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To Boil Green Peas
Early in the morning, either buy the peas from market or have them gathered in your garden, while the dew is on them. Shell and lay in cold water till half an hour before dinner. Then put in boiling water and boil steadily a half hour. Add a little salt, just before taking from the fire. Drain, add a heaping tablespoonful fresh butter and put in a covered dish.--Mrs. S. T.
A simple dish whose only real problem is the cooking time, which belongs to an era of larger, starchier, later-picked peas.
- The half hour is the thing to changeModern shelled English peas, and certainly frozen ones, are done in 2 to 4 minutes in boiling water. Thirty minutes leaves them grey-green and mealy; taste one at two minutes and pull them the moment they are sweet and tender.
- Why the original called for so longPeas of the period were often picked large, and sugar begins converting to starch after picking. Older, starchier peas genuinely need longer cooking.
- The cold-water soakHolding shelled peas in cold water was a way to keep them from drying and shrivelling through the morning. A covered bowl in the refrigerator does the same job better; drain them before they go into the pot.
- Salt at the endThe instruction to salt only just before serving probably reflects an old belief that salted water toughens skins. Salting the cooking water from the start is fine and seasons them more evenly.
- QuantityNo amount is given. Reckon 1 lb of peas in the pod per two people, which yields roughly a cup of shelled peas; so about 2 lb unshelled, or about 1 lb frozen, will serve four.
- ButterA heaping tablespoon of butter for the whole dish is modest by modern standards; "fresh" here means unsalted and not rancid, so use unsalted butter and adjust the salt. Toss the drained peas in the hot pan so the butter melts and coats rather than pooling.
- If using frozenFrozen peas are blanched before freezing and need only to be heated through, about 90 seconds in boiling water or straight into the butter in a covered pan. They are usually sweeter than supermarket fresh peas out of season.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree and published in 1878, gathered contributions from some 250 Virginia housekeepers, which is why so many of its recipes end in a set of initials rather than a name. The insistence on gathering peas "while the dew is on them" is not sentiment but logistics: before refrigeration and rail-borne produce, a pea's sugar began turning to starch within hours of picking. Green peas eaten in the pod-shelled state were a spring luxury in the Anglo-Virginian kitchen, associated with the earliest good eating of the year, and English cookery of the preceding two centuries treated them the same way, boiled plain and finished with butter and sometimes mint.