To Stew Peas
Shell, put in a small quantity of water, cover closely and stew half hour, or until tender. Add sweet cream, a lump of butter rolled in flour and season with salt and white pepper.
A creamed pea dish from the era when peas came in the pod and were cooked until they surrendered. The method is sound; the timing belongs to a different vegetable.
- Halve the cooking time, at leastHalf an hour will turn modern peas to grey mush. Freshly shelled garden peas need 4 to 8 minutes in barely an inch of water; older, starchier pods may want 10 to 12. The instruction "or until tender" is the part to obey.
- "A small quantity of water"About half a cup for a pound of shelled peas, with the lid on tight, so the peas half-steam. The liquid should be nearly gone when they are done, since it becomes the base of the sauce.
- Sweet creamThis means fresh, unsoured cream, not sweetened. Heavy or whipping cream is the closest match; a quarter to a third of a cup for a pound of peas.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié: about a tablespoon of soft butter kneaded with a teaspoon of flour, dropped into the simmering liquid and stirred until it thickens. Add it in small pieces so no raw flour lumps survive.
- White pepperSpecified so no black flecks show in a pale sauce. It is a genuine flavour difference as well as a cosmetic one, but black pepper will not hurt the dish.
- YieldA pound of pods gives roughly a cup of shelled peas, so figure three pounds of pods for four servings. Frozen peas work, need only 3 to 4 minutes, and want no added water beyond a splash.
Shelling peas was one of the small routine labours of a nineteenth-century kitchen, which is why the recipe opens with the word and assumes no further explanation. Peas were among the vegetables canned commercially relatively early in America, so a cook of this period may have had the choice between the tin and the pod; this recipe is written for fresh peas in season. The finish of cream thickened with butter and flour, seasoned with white pepper for the sake of appearance, is common in late-Victorian cookery for pale vegetables, and turns up with peas, new potatoes and onions alike.