Mushy peas

[Jeannine]

Cooked em for years, always the same way, soak overnight with bicarb..etc but I just read something that suggested the bicarb is not needed and the peas are better for you without it and it is supposed to make no difference to the taste ... anyone have any comments.

Has anyone found any difference between the quick soak and the regulars other than speed..

Does anyone pressure cook them and finally has anyone found a way to cut down on the soaking time (suggested is 12-16 hours).  I promised to cook them today and forgot to start the soak last night which is why I was looking on the net and found the bicarb thing

XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

[Digeroo]

I prefer them made with frozen peas.

[lottie lou]

I wouldn't use a pressure cooker.  Did that once and spent ages clearing up the mess off the ceiling 

[Digeroo]

I use a pressure cooker a lot though not for mushy peas and I have never had a mess on the ceiling.

They make wonderful soups very quickly.

[lottie lou]

I use a pressure cooker a lot though not for mushy peas and I have never had a mess on the ceiling.
They make wonderful soups very quickly.

Sorry I meant rather unwise to use for mushy peas due to the propensity of exploding.

[squeezyjohn]

In soups ... dried peas, yes.  In delicious pease pudding made from ham stock ... yes - dried peas please.

But mushy peas ... seriously?  As a proper food?  When you can grow a vegetable to accompany your meal that can be ready nearly 365 days a year on your allotment ... you've got to be kidding me right?

nooo.  They only come from the past when the deliciousness of frozen peas were unheard of and the consequences of the industrial revolution meant that the only way to get hold of a pea in cities was to dry them and then do unspeakable things to them in order to render them edible again.  The mushy pea is a travesty!

Do yourself a favour and consign them to the same place as powdered egg.  The past and the dustbin!

[Jeannine]

There are many reasons why one would want to consume a product as ancient as mushy peas. I asked for info re rushing soaking them, not for a rather rude answer about a food I have chosen  to cook  for an  old gentleman who visits us sometimes and loves them.

As you did not answer my question but chose to use it as a source of ridicule I take that as a don't know

Jeannine

[Nigel B]

Well its an interesting question for sure Jeannine,

Almost all searches I did came up blank too. The best reason two reasons I can find for using Bicarb are
(1) "It fixes the colour, keeps the peas a brighter green than not using it." and
(2)"The bicarb is what makes the peas burst- you'd just have reconstituted peas otherwise."

That's the best I can do with my search engine I'm afraid.

It has piqued my interest though. I may well grow some Marrowfat Peas just to make some Mushy Peas myself next year.

:)

[Jeannine]

Yes it is an odd subject and I got more mystified the more I cruised the net. I use the pressure cooket a lot but have never done mushies in them.

Colour, well  I think I might do a trial on that one . A funny thing about colour. When I worked in a Hull school  a few years ago I remember one of the big grocery chains, Tesco I think, taking the colour out of their tinned marrowfat peas because it was supposed to be on a list of things that sent ADHD kids off, anyway the resulting tinned peas were grey and the Mums said the kids refused to eat them. I wonder if they put the colour back in.

My peas if anyone wants the answer were cooked after  5 hours soaking, not the overnight 12 that Batchelors suggest, they turned out just the way they are supposed to, oh and the tablets, I put them in, then read something negative about them and went to take them out, they were still there just a bit thinner, but some , maybe 1/3rd got into the mix, they seemed the same colour as usual with 2/3rds missing.

I have grown them in the past because for along time I couldn't get them here  so maybe I will start again too.

Anyway our old friend , he is 98 by the way came to dinner and thought they were wonderful along with the home baked steak and kidney pie, neither of which he gets in the care home he lives in. We had a wonderful night listening to his tales of wartime Britain and the English girls he  knew when over there,which is when I guess he  first learned about mushy peas and pie. He married one of the girls  and brought her back sadly  but she died young without children however it seems he still remembers her cooking.

Thanks for all the help folks... anyone else into growing them?

XX Jeannine

[Melbourne12]

Jeannine,

I can't help very much with recipes, since I tend to buy my mushy peas ready-mushed in tins.  But I do remember that when I worked for a couple of years in Sheffield, the Robin Hood pub in Loxley did the best pie'n'peas known to man.  People would come from miles around for this simple meal and a pint or two of beer.

The peas that they made were (a) uncoloured, so they were pale green rather than vivid emerald, and (b) not too mushed up, as if they'd been crushed rather than completely mashed.  I suspect that they were pressure cooked, then bashed a bit to break them up.

But there are so many variations, and this was a particular South Yorkshire take on the pie'n'peas theme.

Regards, John

[squeezyjohn]

Hi Jeannine,

I'm really sorry about that last message.  On re-reading what I thought was a dry funny comment based on my strong aversion to mushy peas - it's pretty obvious that it's at best un-helpful and at worst entirely offensive.

Please accept my apology for hijacking your thread in this way.  I promise it wasn't intended to be offensive.

I will try much harder to edit myself better.

Squeezy

[Jeannine]

Thank you Squeezy.
Oh my goodness an aversion to mushy peas, now there is a challenge, there are so many ways of flavouring them and everyone has their faves. My husband doesn't like them either, his verbal description is pretty awful so I won't print it. I guess they are a bit like Marmite, you love em or you hate em.

XX Jeannine

[lottie lou]

Glad your friend enjoyed his dinner - did you use a short crust or puff/flaky pastry for your pie.   Mmmm pie and peas, brings back memories.

[Jeannine]

Actually none of them really, well I guess shortcrust would be the closest but It is made with more fat here than , so it is very light and flaky as it is, but no rolling and dabbing, just rubbed in fat left to the size of peas and grapes. It works very well and I can sweeten it or not depending on wjat I am doing. Basic pie crust pastry here, and drop dead easy. I usually make a good batch and freeze them ready to bake.

I used todo the Pie Ministry, yep not kidding, the Pie Ministry at our local church, folks would buy a fruit or meat pie to bake at home so I kinda got used to baking lots at a time and as I ran the soup and sandwich day each week too it kept me busy.

XX Jeannine

[Fork]

I wouldn't use a pressure cooker.  Did that once and spent ages clearing up the mess off the ceiling 

same thing happened to me.....but I did put the pressure cooker together wrongly.


These days my mushy peas come from the chippy.


Years ago when my brother was a chef in the Army he cooked the processed peas too long and they turned mushy...he was put on a charge for that 

[Obelixx]

Th ebicarb is there to stop  the peas looking grey and dull.  It doesn't affect flavour.  I can't see it adversely affecting health as it's a standard ingredient in baking powder so must be OK in moderation, as with most things.

I personally don't like mushy peas but defend anyone's right to eat them.  I took my Belgian scientists to Whitstable for fish and chips a few years ago on their English immersion trip and they insisted on trying mushy peas and loved them.  However, they were not the same as the ones I grew up with in Lancashire and Cheshire either at home or from the chippy.  Less mushy and greener and fresher tasting so either they had younger peas or a different variety.

I don't use pressure cookers any more after killing two in my early married life.  Much happier doing a long, slow, barely simmer for things that need a good long cook.

[Jayb]

Must admit I absolutely hate mushy peas, it's the texture that does it for me, bit like the bottom of a trifle, bleugh!

Bicarb used to be added to cooking green peas to keep them looking green for longer particularly if being kept hot in a bain marie, often used in pubs etc. If too much is added peas will become quite soft and mushy and they take on a certain flavour. Again I think it was or perhaps still is added by some to the cooking water of cabbage and kale to maintain colour and help soften the veg. I remember my gran using it. I think Bicarb affects/kills the vitamins in veggies.

[Obelixx]

JayB, I believe you're right about bicarb killing vitamins.

I loathe trifle too with all that soggy sponge, cooking sherry and nasty coloured jelly but then I found a recipe for one made with seriously sticky ginger cake topped with a layer of mandarin oranges and both soaked with Cointreau, a layer of home made thick custard flavoured with vanilla and stem ginger, topped with whipped cream and garnished with either toasted flaked almonds for crunch or slivers of stem ginger. 

Absolutely luscious.

[Yorkshire Lass]

I love mushy peas -I think it's the Yorkshire thing ! Paricularly like them with fish and chips and meat and potato pie. I remember my grandmother and mother adding bi-carb but I thought it was to soften the peas and make them more mushy.  Even now in the poshest restaurants in Yorkshire they serve mushy peas with their fish and chips !!   I suspect we were given them as children to fill us up at little cost.

[Jeannine]

I think the bicarb can be tasted and naybe a bit is needed to give that authentic flavbour . I didn't reallu use it this last time and I have to admit there was a little difference. I don;t like the bicarb falavour I can tatste ity in commercail scones too XX Jeannine