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Green Peas
Put the peas into boiling water with some salt and a bunch of green mint; boil briskly twenty minutes, and when done, drain them in a colander, dish them up with chopped boiled mint on the top, and send some small pats of very fresh butter separately on a plate.
A plain English treatment of fresh peas that needs only one real adjustment: the cooking time, which belongs to an era of larger, starchier peas picked at a very different stage.
- Twenty minutes is far too longModern shelled peas, fresh or frozen, are bred small and sweet and are done in three to five minutes from the boil; frozen peas need barely two. Twenty minutes of brisk boiling turns them grey-green and mealy. Taste at three minutes and go from there.
- Why the original says twentyPeas were often picked fuller and used less freshly than we expect today, and their sugars turn to starch after picking, so a longer boil made more sense than it does now. Anything bought shelled or frozen today does not need it.
- QuantityNo amount is given. Reckon on about 1 lb of shelled peas for four as a side dish, which means roughly 2 1/2 to 3 lb of pods if you are shelling them yourself.
- The mint goes in twiceThe mint appears twice -- a bunch goes into the water for perfume, and boiled mint, chopped, goes on top; the recipe does not say whether this is a fresh lot or the same bunch lifted out and chopped. If you would rather not boil the garnish, chopped raw mint scattered over the hot peas gives a brighter result.
- Salt the water generouslyPeas take salt only from the cooking water, since the butter is served apart. About a teaspoon per quart is a reasonable starting point.
- Butter served separatelySending small pats on a plate lets each diner dress the peas at will. Tossing the drained peas with butter and a little salt in the pan is the same dish, less formally.
- Drain thoroughlyA colander shake is not enough; peas hold water in their skins. Give them a moment in the hot empty pan off the heat to dry before dishing.
Peas boiled with mint and eaten with fresh butter is about as fixed an English combination as exists, and it appears in household books through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with very little variation. The pairing is often explained as digestive folk practice, mint being long credited with easing the wind that pulses were thought to cause, though the more obvious reason is that the two are in season together in an English kitchen garden. This version keeps to that pattern, with the instruction to send the butter separately on a plate: vegetables came to the table plain, and the sauce, butter or gravy travelled alongside.