Talk:Pease Porridge Hot

Comment

Suggest merging with Pease pudding Matthew Mattic 17:49, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Changed my mind. The rhyme and the food should have different pages. Matthew Mattic 09:34, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Origin of "nine days old"

As I recall from a visit to the Anne Hathaway House near Stratford-upon-Avon, England, it was common in the middle ages to keep a pot of food in a home's fire for several days on end, serving it to family and visitors alike. It seems likely to me that this is the origin of the phrase "nine days old". — SWalkerTTU 05:49, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I have a different opinion about this. It sounds like a narrative: first the pease porridge is hot (just got cooked), then it's cold (thus it wouldn't be over the fire any longer), then it's nine days old. So it sounds like the rhyme is referring to unappetizing leftovers. I get the feeling that whoever wrote it was a bit tired of it. Afalbrig (talk) 08:11, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Since the rhyme says "...some like it in the pot, nine days old", I think there were varying opinions! And to corroborate the message from SWalkerTTU, "It is noted that from the time of the 1500's, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old." 78.145.59.226 (talk) 08:29, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

What we think it means is actually not very relevant, but what reliable sources indicate is. Something like this should only be posted if it can be backed up from such sources, or it is simply WP:OR.--SabreBD (talk) 08:38, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

• I read from a Turkish calendar that it was from the 16th century. Böri (talk) 12:42, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Pease porridge would have been peasant food in the middle ages, a staple in their very limited diet - potatoes had yet tp be 'discovered' and meat was the preserve of the well to do, so it was probably more than left overs and likely all there was. Angus Fisk ~ 121.99.131.124 (talk) 13:35, 8 January 2021 (UTC)