WHY YOU SHOULD FREEZE SOAKED MARROWFAT PEAS! |

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FREEZE, MARROWFAT PEAS, SOAKED PEAS, MUSHY PEAS

? Do you want to supercharge your pea soaking?

? Do you want an emergency supply of peas ready to cook when you get caught out?

? Do you want perfectly broken-down mushy peas every time?

The freezer is an underrated unfussy method of preservation, but in this instance, the freezer has the power to become a processing aid. We believe that by freezing your soaked marrowfat peas you will see a much better mushy pea, but also gives you a set of processes to build a consistent method.

If anyone has made jam at home before you will know that frozen fruit will break down much easier and faster than fresh fruit and your jam will need less time stewing on the hob, this results in a better flavour and better colour. This is because of water expansion; we know this works with marrowfat peas also. We hope to explain the process below and how you can try it.

You may not be excited to add another process to making mushy peas; however, on the quest of excellence, we believe that the two pillars to stand by are washing and soaking the marrowfat peas. Get these two jobs right, and the mushy peas will nearly always come out perfect time after time. This, in our view, could be the third pillar.

How Does Water Expand When It Freezes?

Water shows the expected behaviour of contracting due to cooling up to 4°C. But on cooling to temperatures below that, it starts expanding in volume. This is because the molecules start to get into a stable hexagonal lattice structure, as mentioned above. It is a very open structure with a lot of intermolecular space. Hence the expansion. The same applies when finally, it freezes to ice at 0° C.

To read more about why water expands when it freezes, read this article.

Here are a few tips if you want to give it a try.

? Wash and soak a whole bag at a time, 12.5kg of Dried Marrowfat Peas will give you 31.25kg of soaked peas.

? Weigh & bag them up into manageable weights that fit your saucepan.

? 1kg of Dried Marrowfat Pea will be 2.5kg of Soaked Marrowfat Peas (with a 36hour soak)

? With a 36hr soak the peas will have 2.5x more water inside, that’s more water to expand and breakdown your pea.

? Build your recipe and doing the same way, every time.

After a good soak, if you freeze all your peas, the water will expand by approximately 9%. Freezing will put a lot of stress on the pea cells and break them. When you want to boil up a batch, just take them out the freezer, separate, add water and mushy pea seasoning, cook and serve.

We believe that if you try this method of freezing you, won’t want to go back to the old way. Try it and let us know if you think it’s the 3^rd pillar of excellent mushy pea preparation.