Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/96

 use, in time of severe frost, leaving a balance in the ground for Spring supply, and some to go to seed. The seed keeps only two years—an ounce will supply a family.

Pea is of great antiquity as a culinary vegetable, and is familiar in the domestic cookery of every country. It is an annual, the seed being sown and matured in the same season, and in some varieties in an incredibly short space of time. They are considered a pleasant and nourishing food, having the character of purifying the blood and correcting scorbutic humors. In flavor and quality there is as great a difference in the Pea as in any vegetable with which I am acquainted, though, from observation, cultivators and even cooks have little knowledge of the quality and flavor of the different varieties in cultivation. Some, when merely plain boiled and seasoned, are of themselves a luxury; others require more assistance from the culinary art to make them palatable. It is not our object to detail the various modes of cooking, yet we confess that we have seen them mis-boiled. The earlier sorts take from half an hour to three quarters; the Marrow-fats, from fifteen to twenty minutes, according to age. To have their flavor perfect, they should be picked, shelled, and cooked, all within three or four hours. When kept over night their quality is greatly impaired. Some prefer them boiled with a bunch of mint; the only seasoning admitted by others, is a little salt in the water.

We will not detail the numerous sorts we grow or are acquainted with, but the following will be found most useful for market or family supply. They are those most noted for their quality, and are arranged in the order in which they come to maturity.