Boiled Green Peas
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Ingredients
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Green peas; to each 1/2 gallon of water allow 1 _small_ teaspoonful of moist sugar, 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt.

Method
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This delicious vegetable, to be eaten in perfection, should be young, and not _gathered_ or _shelled_ long before it is dressed. Shell the peas, wash them well in cold water, and drain them; then put them into a saucepan with plenty of _fast-boiling_ water, to which salt and _moist sugar_ have been added in the above proportion; let them boil quickly over a brisk fire, with the lid of the saucepan uncovered, and be careful that the smoke does not draw in. When tender, pour them into a colander; put them into a hot vegetable-dish, and quite in the centre of the peas place a piece of butter, the size of a walnut. Many cooks boil a small bunch of mint _with_ the _peas_, or garnish them with it, by boiling a few sprigs in a saucepan by themselves. Should the peas be very old, and difficult to boil a good colour, a very tiny piece of soda may be thrown in the water previous to putting them in; but this must be very sparingly used, as it causes the peas, when boiled, to have a smashed and broken appearance. With young peas, there is not the slightest occasion to use it.

Source: Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861)
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