Hey Bobby --

Cheaper and smaller and easier to store than a crockpot is buying a 3$ "flame tamer" from your local walmart / target type store... It is a metal disk, usually with little holes in it, that sits on the burner and tames / distributes the heat. I have found it to be the absolute best for when I want to keep something thick on a long low simmer without scorching the bottom at all...

Emily

Thanks... I'll try that. What section of the store would I look for something like that? I've gotta go somewhere to buy more peas anyway! Is it something you leave on the burner at all times, or do you take it off when through? Thanks!

Bobby, I've never used a flame tamer for pea soup, I always do that (and bean soup) in the crockpot. I use one for fudge, though, and it works great.

when I do pea soup on the stove I never use high heat, I bring the pot with all my ingredients to a simmer and then cover it and simmer for a long time, but you have to remember to stir occasionally. The crockpot is easier, but the real reason I use it is because my soup can cook all day while I'm at work!

Annie

Although the heat may have been too high, I'm also wondering if your pot is too thin. A heavy stock pot will help distrube the heat a lot.

It's very possible to cook with a thin pot but you have to move it off the burner sometimes while the stove eye drops in temperature.

Just chalk this one up to experience...at least peas are cheap!

And don't buy a crock pot....really, you don't need the newer ones.

I second the flame tamer....I have 2 and wouldn't be without. It turns a not so heavy bottomed pot into a trustworthy simmer pot.
Bobby you don't need to have the peas at a raging boil when making pea soup. The water is the same temperature whether it's boiling furiously or just simmering...but the bottom of the pot may be hotter, and if it's not a havy clad bottom pot, your soup will scorch.
And soak your messy pot in a solution of dishwasher detergent and hot water for a couple of days....dump, re fill with water and detergent and boil it for a while.
A crock pot is just something else to store.
Linda C

Hey Bobby --

You'd find the flame tamer in the kitchen gadget section... And no, you don't leave it on the burner all the time -- only put it on there when you've got something you really want to low simmer for a long time... I've been amazed at how well mine works though -- had to get it when I moved to a house that has a propane stove rather than natural gas, since propane burns much hotter and I was getting scorching a lot, even with the burner on as low as I could make it...

Emily

I actually considered going to a thrift shop and looking at the old crock pots. But, a friend said they can't go in the dishwasher. If that's the case, FORGET about it... call it lazy or busy I don't care but I do not want another thing that can't go in the dishwasher. A Santoku knife, hand blender shaft, and ice cream scoop are already too much!

It is a pretty thin pot... I'm still using the original set I bought when I moved into my apartment!

I hear people talk about leaving crock pots on all day long, but I couldn't do that. I'd be scared of it starting a fire. If course three cats running around all day while I'm a way with a crock pot going doesn't appeal to me either!

You can put your Le Cruset or cast iron pot with a lid in the oven all....and the cat's won't bother it....
You can even leave a cheaper lighter weight pan in a 225 oven all day.

Bobby I had a friend who felt like you do about putting on the crock pot and leavingfor work, so she put it on before she went to bed and it cooked while she slept. Then she'd put it in the fridge before she left for work and all she had to do was re-heat it when she got home from work.

Have you considered a pressure cooker? It's quick and oh so fun! I can't believe I had mine for over a year before I really started using it regularly.

So I'm wondering - is there any way to save this soup from the burnt taste??

shaun, I've tried everything possible to save a scorched soup and have been unsuccessful, I think it's a goner if Bobby can still taste the "scorch" after removing it from the pot. Sigh. I do love my pressure cooker, though.

I can't imagine that someone who is worried about leaving a crockpot plugged in while they aren't home would leave the oven on when they aren't home. Here many of us have natural gas for our heat/stoves/ etc. and a couple of those houses have blown up recently, both due to gas stove leaks that the owners weren't aware of.

Annie

Agree scortched soup or sauce is toast, cannot be salvaged.

Bobby I suspect your pots are on the thin side, pretty typical of someone your age. I never had really good pots and pans until I was in my late 30's. The budget did not allow! For sure Le Cruset is not likely in the picture for a bit!

The flame tamers work really well. A cheap soloution to your pot problem.

Bobby, I almost never use my crockpot, but when I used to use it I would sit it on an aluminum tray/cookie sheet and was not afraid to leave home for the day.

I've owned three crockpots with removable crocks that were dishwasher safe. Having said that, they are just a space waster for me.

Chase, you are right... pots are thin. And they get a little thinner each time I scrub them! I wish my waist line (but not hair!) would take a lesson from them!

I looked and looked for something called a flame tamer tonight. I went to Target, Publix, Wal-mart, Lowes, and Winn-dixie. None of them have such a thing... I looked in the pots and pans, in the gadgets (potato masher, drip pans, knifes), and in the grill sections. I wonder if this is some cooking forum conspiracy... am I on candid camera looking for something that doesn't exist?

OK, I know they exist because I googled them (maybe just not in FL!!). I'll try Linnen's N Things tomorrow.

I also had a fleeting thought wondering if the soup could be salvaged. I decided that the answer was no... I started to ask here and then changed my mind. Best to start all over.

I'm going to spend my new car fund on peas if this keeps up... I bought a new bag tonight and it was 64 cents! Highway robbery ;-P

Bobbylish, you have an electric stove don't you? Maybe I'm all wet but I thought you did. I wonder if "flame tamers" are meant to work with those? Does anyone know?

In any event, you might want to consider a LeCrueset or tri-ply stainless pot. The real thin ones are really no good except for liquids that don't scorch or burn, like stock, or boiling water for potatoes, corn or something like that.

Gas Scottyboy. I'm pretty offended that you didn't remember! All wet indeed! ;-P

Don't LeCruesets cost lots of money? I usually do just use the pots for boiling things like chicken soup with lots of broth or pasta noodles.

Bobby:
Do you have a double boiler ??? If not
After you get the temperature up to boiling you could set it in another pot,
with water in it like a Double Boiler.

I have 2 SS pots , that fit inside one another tight,
and use them as a Double boiler.

If the " Flame Tamers " are made of Alluminum, don't leave them on the burners,
when you take the pot off. They could melt !

Or !!! You could set the Soup Pot in a Cast Iron Skillet.
That would distribute the heat.

Don't turn the heat up high !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lou said that.
And is now, going to have some burnt Split Pea Soup.

Scott :
I have a very large Tri Ply Commercial with a Copper plated bottom.
I still have to watch it when making Spaghetti Sauce or soup's like Bobby made.
Bobby:
I think everyone left, so your on your own.If you burn it again,
you get the Wooden Spoon Treatment.
LOU

I am a scatterbrained cook, and I have scorched more than one batch of split pea soup! Trust me, it is unsalvagable!

I love my crockpot, cost bout 35 bucks, and it is super fantastic for making bean soups and many other things that this busy gal routinely used to burn because she got tied up with something else.

If you're cruising garage and estate sales and flea markets, you can often find cast iron and Le Crueset pots for significantly less than new ones would cost. Old folks get rid of them because they are so heavy, and pass them on to the young uns. That's how I got my cast iron cookware. Passed from grandma to mom and now to me. Someday mine will show up in a yard sale!

Happiness is a soup pot with a heavy cast aluminum heat distributor built in. I got mine on super sale at a grocery store. Has a clear lid too, I love it. You can find these kind of things at garage sales too.

Here's another thought. What quantities of liquid and split peas did you use? If there wasn't enough liquid for the peas, that could also have contributed to the scorching.