To Stew Lamb and Peas
Put the lamb into a stewpan with about a quart of water, when half done add the peas with pepper and salt to taste. Let them stew slowly and have ready some mint and parsley chopped fine, put it in and let all simmer slowly until ready to serve.
Spring on a plate: lamb gently stewed until tender, then finished with green peas and a lift of fresh mint and parsley.
- The water measure“About a quart” is 4 cups — enough to barely cover the lamb for a slow stew rather than a soup; keep it at a gentle simmer, lid ajar.
- Add peas latePeas go in when the lamb is half-done so they cook through without turning gray and mushy. With frozen peas, add them only in the last 5–10 minutes.
- Herbs at the endStirring the chopped mint and parsley in near serving keeps them fresh and green; mint is the traditional partner to lamb, parsley the all-purpose freshener.
- Season to tasteThe lamb gives up plenty of flavor to the pot — salt and pepper as it cooks, and taste before serving, since a stew’s seasoning concentrates.
- A sharper finish, if you likeFor a more modern brightness, a squeeze of lemon — or mint chopped with a little vinegar — echoes the classic English mint sauce served with lamb.
Lamb with peas and mint is the taste of spring in the English kitchen, and it came to America with English cooks. The pairing has practical roots: spring lamb and the first tender peas arrive in the same season, and mint’s cool sharpness cuts the meat’s richness — the same logic behind the mint sauce served with roast lamb. The custom is old enough that it long predates any single cookbook. In a Creole collection, this gentle, herb-flecked stew is a reminder of how much plain English cookery sat comfortably alongside the French and African currents of the New Orleans table.
From page 21 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
