks, and saffron, and let it all thicken together; and you may add pieces of meat if desired.

👩‍🍳 Modern Recipe

• 12 oz split peas
• 2 cups milk (or almond milk for dairy-free)
• 3 egg yolks
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• Pinch of saffron (optional)
• 1 cup leftover cooked chicken, veal, or chicken livers, cubed (optional)
• 1 tbsp lard (or butter/oil)
• Salt, to taste

1. Rinse and soak split peas 1 hour. Cook in 2 quarts lightly salted water until soft.
2. In a small pot, bring milk (or almond milk) to a boil with ginger and saffron. Remove from heat.
3. Beat yolks in a bowl; strain, then whisk in hot milk gradually to temper.
4. If using meat: sauté in lard until browned and crisp.
5. Reheat peas gently. Stir in yolk–milk mixture until slightly thickened (do not boil). Season with salt.
6. Garnish with meat or serve meat separately for diners to add.

🥕 Dietary Notes

• Vegetarian: Omit meat garnish.
• Dairy-Free: Use almond milk + oil instead of lard.
• Gluten-Free: Yes, naturally.

🔖 Labels

• Dish Type: Pottage
• Ingredient: Legumes, Eggs, Spices
• Use: SCA Feast Planning, Period Techniques
• Era: Medieval, French
• Menu Placement: Second Course (Pottage)

📖 This recipe is part of the Ceilidh 2001 – Fourteenth-Century Italian Feast .
Explore all dishes from this reconstructed 14th-century Italian banquet.

📚 Sources

• Odile Redon, Françoise Sabban & Silvano Serventi, The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, 1998.
• Adamson, Melitta Weiss. Food in Medieval Times. Greenwood Press, 2004.