@mousethief I regret overcooking peas and then mashing them with a fork won't give you mushy peas. The starter ingredient is dried peas which are hard. You then soak them overnight and then boil them slowly with a bit of bicarbonate for quite a long time, until they're really soft.
Why?
They date at a time when fresh peas were seasonal, and drying them was already more common and less expensive than canning. (Just as chickpeas, etc., still commonly are today). Cooked to mushiness? Well, mushiness was the preferred texture for anything vegetal. I suspect that that was a result of poor dental hygiene. Why the continued affection for it? As you observed, food runs more deeply than faith.
@mousethief I regret overcooking peas and then mashing them with a fork won't give you mushy peas. The starter ingredient is dried peas which are hard. You then soak them overnight and then boil them slowly with a bit of bicarbonate for quite a long time, until they're really soft.
Why?
They date at a time when fresh peas were seasonal, and drying them was already more common and less expensive than canning. (Just as chickpeas, etc., still commonly are today). Cooked to mushiness? Well, mushiness was the preferred texture for anything vegetal. I suspect that that was a result of poor dental hygiene. Why the continued affection for it? As you observed, food runs more deeply than faith.
All makes perfect sense. And gives me no reason whatever to want to try them!
The green colour is sometimes extraordinarily vivid and offputting. I can tolerate most foods but cannot finish a portion of mushy peas. TO BE CONSIGNED TO THE LITERAL DUSTBIN OF HISTORY.
@mousethief I regret overcooking peas and then mashing them with a fork won't give you mushy peas. The starter ingredient is dried peas which are hard. You then soak them overnight and then boil them slowly with a bit of bicarbonate for quite a long time, until they're really soft.
Why?
They date at a time when fresh peas were seasonal, and drying them was already more common and less expensive than canning. (Just as chickpeas, etc., still commonly are today). Cooked to mushiness? Well, mushiness was the preferred texture for anything vegetal. I suspect that that was a result of poor dental hygiene. Why the continued affection for it? As you observed, food runs more deeply than faith.
No, it's because people (like me) actually like them. They're irreplaceable, inimitable.
They date at a time when fresh peas were seasonal, and drying them was already more common and less expensive than canning. (Just as chickpeas, etc., still commonly are today). Cooked to mushiness? Well, mushiness was the preferred texture for anything vegetal. I suspect that that was a result of poor dental hygiene. Why the continued affection for it? As you observed, food runs more deeply than faith.
Fresh peas are seasonal.
You only have them at other times of the year because they freeze well and can be tinned, though rather unsuccessfully IMHO. Otherwise, they have to be dried, just as chickpeas are. However, unlike chickpeas which are a Mediterranean crop, they are a basic crop in northern Europe.
Drying peas enables one to preserve them, as with chickpeas. Tinning was only invented in the nineteenth century. Freezing is really very recent, within my lifetime.
@mousethief mushy peas aren't just fresh peas that are cooked until they are mushy. They are a specific dish, which, whether we like them that way or not, we're familiar with, but which I suspect is unknown outside the British Isles.
Like a lot of old fashioned dishes here, they are designed for a time when cooking was done on an open fire in a kitchen where so far as possible, one kept a fire burning all the time, often quite slowly. So things that could just be left to simmer away in the background were useful. Hence stew, cawl - which is a sort of cross between stew and soup - broth, porridge, mushy peas etc.
Enoch, frozen foods have been around since Clarence Birdseye started marketing them in 1927. They are not new. And the first line of frozen foods did include peas. [
Enoch, frozen foods have been around since Clarence Birdseye started marketing them in 1927. They are not new. And the first line of frozen foods did include peas. [
I think Enoch is looking back to a time long before then. 1927 is very recent to us.
john holdingEcclesiantics Host, Mystery Worshipper Host
Well, he said within his life time. That makes him over 90. I had not thought that.
I don't think frozen foods really caught on big until the 1940s or early 1950s, though, when electric refrigerators replaced the icebox. I'm old enough to remember the iceman making home deliveries, and my mother buying her first refrigerator.
Actually, freezing and refrigeration has been around for centuries. The technique has been found, lost, found... I direct you to the prologue in the Old English translation of Orosius's Historia adversus paganos, or to the nearest snowbank.
Actually, freezing and refrigeration has been around for centuries. The technique has been found, lost, found... I direct you to the prologue in the Old English translation of Orosius's Historia adversus paganos, or to the nearest snowbank.
But the ability to freeze freshly harvested peas within hours, or even minutes, of picking them is newer than that.
No. The 1920s are well before my time. Domestic refrigerators started to spread in the 1950s here (UK) but they only kept things chilled. Domestic freezers and frozen food didn't really make it into the retail market here until the 1970s.
As @KarlLB says, domestic refrigerators then would have a small freezer compartment in them, but it wasn't up to doing much more than making ice-cubes and slowing down the unfreezing of a block of ice cream for an hour or two.
No. The 1920s are well before my time. Domestic refrigerators started to spread in the 1950s here (UK) but they only kept things chilled. Domestic freezers and frozen food didn't really make it into the retail market here until the 1970s.
As @KarlLB says, domestic refrigerators then would have a small freezer compartment in them, but it wasn't up to doing much more than making ice-cubes and slowing down the unfreezing of a block of ice cream for an hour or two.
Ooh yes, the “Family Brick” - usually vanilla, but just occasionally Neopolatan
No. The 1920s are well before my time. Domestic refrigerators started to spread in the 1950s here (UK) but they only kept things chilled. Domestic freezers and frozen food didn't really make it into the retail market here until the 1970s.
As @KarlLB says, domestic refrigerators then would have a small freezer compartment in them, but it wasn't up to doing much more than making ice-cubes and slowing down the unfreezing of a block of ice cream for an hour or two.
Ooh yes, the “Family Brick” - usually vanilla, but just occasionally Neopolatan
Brought home from the shop as quickly as possible, thickly wrapped in layers of newspaper to delay melting.
if the Scottish government announced that eating salads was compulsary, that would cause carnage, because there would be a real chance of violence or death.
Only if they forbade people from deep-frying it.
We had friends visiting from Australia. We went out for lunch and our Australian friend ordered a salad.
A.F., looking at his salad suspiciously "What are these?"
Me: "Onion rings. Onion dipped in batter and deep fried"
A.F. "Ha ha. Seriously, what are these?"
Me: "Seriously. Deep fried onion rings."
A.F, cutting one open "You're right!" *pushing onion rings to side of plate"
Me: "If you're not going to eat them, I will. I love onion rings!"
A.F *mind blown at the concept of any part of a salad being deep-fried*
We eat onion rings, in Melbourne at least. You can buy beer battered onion rings at some Fish and Chip shops and Hungry Jack's (which is our version of the US chain Burger King) sells a less greasy version - I had some of theirs recently. But we wouldn't eat them in a salad.
(Edited to add the apostrophe in Hungry Jack's as it might lead to carnage on this thread if I left it out 😜)
Well, he said within his life time. That makes him over 90. I had not thought that.
The days of Enoch are over 300 years. Clearly frozen food is a recent invention.
My mother made the best onion rings I’ve ever had. They were divine. They were not battered; they were soaked in milk and then tossed in seasoned flour.
Onion rings as such are, in my experience, not found on salads here—certainly battered onion rings never would be—but crumbled French fried onions can be (and make me very happy).
My mother made the best onion rings I’ve ever had. They were divine. They were not battered; they were soaked in milk and then tossed in seasoned flour.
That's how we make them, based on a "recipe" from my father-in-law. We never actually manage to get them to the table.
My mother made the best onion rings I’ve ever had. They were divine. They were not battered; they were soaked in milk and then tossed in seasoned flour.
That's how we make them, based on a "recipe" from my father-in-law. We never actually manage to get them to the table.
I have one, which I don't think has been mentioned: wary vs weary. I had a colleague who, meaning wary, said weary. Not a question of accent, either. I had forgotten about this until I heard the confusion on the radio this morning.
Can you give us an example? "I am wary of political ads" means something quite different from "I am weary of political ads" although the speaker might harbor both sentiments.
I just about threw up when I read about mushy peas in mint sauce! Good Lord, you people from England sure do eat some nasty things!*
*I'm being snotty for a moment but I don't really mean it. It's the IDEA of peas with mint that just has me feeling nauseated. I do love the thought of an afternoon tea...just so you know I'm not being a hater...
I just about threw up when I read about mushy peas in mint sauce! Good Lord, you people from England sure do eat some nasty things!*
*I'm being snotty for a moment but I don't really mean it. It's the IDEA of peas with mint that just has me feeling nauseated. I do love the thought of an afternoon tea...just so you know I'm not being a hater...
It's the IDEA of peas with mint that just has me feeling nauseated. I do love the thought of an afternoon tea...just so you know I'm not being a hater...
My mother would usually throw a sprig of mint in with the peas as they were boiling - and certainly with new potatoes.
Of course, mint grows like a weed, so we were never in any danger of running out...
Over-boiling vegetables is, or used to be, a classic British trait. We had a friend (now dead, alas) whose mother, a Methodist, used to put on the cabbage to boil on the stove before the family left for chapel on Sundays so that it would be ready for when they came home afterwards. You could smell it, he said, at the end of the street. In those days, of course, no one was exxpected to enjoy food. It was good for you, like medecine.
I think that the earlier 'protest a decision' as opposed to' protest against a decision' is a pond difference. Nick Tamen's presumably American version of 'protesting a decision' is certainly gaining ground here in the UK, even by young lawyers.
Same with 'alternate' as opposed to 'alternative' when these are used as adjectives
'alternate' with stress on the first 'e' means (to me) 'every second one'
'alternate' with stress on the first 'a' is a verb.
I think that American versions come in through film ,TV and social media
After all it is not all that long ago that 'hopefully' (from German 'hoffentlich') was seen as an unacceptable Americanism in the UK
Can you give us an example? "I am wary of political ads" means something quite different from "I am weary of political ads" although the speaker might harbor both sentiments.
I think you've just provided the example yourself? "I am wary of political ads" would mean the speaker is a little bit frightened of political ads, thinks there might be something sinister about them.
"I am weary of political ads" means he's tired or maybe bored of them.
ISTM that "wary" means "treating them gingerly, as things that are possibly dangerous"--not necessarily being frightened, just cautious. My dog is wary of spray bottles filled with water. They do not frighten her, but she doesn't like getting sprayed for bad behavior, and so when a mad spray bottle appears, she eyes it warily, waiting to see what it will do.
ISTM that "wary" means "treating them gingerly, as things that are possibly dangerous"--not necessarily being frightened, just cautious. My dog is wary of spray bottles filled with water. They do not frighten her, but she doesn't like getting sprayed for bad behavior, and so when a mad spray bottle appears, she eyes it warily, waiting to see what it will do.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if "frightened" was quite the right word, but at the time, it was the only one that came to mind.
"Aware of the potential for danger" might be a better fit.
Over-boiling vegetables is, or used to be, a classic British trait. We had a friend (now dead, alas) whose mother, a Methodist, used to put on the cabbage to boil on the stove before the family left for chapel on Sundays so that it would be ready for when they came home afterwards. You could smell it, he said, at the end of the street. In those days, of course, no one was expected to enjoy food. It was good for you, like medecine.
A friend of mine (now dead) possessed a cookbook produced by the ladies of one of Edinburg's posh Church of Scotland congregation some time in the late 1880s. It included a recipe for baby spinach (note, baby spinach) which called for the spinach to be boiled for two hours before serving. As a vegetable note, not as a thin soup.
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Jayzoos you must have a basement full.
They date at a time when fresh peas were seasonal, and drying them was already more common and less expensive than canning. (Just as chickpeas, etc., still commonly are today). Cooked to mushiness? Well, mushiness was the preferred texture for anything vegetal. I suspect that that was a result of poor dental hygiene. Why the continued affection for it? As you observed, food runs more deeply than faith.
All makes perfect sense. And gives me no reason whatever to want to try them!
No, it's because people (like me) actually like them. They're irreplaceable, inimitable.
You only have them at other times of the year because they freeze well and can be tinned, though rather unsuccessfully IMHO. Otherwise, they have to be dried, just as chickpeas are. However, unlike chickpeas which are a Mediterranean crop, they are a basic crop in northern Europe.
Drying peas enables one to preserve them, as with chickpeas. Tinning was only invented in the nineteenth century. Freezing is really very recent, within my lifetime.
@mousethief mushy peas aren't just fresh peas that are cooked until they are mushy. They are a specific dish, which, whether we like them that way or not, we're familiar with, but which I suspect is unknown outside the British Isles.
Like a lot of old fashioned dishes here, they are designed for a time when cooking was done on an open fire in a kitchen where so far as possible, one kept a fire burning all the time, often quite slowly. So things that could just be left to simmer away in the background were useful. Hence stew, cawl - which is a sort of cross between stew and soup - broth, porridge, mushy peas etc.
I think Enoch is looking back to a time long before then. 1927 is very recent to us.
Ah. Good catch. Nevertheless, having more than a small freezer compartment in an under the counter fridge was far from universal in the 70s.
But the ability to freeze freshly harvested peas within hours, or even minutes, of picking them is newer than that.
As @KarlLB says, domestic refrigerators then would have a small freezer compartment in them, but it wasn't up to doing much more than making ice-cubes and slowing down the unfreezing of a block of ice cream for an hour or two.
Ooh yes, the “Family Brick” - usually vanilla, but just occasionally Neopolatan
Unless it is fair time around here when they come in a cup with mint sauce.
I never had them growing up in Kent, but having settled in the Midlands I have become quite partial to them.
Brought home from the shop as quickly as possible, thickly wrapped in layers of newspaper to delay melting.
The days of Enoch are over 300 years. Clearly frozen food is a recent invention.
We eat onion rings, in Melbourne at least. You can buy beer battered onion rings at some Fish and Chip shops and Hungry Jack's (which is our version of the US chain Burger King) sells a less greasy version - I had some of theirs recently. But we wouldn't eat them in a salad.
(Edited to add the apostrophe in Hungry Jack's as it might lead to carnage on this thread if I left it out 😜)
My mother made the best onion rings I’ve ever had. They were divine. They were not battered; they were soaked in milk and then tossed in seasoned flour.
Onion rings as such are, in my experience, not found on salads here—certainly battered onion rings never would be—but crumbled French fried onions can be (and make me very happy).
That's how we make them, based on a "recipe" from my father-in-law. We never actually manage to get them to the table.
*I'm being snotty for a moment but I don't really mean it. It's the IDEA of peas with mint that just has me feeling nauseated. I do love the thought of an afternoon tea...just so you know I'm not being a hater...
(Miss Amanda will get her wrap and go out for some onion rings.)
Not specifically England; found across the UK.
It's normal to cook any peas with mint. Even heard of over the pond:
https://www.marthastewart.com/1154019/minted-peas
My mother would usually throw a sprig of mint in with the peas as they were boiling - and certainly with new potatoes.
Of course, mint grows like a weed, so we were never in any danger of running out...
Sea kale is a different genus (Crambe). Related but not ancestrally. Sea kale has been used as a vegetable in its own right.
Same with 'alternate' as opposed to 'alternative' when these are used as adjectives
'alternate' with stress on the first 'e' means (to me) 'every second one'
'alternate' with stress on the first 'a' is a verb.
I think that American versions come in through film ,TV and social media
After all it is not all that long ago that 'hopefully' (from German 'hoffentlich') was seen as an unacceptable Americanism in the UK
I think you've just provided the example yourself? "I am wary of political ads" would mean the speaker is a little bit frightened of political ads, thinks there might be something sinister about them.
"I am weary of political ads" means he's tired or maybe bored of them.
I meant an example of how your friend uses "wary" when he really wants to say "weary".
Yeah, I wasn't sure if "frightened" was quite the right word, but at the time, it was the only one that came to mind.
"Aware of the potential for danger" might be a better fit.
A friend of mine (now dead) possessed a cookbook produced by the ladies of one of Edinburg's posh Church of Scotland congregation some time in the late 1880s. It included a recipe for baby spinach (note, baby spinach) which called for the spinach to be boiled for two hours before serving. As a vegetable note, not as a thin soup.