Civil War Cooking Tutorial:

TO DRESS PEAS ANOTHER WAY

Original recipe:

Put them into a saucepan; place it into another vessel of boiling water; put in a small piece of butter, salt, pepper, parsley, and the heart of lettuce, add a little summer-savory. About twenty minutes before dishing, add another piece of butter, and dredge in some flour, and stir it. For sauce, take one egg, juice of a lemon, a very little salt, pepper, and a little milk; stir it constantly until it thickens. After the peas are dished, pour the sauce over them.

Source:

Mrs. Putnam's Receipt Book, and Young Housekeeper's Assistant; Phinney, Blakeman & Mason, New York, 1861

Modern Day Adaptation:

We used frozen peas, cooked directly on the stovetop (no double-boiler), adding the butter and everything else specified except the heart of lettuce and summer-savory, having neither to hand at the time. (Savory no longer comes in "winter" and "summer" versions anyway, alas.) The sauce, made separately, indeed cooks very rapidly and will change from thin to thick in an instant. Indeed, we probably got it a bit TOO thick as it perched stubbornly on top of the peas. This was great for photographic purposes but even reheating would not persuade it to sink into the vegetable as we suspect was intended.

Results:

Popular with all diners, including at least one who is not a big fan of plain boiled peas. The lemon accent in the sauce makes all the difference. The non-pea-lover gave it a 7 and others rated the dish a 9.