The best of all green vegetables, and the delight of millions, whilst
their profusion renders them attainable by all; like the asparagus, they
belong to that season of flavour, the spring of the year, but remain in
season till a much later period; when young the English method of
cooking them is good, because the more succulence there is in a
vegetable the less zest they require to make them palatable. To describe
the different sorts would be almost an endless, and to a certain extent
a useless task, but the Prussian blues are, in my opinion, the very
best; to plain boil them, have two quarts of fresh-shelled peas, with a
sprig of young mint, about ten leaves (the greatest fault with most
people is putting too much), have a gallon of water boiling upon the
fire, in which you have put two ounces of salt, when boiling put in your
peas, let them boil as fast as possible from ten to fifteen minutes, try
whether they are tender, if so strain them through a cullender, dress
them upon your dish with two pats of butter upon the top and serve; or
when drained put them into a stewpan with a quarter of a pound of fresh
butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a good teaspoonful of powdered
sugar, place over a fire, and keep tossing them until the butter is
melted, dress them either plain upon your dish or in a bread croustade.