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S. T to Boil Dried Peas
Soak in boiling water the night before. Then next day parboil and drain. Put in fresh water with a piece of middling or ham, and boil till tender.-Mrs. Col. W.
TO BOIL DRIED LIMA, OR OTHER BEANS.
Soak overnight. Next morning, soak in fresh water till two hours before dinner, when boil steadily in a covered saucepan two hours. Drain and add a large spoonful fresh butter, and a little salt.-Mrs. S. T.
Two plain legume recipes from the same page, one seasoned with cured pork and one with butter. Both assume dried beans that have sat in a barrel for a season, which is why the soaking is so aggressive.
- Middling"Middling" is the side pork between ham and shoulder — salt pork or streaky bacon is the closest modern equivalent. A 4–6 oz piece for a pound of dried peas is enough; salt the pot only at the end, since the pork is already salty.
- The boiling-water soakPouring boiling water over dried peas and leaving them overnight is a heat soak, and it does shorten cooking noticeably. It matters more with old beans than with the fresh-crop dried beans sold now, which soften fine in cold water.
- Parboil and drainThe first quick boil and drain in the pea recipe removes some of the indigestible sugars and any dustiness from storage. It is optional with modern peas but harmless, and it does make the finished pot cleaner in flavor.
- Two hours is a ceiling, not a ruleDried lima beans bought this year will be tender in 45–75 minutes at a bare simmer. Two hours of steady boiling turns them to purée and splits the skins; check at 45 minutes and go by texture.
- Keep it at a simmerThe recipe asks only that the pot "boil steadily" in a covered saucepan. On a modern burner, hold it just below a boil — hard boiling breaks limas apart and clouds the liquid.
- Acid and salt timingNeither recipe adds tomato, vinegar or molasses. Acid added early keeps bean skins tough; if you want to season that way, do it after the beans are soft.
- A large spoonfulRead this as a generous tablespoon of butter, perhaps half an ounce or a little more; a nineteenth-century "spoonful" was not a leveled measure. The recipe gives no quantity of beans, so scale to taste.
- YieldA pound of dried peas or limas gives about 6 cups cooked, or six to eight side servings. The pea pot with pork is substantial enough to be the center of a light supper with cornbread.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions credited by name or initial, gives dried peas and beans the briefest possible treatment. Dried legumes cooked with a piece of cured side pork are a mainstay of Southern winter cooking — cheap, storable, and complete with the pork supplying fat, salt and smoke in one motion. The initials after each entry are the book's usual practice, crediting a neighbor or relation rather than a professional cook, which is one reason the instructions assume you have watched someone do it before.