No. 2741

Green Peas—Mangetout—a la Fleurette

Petits Pois Mangetout a la Fleurette

These are prepared with "mangetout" peas, a species of very tender peas, the pods of which are eaten as well as the contents. String the threads on both sides of the pod from some "mangetout" peas after they are partly cooked; drain and put them in a saucepan with some fresh cream; let simmer until the peas are entirely cooked, and just when serving season with salt, a little sugar, finely cut-up chives and dash of vinegar. They can be thickened with egg-yolks, cream and fresh butter just before serving.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A short entry that assumes you already know how to blanch a pea pod. Two things carry the dish: the peas must stay crisp, and the egg-yolk finish must never boil.

What "mangetout" isMangetout means "eat all" — the flat-podded snow pea, and by extension the sugar snap. Modern varieties are bred with far less string than Ranhofer's, so check one pod before bothering to string the lot.
"A la fleurette"Crème fleurette is fresh, thin, unwhipped cream; the term carries no fixed fat percentage, so a light or single cream is a fair stand-in. Heavy cream works and gives a thicker sauce; it reduces faster, so watch it.
Timing"Partly cooked" here means 1-2 minutes in boiling salted water, no more. The simmer in cream should be another 2-3 minutes. Snow peas held in hot cream for a quarter of an hour turn grey and limp — the original's "until entirely cooked" is a much shorter window than it sounds.
The egg-yolk liaisonIf you take the optional thickening, whisk the yolks with a little cream, temper with some of the hot cream from the pan, return it off the heat and swirl in cold butter. It must not come back to a boil or it scrambles.
Order of seasoningSalt, sugar, chives and vinegar all go in at the very end, as the recipe directs. Acid stirred in earlier risks splitting the cream, and chives lose colour and scent quickly once heated.
Vinegar and sugar amountsThe original gives none. A teaspoon of white wine vinegar and a scant teaspoon of sugar to a cup of cream is a reasonable starting point; the sugar is there to lift sweetness in older peas, not to sweeten the sauce.
YieldRanhofer wrote for banquet service and specifies no quantity. As a side dish, allow about 6 oz of pods and 1/3 cup cream per person.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what he cooked in some thirty years at Delmonico's in New York, and its vegetable chapter reads like a French kitchen's repertoire transplanted whole — the peas are petits pois, the cream is fleurette. Mangetout peas, whose pods are tender enough to eat, were a market-garden crop rather than a supermarket staple. The finish with egg yolks, cream and butter is the standard nineteenth-century liaison, the same thickening used for white sauces and blanquettes; Ranhofer gives it here as an option.