Remove the tea ball or cheesecloth. Add salt to taste, being careful not to add more than 2 teaspoons. Pour in the cognac and the hot pepper oil, stir well, and serve immediately. Sprinkle some chopped fresh chives on top of each bowl after serving it. If you don't have fresh chives, then stir some dried snipped chives into the soup 5 minutes before serving it.
Some bacon is very salty.
You can remove most of the salt from it without materially affecting its flavor by boiling the cut, uncooked bacon pieces for 1 minute in a few quarts of water, then discarding the water and then drying the pieces with paper towels before cooking. Because the cooked peas have the ability to block your taste buds somewhat, make sure you rinse your mouth with a drink of water after each time you taste the soup while seasoning it, else you will overseason it. Incremental seasoning of legume soups is tricky, so if you are inexperienced, measure the seasonings carefully. I like to serve soups like this with unbuttered fresh bread. If you want to fool with the recipe, one of the places to fool with it is the spices that you put in the tea ball.