a legume which originated in W. Asia, has been a staple food since ancient times. There are three main kinds: the first of these, the familiar garden pea, Pisum sativum ssp sativum, is by far the most important. A secondary form, the field or grey pea, used to be distinguished as P. arvense, but is now classified as a variety (arvense) of the above ssp. Third is the small, wild Mediterranean pea, ssp elatius, sometimes called the oasis or maquis pea.
Other legumes of different genera are popularly called ‘peas’. See butterfly pea; chickpea; cowpea; pigeon pea; winged pea.
The earliest trace of the pea is in the relics of Bronze Age settlements in Switzerland, c.3000 bc. It was apparently grown by both Greeks and Romans in the classical period, spread quickly through India, where it is still a popular vegetable, and reached China in the 7th century ad. The Chinese gave it the name hu tou (foreign legume).
Field peas were eaten dried, and sometimes husked and split. Dried peas were one of the principal foods of poorer people throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, especially in winter. They were cheap, filling, and a useful source of protein.
The old English name ‘pease’ is singular. The ‘-se’ was dropped later under the wrong assumption that it was a plural form. (The modern Indian word paisa, meaning small coin, is from the same root.) Peas were made into thick broths and pease porridge; the old singular form survives in the name of the porridge and also in a related dish, pease pudding, which has its own entry. The old form also survives in the term peasemeal.
Fernie (1905) records an interesting piece of history concerning the grey or field pea:
‘“Hot Grey Pease, and a suck of Bacon,” (tied to a string of which the stallkeeper held the other end,) was a popular street cry in the London of James the First.’
It was not until the 16th century, when Italian gardeners developed tender varieties for eating fresh and small, that garden peas were introduced and grown increasingly thereafter.
A sudden vogue for eating immature peas fresh, which was a novel procedure, reached a peak at the end of the 17th century. In 1696 Mme de Maintenon wrote from the court of Louis XIV: ‘Il y a des dames qui, après avoir soupé, et bien soupé, trouvent des pois chez elles avant de coucher, au risque d'une indigestion. C'est une mode, un fureur.’ (There are some ladies who, having supped, and supped well, take peas at home before going to bed, at the risk of an attack of indigestion. It's a fashion, a craze.) French peas were very expensive. Some of this glamour still attaches to the French petits pois, which are not a separate variety but ordinary peas harvested very young. The regions from which these come are the north and west of France, and Paris, where the towns of Saint-Germain and Clamart were so famous for the quality of their petits pois that their names came to be used as culinary terms for dishes incorporating petits pois.
One variety popular in England at the time was the sugar pea, also called snap pea and mange-tout. The pods of ordinary garden peas have a tough inner lining which makes them inedible, though they can be made into soup. (In pea-growing areas ‘peascod’ soup has long been a traditional harvest-time dish.) Sugar peas have a tender pod and, when young, the whole pod and the tiny peas in it can be eaten. Hence the French name mange-tout.
At the end of the 19th century, when canned vegetables began to be sold widely, peas were one of the most popular types. When peas are canned they become a dull khaki colour as their original chlorophyll green is destroyed by heating. French canned petits pois are this colour. However, in many other countries the change is unacceptable, and the peas are restored to their ‘natural’ green by being treated with a bright green dye. Most kinds of canned peas bear little resemblance to the fresh vegetable and may be considered as a separate food item. They include giant ‘marrowfat’ peas (seldom sold fresh) and, in the north of England, special ‘mushy’ peas. ‘Processed’ peas are treated with alkali to make them soft and starchy. The term ‘garden peas’ is used to distinguish unprocessed canned peas.
Peas were also among the earliest frozen vegetables in the 1920s and 1930s, and here there is a real advantage. Fresh peas deteriorate noticeably in hours rather than days after picking. People without vegetable gardens or access to really fresh supplies will find that frozen peas, harvested at the ideal moment and frozen at once, are in effect the ‘freshest’ they can obtain.
Field peas are still grown extensively as a fodder crop or a ‘green manure’ ploughed back into the soil. For a special kind of dried field pea, whose use in the north of England for a Lenten dish survives, precariously, see carling.
Dried peas remain the main form in India, where they constitute several of the numerous types of dal (split pulse). Size and colour vary greatly. All dried peas, especially field peas, are among the most difficult pulses to soften. They need soaking overnight, and even then cooking may take several hours. In contrast, fresh peas are easily spoiled by overcooking; indeed, they may be eaten raw.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Fernie, W. T. (1905), Meals Medicinal, Bristol: Wright.
