Chinese Peas
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peas
Soak the peas in water for about 24 hours.
Strain the soaked peas and grind them into a thin paste, adding some of the soaking water.
Make the curd
Filter the ground mixture and concentrate the filtrate by heating.
Skim off any impurities, then cool the mixture.
Add plaster to coagulate the casein and mix in chloride of magnesium.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Dried peas
- Provide the protein that coagulates into a soft, custard-like curd.
- Plaster
- Causes the dissolved casein to coagulate and set into curd.
- Chloride of magnesium
- Adds flavor to the finished curd.
The step that matters
Adding the plaster to coagulate the casein. The coagulant must be mixed in evenly after the liquid has cooled. Added too hot or unevenly, it can set the protein in clumps rather than forming a smooth, uniform curd.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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