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Fractured Scottish History (Or, What's It Really Mean?)

contributed by - Clan Donnachaidh
originally published in
The Piper
Newsletter of the Clans of Scotland, USA
Volume 19, Number 5, September 1996
used by permission of Michael Robertson and The Piper

As told by his family, Angus MacPease was the youngest of seven boys from a comfortable Aberdeen merchant family. He inherited several acres of farmland outside Aberdeen which were suitable for raising grain. As he saw a growing demand for feedgrain based on the growth of the taxi business in several towns, he instructed his tenant farmers to plant oats and wheat. For the first few years, Angus lost money since his farm wasn't large enough to support his tenants and provide him with surplus crops to sell.

After the third year of losses, Angus re-evaluated his position and decided to take over farming himself. He also decided to cut our the middleman and market his grains outside of the feedstores. As a child, Angus had noticed that families always bought their grain in fifty pound sacks that sat on the cellar floor and inevitable fermented during the wet winter so that they weren't edible (although the forming liquids had a pleasant effect, even if they burned the throat).

Angus recognized a growing interest in the breakfast trade and the universal presence of boiled grains on every breakfast table. Following his wife's recommendation, Angus prepackaged his grains in five and ten pound sacks, labeled MacPease Pottage. After experiencing some success with his marketing efforts, Angus soon began to produce single serving packets for bachelors, spinsters, and others who didn't want large quantities of grain laying about their tiny larders.

After several years of slow, steady growth, Angus found that his farm simply couldn't produce enough to meet the demand. So he began to speculate in the Scottish Commodities Market. Unfortunately, the price of grain skyrocketed faster than Angus could secure his raw materials.

Angus looked for ways to stretch his grain supply and meet his consumers' demands. Soy beans sounded like a good prospect and the MacDonalds wouldn't sell their horde. Well, the split pea market had dropped at the same rate that grain was rising. Angus got a lock on the next split pea harvest and shortly thereafter found tons of the things in his front yard since nobody else wanted them. Thrifty Mrs. MacPease suggested that he package and sell the peas in the same manner as his pottage line.

Two things happened: his grain supplies dwindled disastrously and no one bought his pea packets. So Angus decided to combine the peas with his grain and market the product as a staple for every meal. Dolly MacPease developed a tasty recipe which had a liquid consistency when hot (highly recommended) and looked like scrapple when cold (definitely not recommended). Angus' oldest son called the concoction Pease Porridge since it resembled soup. The clever boy penned a jingle:

Pease porridge hot
In your breakfast bowl.
Start your day, the porridge way
E're your health will grow.

Since he had bought the peas at rock bottom prices, Angus was able to sell his product at a price much lower than pure pottage products. Mothers loved the economy and good value but the children wouldn't eat it. The green color staring at them first thing in the morning plus a healthy fear of anything green in those days (before refrigeration) were two solid strikes against the porridge. So the porridge pot always ended at the back of the stove, forming an unappetizing mass that was inevitable thrown away.

Well the jingle was revised on the streets and sandlots by girls playing jumprope:

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.

Angus went broke and immigrated with his family to America. He tried entering the cereal business but Quakers had cornered the hot market, and Kellogg the cold.

At a convention of the early Clans of Scotland in Cincinnati, Angus met Ian Campbell who was patenting a new canning method. He promptly invited Ian for Saturday dinner.

Angus suggested that Ian might consider canning his new porridge. Ian tasted it and told Angus to loose (his words, not mine) the oatmeal lumps and then they'd talk.

Dolly tinkered with her recipe and finally found a winner. Angus copyrighted it and then called on Ian with fresh home-cooked samples. Ian declared it to be the very best split-pea soup that he'd ever had. He bought the copyright from Angus, promising lifelong royalties, and introduced the canned version in his first successful line of Campbell soups.

Even though children still look askance at steaming bowls of split-pea soup at lunch, drowning it under an avalanche of saltine crackers, MacPease's new Scottish porridge has become an American staple to this very day.

Credits:
© Copyright The Piper and 1996. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Reproduced by The Capital Scot by permission of Michael Robertson.

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