PEAS, DRIED WHOLE, GREEN.—­This is perhaps the best form with which we meet peas dried.  When the best quality is selected, and care taken in their preparation, they are quite equal to fresh green peas when they are old.  Indeed, many persons prefer them.

Soak the peas overnight, throwing away those that float at the top; put them into cold water, and when they boil let the peas simmer gently till they are tender.  The time varies very much with the quality and the size of the peas, old ones requiring nearly three hours, others considerably less.  When the peas are tender, throw in some sprigs, if possible, of fresh mint, and after a minute strain them off; add pepper, salt, and about two ounces of butter to a quart of peas—­though this is not absolutely necessary—­and nearly a dessertspoonful of white powdered sugar.

If you wish to have the peas as bright a green as freshly gathered ones, after you strain them off you can mix them in a basin, before you add the butter, with a little piece of green vegetable colouring (sold in bottles by all grocers).  The peas should then be put back in the saucepan for a few minutes to be made hot through, and then finished as directed before.

PEAS, DRIED, GREEN, WITH CREAM.—­Boil the peas as before directed till they are quite tender, then strain them off and put them in a stew-pan with one ounce of butter to every quart of peas and toss them lightly about with a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg.  Add to each quart of peas a quarter of a pint of cream and a dessertspoonful of powdered sugar; surround the dish with fried or toasted bread.

LENTILS.—­Lentils are, comparatively speaking, a novel form of food in this country, though they have been used abroad for many years, and a recipe for cooking them will be found in a well-known work, published in Paris in 1846, entitled “La Cuisiniere de la Campagne et de la Ville; ou, Nouvelle Cuisine Economique,” one of the most popular French cookery-books ever published, and which in that year had reached a circulation of 80,000 copies.

Recipes for boiled lentils and lentil soup are given in “Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery,” published in 1875; but it is stated in the introductory remarks that lentils are little used in England except as food for pigeons, and adds, “They are seldom offered for sale.”  Since that date lentils have become an exceedingly popular form of food in many households, and vegetarians generally regard them as one of the most nourishing forms of food served at the table.  There are two kinds of lentils, the German and Egyptian.  The Egyptian are red and much smaller than the German, which are green.  The former kind are generally used on the Continent, in Italy and the South of France, while, as the name implies, the green lentils are more commonly used in Eastern Europe.  Either kind, however, can be used for making soup and puree, recipes of which have already been given, as well as for the recipes in the present chapter.