In circa 1500, a lot of cooking was done in a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day the fire was re lit and more things would be added to the pot, mostly vegetables and not much meat.

Leftovers stayed in the pot to get cold overnight to be started over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been in there for a month. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.