INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

GREEN PEAS
When green peas are purchased, they are always found in the pods. They should appear to be well filled. Flat-looking pods mean that the peas have not matured sufficiently.

When very young, their original flavor is so fresh and delicate, that any addition, except a little very fresh butter, would be certain to destroy their aroma.

BOILED GREEN PEAS
Do not shell peas until ready to cook. Boil a pan of water and add a little salt. If the peas are cooked immediately upon gathering, they will need no sugar. But if allowed to remain twelve hours or more, a tablespoon of sugar will be found an addition. Drop the peas so slowly into the water it will not stop boiling. Boil the peas until tender without covering and they will keep their color. They will generally cook in about twenty minutes. Take them up with a little of the liquor in which they were boiled, butter and pepper them. Sometimes a little sugar improves them. A little sweet cream added is nice, but they will do without.

PEAS PUREE
Many persons who cannot eat peas because of the coarse outside skins are able to digest them in the form of a purée. Rub one cup of cooked peas through a sieve. Dissolve one tablespoon cornstarch in one-half cup water and add to peas. Then add one cup milk, one teaspoon grated onions, and one teaspoon finely chopped parsley. Bring to a boil and cook for five minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve with croutons, toast, or slices of bread cut in half-inch blocks.

CREAMED PEAS
A cream sauce adds considerable food value and flavor to green peas. Peas prepared in this way may be served plain, but they can be made very attractive by serving them in croustades. Croustades are cases made from large pieces of bread that are cut any desired shape, hollowed out, and then toasted in a hot oven, on a broiler, or fried in deep fat until crisp.

Cook two cups shelled green peas in boiling salted water until tender. Drain the water from them, retaining one-half cup to make the sauce. Melt two tablespoons butter, then add two tablespoons flour, one-half teaspoon salt, and a dash of pepper. Heat one-half cup water from the peas and one-half cup milk, and stir into butter mixture. Cook until the flour has thickened and then pour over the peas. Serve hot, either plain or in croustades.

PEAS AND BUTTERED EGGS
Stew a pint of young peas with a tablespoon of butter, a little salt, pepper, and chopped parsley until they are tender. Beat up two eggs and pour the boiled peas over them. Serve at once on toast before the eggs harden.

PEAS AU PARMESAN
Grate one and one-half ounces of cheese. Add to it two tablespoons of cream, a gill of milk, a tablespoon of butter, one saltspoon of salt and four shakes of pepper. Place in an enameled pan and stir over the fire until the butter and cheese are dissolved. Then put in a pint and a half of fresh young peas previously boiled until tender, drained, and seasoned with one-half teaspoon salt. Stir the mixture a few moments. Serve as hot as possible.

PEAS SOUFFLE
Melt two tablespoons butter, stir in two tablespoons flour, and add one-half cup heated milk. Cook until the mixture thickens and then add one cup peas purée, one-half teaspoon salt, and a dash of pepper. Separate two eggs, beat the yolks and add them to the mixture, and then fold in the stiffly beaten whites. Pour into a well-greased baking dish or individual baking dishes, place in a pan of hot water, and bake in a slow oven until set, or for thirty or forty minutes. Serve at once.

GREEN PEA AND POTATO STEW
Slice six new potatoes and two onions, and place them in a stewpan with one pint shelled green peas, a sprig of mint, and one and one-half pints water. Simmer gently for one hour, remove the mint, add one-half teaspoon salt and one-half ounce butter rolled in flour. Stir for a few minutes over the fire and serve hot.

PEA GRIDDLE-CAKES
Cook a pint or three cups more peas than you need for dinner. Mash while hot with a wooden spoon, seasoning with pepper, salt, and butter. Put by until morning. Make a batter of two whipped eggs, a cup of milk, one-fourth teaspoon soda, one-half teaspoon cream tartar, and one-half cup flour. Stir the pea-mixture into this, beating very hard, and fry upon a griddle. They make a delightful morning dish.

OATMEAL AND PEAS
Cut one-fourth pound of fat pork or bacon into pieces half an inch square. Put it in the bottom of a pot with two sliced onions and fry ten minutes without burning. Season with two teaspoons of salt, one of sugar, and one saltspoon of pepper. Then add three quarts of cold water, and one pint of peas. Boil the whole gently until the peas become quite soft, then stir in enough oatmeal to thicken; about a quarter of a pound. Simmer for twenty minutes and eat hot. It is the healthiest kind of a meal.

PEAS PUDDING
Soak one pint of dried peas in cold water overnight. Tie them loosely in a clean cloth, and boil them about two hours in pot-liquor or water, putting them into it cold and bringing them gradually to a boil. Drain them, pass them through a sieve with a wooden spoon, season them with a level tablespoon of salt, half a saltspoon of pepper, one ounce of butter, and one egg. Mix, tie in a clean cloth, and boil half an hour longer. Then turn it from the cloth onto a dish and serve hot. 

PEAS AND BACON
Put one pound of bacon to boil in two and a half quarts of cold water, with one pint of dried peas. When the peas are soft, drain them, and press them through a sieve. Lay them neatly on a flat dish, place the bacon on them, and set them in the oven to brown. 

Meantime strain any water which may remain after boiling them, and thicken it over the fire with Indian meal, in the proportion of four or five tablespoons to each pint, so as to make it thick enough to cut and fry when cold. Boil it about one hour, and then cool it.

As soon as the peas and bacon are brown, serve them with boiled potatoes or bread. 

PEA SOUP
Use one-half pint dried peas for every two quarts of soup you want. After washing them well, put them in three quarts of cold water. Bring them slowly to a boil, add a bone or bit of ham if you have it to spare, one turnip and one carrot peeled, and one one onion stuck with three cloves. Simmer three hours, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Pass the soup through a sieve with the aid of a potato-masher, and if it shows any sign of settling, stir into it one tablespoon each of butter and flour mixed together dry. Meantime, take two slices of stale bread, cut half an inch square, and fry in hot fat. Drain them on a sieve, and put them in the bottom of the soup tureen in which the pea soup is served. Or cut some bits of very hard stale bread, or dry toast, to use instead of the fried bread. By the time the soup is done it will have boiled down to two quarts, and will be very thick and good.

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