Boiled Green Peas

Ingredients

• Green peas
• to each 1/2 gallon of water
• 1 small_ teaspoonful of moist sugar
• 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt

Instructions

1. This delicious vegetable, to be eaten in perfection, should be young, and not _gathered_ or _shelled_ long before it is dressed.
2. Shell the peas, wash them well in cold water, and drain them;
3. then put them into a saucepan with plenty of _fast-boiling_ water, to which salt and _moist sugar_ have been added in the above proportion;
4. let them boil quickly over a brisk fire, with the lid of the saucepan uncovered, and be careful that the smoke does not draw in.
5. When tender, pour them into a colander;
6. put them into a hot vegetable-dish, and quite in the centre of the peas place a piece of butter, the size of a walnut.
7. Many cooks boil a small bunch of mint _with_ the _peas_, or garnish them with it, by boiling a few sprigs in a saucepan by themselves.
8. Should the peas be very old, and difficult to boil a good colour, a very tiny piece of soda may be thrown in the water previous to putting them in; but this must be very sparingly used, as it causes the peas, when boiled, to have a smashed and broken appearance.
9. With young peas, there is not the slightest occasion to use it.