In the intersection between my two interests 1) history and 2) vegetable gardening, I can tell you that the peas most often eaten today are not the same as those eaten during the 18th century. The old type of peas had violet flowers and the actual peas were more grayish in color and had a higher tannin content, and the new strain which dominates today has white flowers and the peas are greener and have less tannins. Also, old peas are usually more cold-tolerant and you can sow them earlier. When people eat pea soup in the 18th century, it's probably grayish-colored! I'm going to grow one of those old-fashioned strains this summer...
I'm not used to talking about this in English but in Swedish, sorry!
And my sources are in Swedish as well, and also, I'm not sure how Scandinavia-centric they are. Like, who knows if there were other varieties of peas in other parts of the world (probably there were)?
The Wikipedia entry for pea says: varieties of the species typically called field peas are grown to produce dry peas like the split pea shelled from a matured pod. These are the basis of pease porridge and pea soup, staples of medieval cuisine; in Europe, consuming fresh immature green peas [along with the walls of the pod, I assume] was an innovation of early modern cuisine.
Also: The world’s first sweet tasting pea was developed in the 18th century by amateur plant breeder Thomas Edward Knight of Downton, near Salisbury, England. This may have been the new pea strain with white flowers that I was talking about?? But Wikipedia's source is really bad, and the Wikipedia entry on that guy doesn't mention his new pea strain.
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Re: Food
Date: 2025-01-03 06:16 pm (UTC)Re: Food
Date: 2025-01-03 06:17 pm (UTC)Do you have a source for this? I'm considering putting it in, say as a footnote.
Re: Food
Date: 2025-01-03 06:37 pm (UTC)And my sources are in Swedish as well, and also, I'm not sure how Scandinavia-centric they are. Like, who knows if there were other varieties of peas in other parts of the world (probably there were)?
The Wikipedia entry for pea says: varieties of the species typically called field peas are grown to produce dry peas like the split pea shelled from a matured pod. These are the basis of pease porridge and pea soup, staples of medieval cuisine; in Europe, consuming fresh immature green peas [along with the walls of the pod, I assume] was an innovation of early modern cuisine.
Also: The world’s first sweet tasting pea was developed in the 18th century by amateur plant breeder Thomas Edward Knight of Downton, near Salisbury, England.
This may have been the new pea strain with white flowers that I was talking about?? But Wikipedia's source is really bad, and the Wikipedia entry on that guy doesn't mention his new pea strain.
Re: Food
Date: 2025-01-03 06:41 pm (UTC)