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Peas, Green, Stewed
Shell a peck of young peas, put them into a bowl with plenty of cold water and two ounces of butter, work them well with the fingers to make the peas stick together, and then drain them in a colander. Put the peas into a stewpan, with half a dozen young onions, two cabbage-lettuces cut into small pieces, a handful of parsley, a tea-spoonful of powdered sugar, and a little salt. Cover the saucepan closely, and let its contents stew gently over a slow fire for about half an hour. If the lettuces and peas do not yield sufficient water a table-spoonful may be added, but if they are simmered gently this will in all probability be unnecessary. Shake the stewpan occasionally, that all may be equally cooked. Mix two ounces of butter smoothly with a dessert-spoonful of flour, and when the peas are tender put the mixture into the saucepan with them. Shake them over the fire for three or four minutes until the butter is melted, then turn them upon a hot dish, and serve immediately. If preferred, an egg beaten up with a table-spoonful of water may be substituted for the butter. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
This is the English version of petits pois à la française — peas stewed in nothing but their own moisture, with lettuce and onion as the liquid source. Everything depends on keeping the pan shut and the heat very low.
- A peck of peasA peck is a dry measure of two gallons, so this means roughly 8-10 lb of peas in the pod, yielding about 2 to 2 1/2 lb shelled. That is a generous Victorian vegetable course for four or five; 1 1/2 lb shelled peas is plenty by modern serving standards.
- Buttering the peas firstWorking the shelled peas in cold water with 2 oz butter makes them cling together, which is the reason the recipe gives. The coating plausibly also helps keep them from scorching in the covered pan, though the recipe does not say so. Drain them well before they go into the stewpan.
- Cabbage-lettuceA round, soft-headed lettuce: butterhead, Boston or Bibb. Its water content is what helps steam the peas, so a crisp Iceberg is a poor substitute; Little Gem is a small semi-cos and only an approximate stand-in.
- A slow fireOn a gas or induction hob this is the lowest setting with a heavy pan and a tight lid. The recipe itself speaks of gentle simmering, so what matters is keeping the heat low enough that the moisture the dish depends on is not driven off; no oven or oven temperature is given.
- Half an hour is for garden peasHalf an hour is for freshly shelled peas -- Thirty minutes suits peas shelled from the pod, which is what the recipe calls for (it specifies young ones). Frozen petits pois are blanched already and need 6 to 8 minutes; give the lettuce and onions a few minutes' head start instead.
- The butter and flour2 oz butter kneaded with a dessertspoonful (about 2 tsp) of flour is a beurre manié — it thickens the small amount of pan liquid into a glaze. Shake rather than stir, and stop as soon as it has melted and coated.
- The egg alternativeIf you use the beaten egg instead, the pan must be off direct heat and the peas below a simmer, or you get scrambled egg through the vegetables. Add it, shake constantly, and serve at once.
- Cost1s 2d is the book's own costing for the dish, quoted for the household accounts; it has no modern equivalent.
Stewing peas with lettuce, spring onion and no added water is a French kitchen technique — petits pois a l'etuvee, more familiar as petits pois a la francaise — that English cookery books took up during the nineteenth century. The book presents it as ordinary rather than exotic, and the pinch of sugar is characteristic: garden peas were seasonal and lost their sweetness quickly after picking, something modern freezing largely prevents. The alternative finish of egg beaten with water is a second way of binding the dish; egg liaisons are long established in cookery, but which of the two thickenings is the older cannot be established from this recipe.