TO BOIL GREEN PEAS.—
When the peas are shelled, wash them in a pan of cold water. Put on the peas in cold water, (a little salted) and let them boil very fast. If nice peas, they will generally be done in a quarter of an hour after beginning to boil. When simmering, add to them a lump or a spoonful of loaf-sugar, and a sprig of fresh green mint, (half a dozen leaves) having first ascertained if mint is not disliked by any person who is to eat of the peas. To some the taste and odor of mint is very agreeable, to others very disgusting, as is the case with onions, and many other things that are liked by the majority.
When the peas are all soft or tender, take out the mint, drain the peas through a cullender till not a drop of water is left among them; transfer them to a deep dish, mix into them some of the best fresh butter, and sprinkle them with pepper. Cover them immediately, and send them to table hot.
STEWED PEAS.—
Having prepared the peas as above, put them into a stew-pan without any water. Mix among them plenty of bits of nice fresh butter, sufficient to cook them. Let them stew slowly in the butter till they are quite soft, stirring them up from the bottom frequently. Drain and dish them. They will be found very fine—better than if boiled in water. Peas should not be stewed this way, except in places where plenty of good fresh butter is to be easily obtained.
GREEN PEAS.—
The largest and finest peas are what the English call marrowfat. The sugar pea is next. All green peas for boiling should be young and tender, but not so young as to be tasteless or insipid. As a general rule, nearly every article of food is best when it has just attained its full growth and ripeness; after that period the older it is the worse. Peas, so old as to be hard and yellow, are unfit to eat. In some ultra economical houses, good peas are things unknown. They are not bought in spring or early summer while young and fresh, but are never thought cheap enough till they become hard and yellow. Afterwards, when they reach the cheap state, a quantity are bought low, and put into jars not to be touched till next spring, when they are boiled, (with great difficulty, for they never become soft,) and attempted to be passed off "as this year's fresh peas"—and by the time the family have gotten through with them, "this year's young peas" have become old. Do not believe (for it is untrue,) that any eatable can be kept in all its genuine freshness and original flavor, by merely secluding them entirely from air. They will not spoil or decompose if skillfully managed; but they have not exactly their natural taste and consistence. It is better for those who never make pickles or preserves, to wait for fresh vegetables or fruit, till they are actually in market—or, if put up in jars, to add something more than parboiling and seclusion from the air. Vinegar, salt, sugar, spice and alcohol, will be found the grand and universal articles for securing the goodness of nearly all eatables. Without some of these along with them, things that have not spoiled while secluded from air, will surely spoil almost as soon as the jars are opened, and the external air admitted to them.