Recommendations
Dutch pea soup with Rutte Oude Graanjenever
In the pot is snert, a pea soup of split peas with pork shoulder chop, celeriac, leek and smoked sausage, so thick that the spoon stands up. Opposite stands an old grain jenever with 40% malt wine, which picks up the malty side of the soup and takes away the fat of the sausage.
From the shelf
The bottle
Rutte Oude Graanjenever comes from Distilleerderij Rutte at Vriesestraat 130 in Dordrecht, since 1872. It is an old jenever of 35% vol in a bottle of 100 cl. Rutte itself states a malt wine share of 40%, well above the 15% that is the minimum for the designation oude jenever, and besides malt wine and juniper berries names seven other herbs, spices and fruits. The word oude in jenever refers not to maturation but to the style: a generous share of malt wine according to early twentieth-century recipes.
The combination
Why this works together
Snert is a soup of broken split peas, and that pea gives exactly the same starchy, earthy fullness that malt wine draws from grain. That makes an old jenever with 40% malt wine not an opponent here but an echo: the soup and the glass share that full, dry grain base. On top of that come the salt and the fat of the smoked sausage and the pork chop, and there the alcohol does the work the soup cannot do itself, namely taking the fat off the palate. The celery and the leek bring a spicy sharpness that links up with the juniper and the spices in the bottle. Had this been a young jenever, the glass beside such a thick soup would have turned out too thin; weight calls for weight. Precisely because the jenever has not lain on wood, it stays dry and does not sweeten the soup.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 45 minutes preparation and 1 hour 30 minutes cooking
- Type main course
What you need
- 1 l water
- 250 g split peas
- 200 g pork shoulder chop
- half a tablespoon of salt
- 200 g celeriac
- 2 firm-cooking potatoes
- 150 g winter carrots
- 1 onion
- 1 leek
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 20 g celery leaf
- 125 g smoked sausage
How to make it
- Put the water, split peas, pork shoulder chop and salt in a large pan. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down low. Skim the foam off the soup regularly with a skimmer during the first 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cut the celeriac into 1 cm cubes, the potatoes and winter carrots into small pieces, chop the onion and cut the leek into rings.
- Add the celeriac, the potato, the carrot, the onion, the leek and the bay leaf to the pan. Let the soup simmer gently for about 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring regularly, until the split peas have completely broken down. Season with pepper and salt.
- Take the pork chop out of the pan, remove the bone and the fat, cut the meat into cubes and put it back in the soup. Remove the bay leaf.
- Chop the celery leaf finely and slice the smoked sausage. Add both to the soup and heat everything through for another 2 minutes.
In the glass
Serving
Pour the Rutte Oude Graanjenever at room temperature into a tulip glass, filled to the brim. Old genever does not belong in the freezer; cold pushes down the malt wine and then you lose exactly the layer that goes with the pea. Put the bottle next to the soup pan, not in the cooler, and fill the glasses only when the plates are on the table.
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