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Peas, Green, Old, How to Cook
When peas are old they should be shelled, and soaked in water for some time before being cooked. If of superior quality they will only require soaking about half an hour, but if not, three or four hours will not be too much for them. An excellent dish may be made with old peas by soaking them as above directed, and then stewing them with a small piece of beef, or salt pork. The time required for cooking will of course depend upon the weight of the meat. It is best, however, to use as much water only as will barely cover the peas. Serve the meat and vegetables on the same dish, and as hot as possible. Time, half an hour for the peas. Probable cost, 6d. per peck.
This is advice for using up podded peas that have gone starchy and dull rather than a formal recipe, and it works best if you treat the meat and the peas as two separate clocks.
- What "old" peas areThese are mature fresh peas from the pod, grown large and floury, not dried split peas. Their sugars have turned to starch and their skins have toughened, which is what the soak is meant to soften.
- Cook the meat firstThe text admits the meat's timing "depends upon the weight" but gives only half an hour for the peas. Simmer a piece of salt pork or beef until tender first, then add the drained peas for the last 20-30 minutes so they finish in the meat liquor.
- Salt pork needs rinsingNineteenth-century salt pork was far more heavily cured than today's. Rinse it, and if it is a traditional heavy cure, blanch it once and discard that water, or the finished dish will be inedible with salt. Do not add salt until the end.
- Barely cover the peasThis is the instruction that matters. With just enough liquid to cover, the starch from the mature peas thickens the cooking water into a light gravy; drowned in water, you get grey peas in a thin broth.
- The half hour is a maximumModern peas, even large ones, collapse quickly. Start testing at 15 minutes. Overcooked mature peas shed their skins and go mealy.
- A peckA peck is a dry measure of two gallons, perhaps 7 to 9 lb of peas in the pod, which might yield 2 to 3 lb shelled. Sixpence for that quantity suggests a cheap, plentiful pea rather than an early-season delicacy.
- Worth addingA sprig of mint in the pot, or a pinch of sugar, restores some of what age has taken out of the peas. Neither is in the original, though both appear with peas in British cookery books of the period.
- YieldAllow about 1 lb shelled peas and 1 lb of meat for four people as a main dish.
Cassell's treats this as a household problem more than a dish: what to do with peas that have sat too long in the pod or too long at market. Before refrigeration and rapid rail freight, peas lost much of their sugar soon after picking, and late in the season the cheap peas tended to be the big starchy ones. Stewing them with a small piece of salt pork or beef follows the same logic as pease pudding and the older pease pottage of English cookery, where the pulse is cooked in salted pork liquor and the meat serves as seasoning as much as substance. The sixpence a peck quoted here points to cheap, plentiful peas rather than a delicacy for the table.