About Peasepudding

A New Zealand Food Blog written by a Liverpudlian, Allison Pirrie-Mawer.

Born and raised in Liverpool, England, I began my career as an apprentice chef while studying for a three year diploma in French Cuisine. After many years working in hospitality industry in Liverpool, London and Germany I finally knew I had found home when I arrived in Muriwai on the Wild West Coast of New Zealand (Auckland) in 2000.

I had always dreamed of sharing my knowledge through cooking workshops and writing a cook book. Hubby was a bit smarter, he knows me well with my short attention span and suggested I practice writing for a book in the form of a blog. That was 4 years ago and my short attention span still loves blogging, it’s forever evolving and growing with me and whatever fad I have at the time.

Why call it Peasepudding (also know as pease porridge)? Particularly since my passion is for desserts not peas! Pease pudding is a nursery rhyme I remember from my childhood in Northern England. I had a big Mother Goose rhyme book and this was one of my favourites, even though I hated peas as a child! When I was looking for a Blog name I wanted not only something to do with food but also a link to my heritage which was unique to food Blogs, hence peasepudding.

The origins of this rhyme are unknown. The name refers to a type of porridge made from peas, pease pudding, also known as pease pottage (in Middle English. (“Pease” was treated as a mass noun, similar to “oatmeal” and from that we get the singular pea and plural peas.) One theory is that the rhyme is a doggerel by partisans of Princess Mary (Queen Mary I of England), celebrating the downfall, and disparaging the pretentions of Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Days Queen”, indicating that she was less than royal–pease pottage being a staple of lower class commoners.

An early version of Pease Porridge Hot is a riddle found in John Newbery‘s Mother Goose’s Melody (c. 1760). See Mother Goose’s Melody 41:

The lyrics to the rhyme are:

Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,

Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;

Some like it hot, some like it cold,

Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

When I’m not blogging or working, or perhaps that should be the other way around, I like to spend as much time in the ocean when conditions permit doing one of my new found passions, surfing. It keeps me fit, gives a great adrenalin rush and burns off al those dessert calories!

If you would like to get in touch with me via email you can reach me at: allison@gourmetgannet.co.nz