PEA

The Pea is one of our most valuable and most nutritious vegetables. Those cultivated for table use are grouped in two main classes--"edible-podded," and "tough-podded" or shelling. Tough-podded peas may be divided into two chief types, those with smooth seeds and those with wrinkled, the former being the more attractive to the eye but the latter generally the sweeter and therefore more desirable. Edible-podded peas are little cultivated here, but in Europe large quantities are grown for use in the same way as string beans.

The Cowpea, or "field pea" of the South, belongs to the bean family (see BEANS).

Peas should always be kept in a dry, cool place.

Canned Green Peas. Green peas are extensively canned both in this country and Europe. The market offerings vary very much in quality, many of the cheaper packings described as "green peas" being merely dried peas soaked in water and canned--a practice often resorted to by unscrupulous parties when prices are high.

Careful sorting and separating precede the putting up of the better grades. The general formula calls for equal quantities of brine and green peas in each can, with sometimes the addition of sugar, the sealed cans being cooked and sterilized in similar manner to other canned vegetables. The domestic output is graded as "Fancy," "Standard," "Seconds," etc.

The most expensive grades are those imported from France. Peas preserved by the French process retain their natural flavor but are artificially colored, as in preparation their original green hue becomes slightly yellow. The coloring process consists in placing them before canning in a solution containing sulphate of copper in the proportion generally of one gram to a liter of water. "Extra fine" peas are allowed to remain in the liquid for eight to ten minutes; "fine" peas, seven to eight minutes; "medium" peas, six minutes, and "coarse" peas, five minutes. The peas so treated resume and retain a fine green color, hence their name of Petits Pois reverdis.

French peas are also prepared in a number of special forms--the most important of which is Petits Pois au Beurre, "small, or new, peas in butter." Ordinary canned peas require seasoning before service, but in this style the seasoning is added before canning and they require nothing but heating. A well-trained palate is needed to distinguish them from the fresh vegetable.

"Evaporated" Green and "Split" Ripe Peas. During the last few years the market has taken an increasing quantity of evaporated green peas, both whole and "split," domestic and imported. They are sold at much lower prices than the canned goods and they make a very pleasing dish. The peas after hulling are steamed, then slowly dried in the evaporator by a current of warm air not above 162 degree Fahr., and finally screened and graded by size. The smallest, being the most savory, bring the highest prices.

There is also a fair consumption of the ripe pea, hulled and "split," but it merits much wider appreciation. Its food value is very high (see article on FOOD VALUES). In Europe, it is as largely consumed as the dried bean.

When preparing dried or evaporated peas for the table, they should be soaked in cold water for eight or ten hours, during which they will resume their normal size and moisture. The subsequent boiling should be long and slow to make them easily digestible, but they are well worth the trouble.

Pea, or Pease, Soup is especially agreeable to the palate if a little meat--fresh-beef, ham or salt pork, etc.--is boiled in it.