HOW do the British eat peas?
September 18, 2023 8:41 AM Subscribe
This is a stupid question but it has plagued me since I was young.
I have been told that in the UK one eats peas "on the back of the fork", which I understand to mean turning the fork upside down, so that the tines make a convex curve like a hill. I understand a "right side up" fork to be held so that the curve of the fork's tines is slightly concave. So my understanding is that in order to eat peas correctly, you hold the fork with the tines pointing down and somehow balance the peas on the convex surface, and this is genteel and doing it the other way is barbaric.
Is this right? This can't be right! Why would you try to balance food on a convex surface, especially peas?
Ever since I was little and reading British children's books, I have been baffled. I eventually figured out that "prawns" were shrimp, which was my other big concern, but the fork problem is worse.
(There's this great scene in Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week where they are at the horrible boarding school and much is made of a particularly disgusting dish with rubbery pink prawns, and I spent much of the eighties thinking that prawns were some special British food.)
I have been told that in the UK one eats peas "on the back of the fork", which I understand to mean turning the fork upside down, so that the tines make a convex curve like a hill. I understand a "right side up" fork to be held so that the curve of the fork's tines is slightly concave. So my understanding is that in order to eat peas correctly, you hold the fork with the tines pointing down and somehow balance the peas on the convex surface, and this is genteel and doing it the other way is barbaric.
Is this right? This can't be right! Why would you try to balance food on a convex surface, especially peas?
Ever since I was little and reading British children's books, I have been baffled. I eventually figured out that "prawns" were shrimp, which was my other big concern, but the fork problem is worse.
(There's this great scene in Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week where they are at the horrible boarding school and much is made of a particularly disgusting dish with rubbery pink prawns, and I spent much of the eighties thinking that prawns were some special British food.)
You smash them as you corral them onto the back of the fork. It's pretty silly.
posted by praemunire at 8:47 AM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 8:47 AM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
There is a TikTok here that demonstrates the process.
posted by Jeanne at 8:47 AM on September 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Jeanne at 8:47 AM on September 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: Per the tiktok, you are...encouraged to...mix your peas with your other foods, something that only toddlers are permitted to do over here, so that they cling to the back of the fork? Churning your food together is very frowned upon the way I grew up - you can certainly take a bite of, say, potatoes and gravy, by making one neat pass with the fork, but you can't churn the potatoes and gravy into a slurry, and you certainly couldn't mix peas in there. I remember my grandparents discouraging this very behavior when I was extremely small.
Once again, my image of the UK is shattered. This is just like when I learned that Victorian visiting cards were huge, gaudy, colorful things, sometimes with little mobile add-ons.
If I ever get to the UK, I will just have to eat convenience foods in the privacy of my hotel room so as not to offend local sensibilities.
posted by Frowner at 8:59 AM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Once again, my image of the UK is shattered. This is just like when I learned that Victorian visiting cards were huge, gaudy, colorful things, sometimes with little mobile add-ons.
If I ever get to the UK, I will just have to eat convenience foods in the privacy of my hotel room so as not to offend local sensibilities.
posted by Frowner at 8:59 AM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Jesus. Please note: Whatever posh people’s etiquette says about how “one” should eat peas (or do anything else) does not equal (or even bear any similarity to) the way almost everyone in Britain actually does anything.
Reading children’s books set in boarding schools and taking that as a representation of what happens in Britain is like me reading Huckleberry Finn and taking it as a guide to contemporary life in the US.
(I’m a pea stabber).
posted by penguin pie at 9:01 AM on September 18, 2023 [33 favorites]
Reading children’s books set in boarding schools and taking that as a representation of what happens in Britain is like me reading Huckleberry Finn and taking it as a guide to contemporary life in the US.
(I’m a pea stabber).
posted by penguin pie at 9:01 AM on September 18, 2023 [33 favorites]
I eat my peas with honey
I've done it all my life
It makes them taste quite funny
But it keeps them on the knife!
Ta da! An English primary school poem I learnt when I was probably about 6, that I now recite every single time I eat peas. Drives my family nuts ;-)
Anyway yes, to answer your question: it makes more sense if you are habitually using your fork with a stabby motion, with the index finger doing all the serious work of directing and controlling, as is more common in British eating habits than in the U.S. I was always taught not to scoop peas up like the fork was a spoon. Oh no. And to never turn the fork over. Rather you stab the peas, or use the knife to squish them against the tines of the fork, so they would stick. Ideally you should be eating them along with something else more sticky on your plate anyway, like mash and gravy.
posted by EllaEm at 9:03 AM on September 18, 2023 [24 favorites]
I've done it all my life
It makes them taste quite funny
But it keeps them on the knife!
Ta da! An English primary school poem I learnt when I was probably about 6, that I now recite every single time I eat peas. Drives my family nuts ;-)
Anyway yes, to answer your question: it makes more sense if you are habitually using your fork with a stabby motion, with the index finger doing all the serious work of directing and controlling, as is more common in British eating habits than in the U.S. I was always taught not to scoop peas up like the fork was a spoon. Oh no. And to never turn the fork over. Rather you stab the peas, or use the knife to squish them against the tines of the fork, so they would stick. Ideally you should be eating them along with something else more sticky on your plate anyway, like mash and gravy.
posted by EllaEm at 9:03 AM on September 18, 2023 [24 favorites]
The back of the fork is definitely the convex side. You're right, we are indeed supposed to balance tiny spherical things on a hill in order to eat them.
Personally, if I want to take a forkful of peas on their own, I'll usually swap the knife and fork over for a moment so that the fork is in my right hand, flip the fork over so that it's spoonlike, and scoop up some peas, using the knife to corral them onto the fork. That's not very proper, and I wouldn't do it if I were dining with the King. But I didn't actually grow up in the sort of household where extreme formality was required at the table, and neither did anyone I commonly share a meal with, so I don't tend to worry about it.
However, if there's something like mashed potato on the plate, I might instead take advantage of that to smoosh some peas along with some mashed potato onto the back of the fork. Not only am I now eating the peas in the approved manner, but I don't have to go to the bother of swapping hands.
It's harder to do with just peas on their own, but as they aren't rigid, you can squash them slightly against the fork even without the aid of a stickier accompaniment. I can and do take that approach if I'm eating with people I think might care about this sort of thing.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:04 AM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Personally, if I want to take a forkful of peas on their own, I'll usually swap the knife and fork over for a moment so that the fork is in my right hand, flip the fork over so that it's spoonlike, and scoop up some peas, using the knife to corral them onto the fork. That's not very proper, and I wouldn't do it if I were dining with the King. But I didn't actually grow up in the sort of household where extreme formality was required at the table, and neither did anyone I commonly share a meal with, so I don't tend to worry about it.
However, if there's something like mashed potato on the plate, I might instead take advantage of that to smoosh some peas along with some mashed potato onto the back of the fork. Not only am I now eating the peas in the approved manner, but I don't have to go to the bother of swapping hands.
It's harder to do with just peas on their own, but as they aren't rigid, you can squash them slightly against the fork even without the aid of a stickier accompaniment. I can and do take that approach if I'm eating with people I think might care about this sort of thing.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 9:04 AM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Per the tiktok, you are...encouraged to...mix your peas with your other foods, something that only toddlers are permitted to do over here,
Uhhhhh what? This is not a rule of which I have ever been aware, after a lifetime spent in the US.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:04 AM on September 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
Uhhhhh what? This is not a rule of which I have ever been aware, after a lifetime spent in the US.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:04 AM on September 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
Response by poster: Reading children’s books set in boarding schools and taking that as a representation of what happens in Britain is like me reading Huckleberry Finn and taking it as a guide to contemporary life in the US.
That was the prawns. And it was a boarding school for witches.
But the books all said that it was barbaric and American to hold the fork tines up! What was I supposed to think? Why would it be in a book if it weren't completely true, penguin pie?
posted by Frowner at 9:04 AM on September 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
That was the prawns. And it was a boarding school for witches.
But the books all said that it was barbaric and American to hold the fork tines up! What was I supposed to think? Why would it be in a book if it weren't completely true, penguin pie?
posted by Frowner at 9:04 AM on September 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
I've lived in the UK more than twenty years and I've literally never seen anybody eat peas the way it is described in the TikTok video above. In fact, even that video says that it's perfectly OK in the UK to just use your fork like a spoon and scoop up the peas.
I admit, I haven't watched that many people eat peas, and maybe I've just encountered a non-representative sample. But watching that video and thinking you've learned something about everyday practice in the UK is like reading this Martha Stewart article and saying, "Wow! I can't believe Americans use three glasses and four forks every time they sit down to eat!"
I can believe it is something that happens. I can even believe it's something that is seen as a marker of certain social classes. I'm just saying it's not a universal behavior at every meal.
posted by yankeefog at 9:13 AM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I admit, I haven't watched that many people eat peas, and maybe I've just encountered a non-representative sample. But watching that video and thinking you've learned something about everyday practice in the UK is like reading this Martha Stewart article and saying, "Wow! I can't believe Americans use three glasses and four forks every time they sit down to eat!"
I can believe it is something that happens. I can even believe it's something that is seen as a marker of certain social classes. I'm just saying it's not a universal behavior at every meal.
posted by yankeefog at 9:13 AM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I think the idea is, that if you're in a formal situation you don't want to scoop the peas because they might roll off the fork, which would be terribly embarrassing.
So you smoosh them instead.
I've never seen anyone do this in my life, but I'm not of the relevant social class anyway and have never been to such a formal event. I suspect that lots of older British children's books were written by people who could afford not to work a "proper" job, so maybe the settings are skewed a bit towards the upper class and the boarding school set.
posted by quacks like a duck at 9:15 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
So you smoosh them instead.
I've never seen anyone do this in my life, but I'm not of the relevant social class anyway and have never been to such a formal event. I suspect that lots of older British children's books were written by people who could afford not to work a "proper" job, so maybe the settings are skewed a bit towards the upper class and the boarding school set.
posted by quacks like a duck at 9:15 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
My very correct grandmother, who was a Nanny raising other people's children during the 1920's and the early 1930's, taught me how to eat correctly. There is no one like the servant class, desperately aping the upper class to avoid farther downward mobility, for being strictly punctilious.
Every dinner she made when I knew her involved mashed potatoes and fresh parsley. First you cut up your meat, then you used the mashed potatoes to plaster the peas or carrots or cabbage to the back of the fork, and finally you anchored the mushy mass with a small piece of the meat on the prongs. Every bite was supposed to be eaten this way, which meant you couldn't request extra carrots or peas if you loved them, and you dared not risk a few introductory forkfuls of mash without the peas, lest you run out and have to try to balance the peas without any potato to stick them on with.
This way of eating is probably related to the old British custom of boiling everything until someone without teeth could eat. There is a common British dish called "mushy peas" which is exactly what it sounds like.
See also the rhyme: I eat my peas with honey, which mocks this tradition and social awkwardness around it. This is about the lower class trying to eat properly, and using some kind of a sauce so they could hold the utensil in a socially acceptable way.
If you were struggling to get food on the table, you could do a fair bit with some kind of a gravy, such as one made with Bovril. The additional gravy (which was essentially flavoured library paste since there was no fat in it) made it possible to eat this way, even when potatoes were too dear in the early summer, and there was only a minuscule serving of meat because the man of the family wasn't in work.
They hey-day of eating like this was probably the late 1800's.
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:19 AM on September 18, 2023 [17 favorites]
Every dinner she made when I knew her involved mashed potatoes and fresh parsley. First you cut up your meat, then you used the mashed potatoes to plaster the peas or carrots or cabbage to the back of the fork, and finally you anchored the mushy mass with a small piece of the meat on the prongs. Every bite was supposed to be eaten this way, which meant you couldn't request extra carrots or peas if you loved them, and you dared not risk a few introductory forkfuls of mash without the peas, lest you run out and have to try to balance the peas without any potato to stick them on with.
This way of eating is probably related to the old British custom of boiling everything until someone without teeth could eat. There is a common British dish called "mushy peas" which is exactly what it sounds like.
See also the rhyme: I eat my peas with honey, which mocks this tradition and social awkwardness around it. This is about the lower class trying to eat properly, and using some kind of a sauce so they could hold the utensil in a socially acceptable way.
If you were struggling to get food on the table, you could do a fair bit with some kind of a gravy, such as one made with Bovril. The additional gravy (which was essentially flavoured library paste since there was no fat in it) made it possible to eat this way, even when potatoes were too dear in the early summer, and there was only a minuscule serving of meat because the man of the family wasn't in work.
They hey-day of eating like this was probably the late 1800's.
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:19 AM on September 18, 2023 [17 favorites]
I regret to say I am of the relevant British social class, and yes for some unknowable reason it is considered correct form to balance whole, unsmooshed peas on the tines of the fork. (Although, of course, feverishly applying correct form at all times is considered impossibly middle class, and in most contexts most "smart" people generally use the smooshing technique.)
posted by bebrogued at 9:36 AM on September 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by bebrogued at 9:36 AM on September 18, 2023 [11 favorites]
You're making the assumption that the UK is one thing. It isn't, but it's often mistakenly seen as one.
What even do you mean by peas? Mushy peas? Hot peas in vinegar? Mince and peas?
posted by scruss at 9:40 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
What even do you mean by peas? Mushy peas? Hot peas in vinegar? Mince and peas?
posted by scruss at 9:40 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
What even do you mean by peas?
I can't speak for Frowner, but as a USian, when I refer to peas, I think of whole and unsmooshed peas. The only other format in which I've consumed peas is in various stews and in split pea soup.
posted by virago at 9:43 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I can't speak for Frowner, but as a USian, when I refer to peas, I think of whole and unsmooshed peas. The only other format in which I've consumed peas is in various stews and in split pea soup.
posted by virago at 9:43 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
feverishly applying correct form at all times is considered impossibly middle class
This is a key point. Observing formal etiquette for it's own sake is very much a middle class pursuit.
If you were at any point invited to a dinner where it was appropriate to observe these kind of rules no one would bat an eye if you did not. That would be a significantly greater breach of etiquette by far than using the wrong fork. (Or even the right fork in the wrong way)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 9:45 AM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
This is a key point. Observing formal etiquette for it's own sake is very much a middle class pursuit.
If you were at any point invited to a dinner where it was appropriate to observe these kind of rules no one would bat an eye if you did not. That would be a significantly greater breach of etiquette by far than using the wrong fork. (Or even the right fork in the wrong way)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 9:45 AM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Another way to eat peas is not at all, because they're demonic green dirt pebbles of joy-killing awfulness.
(It is possible I am speaking hyperbolically from a place of food aversion.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:46 AM on September 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
(It is possible I am speaking hyperbolically from a place of food aversion.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:46 AM on September 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
What even do you mean by peas? Mushy peas? Hot peas in vinegar? Mince and peas?
Are the British truly unaware of the existence of a certain small, round, green vegetable that underpins all those dishes? That vegetable is what Americans refer to as a “pea”.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 9:52 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Are the British truly unaware of the existence of a certain small, round, green vegetable that underpins all those dishes? That vegetable is what Americans refer to as a “pea”.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 9:52 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I do know English people who absolutely balance pees on the back of the fork....but it is never just peas, they always use other food to help overcome the physics challenges balancing spheres on the back of a fork entails.
And then there is the fact that mushy peas are a thing in the UK.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:54 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
And then there is the fact that mushy peas are a thing in the UK.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:54 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
That vegetable is what American’s refer to as a “pea”.
(Sigh) Yes, we have the same peas. We also have mushy peas, minted peas, peas in vinegar, etc.
I grew up in a working class family in the UK. Nobody cares how you eat your peas as long as you don't tip them all over the floor and tread them into the lino.
I could imagine that someone like Jacob Rees-Mogg might be taking the 'peas on the back of the fork' thing seriously still, and scowling over the Daily Telegraph at little Sixtus for his poor table manners.
You might encounter elderly middle-class people still cramming food onto the backs of forks, with or without a binder such as mashed potato. You are not going to get any kind of side-eye or criticism for scooping up your peas. Maybe a few kids born after 1990 still know about the back-of-fork thing, but I'd hazard not many.
Another UK thing is NOT Swapping your fork to your right hand to use it more effectively - fork is always left, knife on the right. Again, nobody gives a fig any more for that nonsense, by and large.
Honestly, the American idea of the British tends to be a bit of a caricature, based on the depictions of our upper classes in TV and film. My experience of Americans is that your upper classes care a lot more about etiquette than ours do.
posted by pipeski at 10:16 AM on September 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
(Sigh) Yes, we have the same peas. We also have mushy peas, minted peas, peas in vinegar, etc.
I grew up in a working class family in the UK. Nobody cares how you eat your peas as long as you don't tip them all over the floor and tread them into the lino.
I could imagine that someone like Jacob Rees-Mogg might be taking the 'peas on the back of the fork' thing seriously still, and scowling over the Daily Telegraph at little Sixtus for his poor table manners.
You might encounter elderly middle-class people still cramming food onto the backs of forks, with or without a binder such as mashed potato. You are not going to get any kind of side-eye or criticism for scooping up your peas. Maybe a few kids born after 1990 still know about the back-of-fork thing, but I'd hazard not many.
Another UK thing is NOT Swapping your fork to your right hand to use it more effectively - fork is always left, knife on the right. Again, nobody gives a fig any more for that nonsense, by and large.
Honestly, the American idea of the British tends to be a bit of a caricature, based on the depictions of our upper classes in TV and film. My experience of Americans is that your upper classes care a lot more about etiquette than ours do.
posted by pipeski at 10:16 AM on September 18, 2023 [9 favorites]
To make more explicit what I think Jane the Brown might be getting at, the 'back of the fork' in this instance refers to the part of the tines nearest the handle, and the trick is to scoop up some peas and then put the fork into something else such as mashed potatoes, which pushes the peas to the back of the fork and prevents them from rolling off.
posted by jamjam at 10:17 AM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 10:17 AM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Lots of mentions for mushy peas - which are a totally different thing for different contexts (fish and chips or with a pork pie), to garden peas, like the ones asked about or in the tiktok video.
Mushy peas are mushed beans, they aren't peas, and aren't a way of making garden peas easier to eat.
posted by chrispy108 at 10:25 AM on September 18, 2023
Mushy peas are mushed beans, they aren't peas, and aren't a way of making garden peas easier to eat.
posted by chrispy108 at 10:25 AM on September 18, 2023
Just seen OPs comment about mixing food.
Yeah it would be absolutely rude to mix your dinner into a slurry at the dinner table.
But it's totally normal to put a bit of mash, then add some peas to one fork.
Or a bit of meat then a bit of roast potato etc.
No one really cares tho. No etiquette police will swoop down or anything. You might just get a few eyerolls, maybe a tut.
posted by chrispy108 at 10:29 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah it would be absolutely rude to mix your dinner into a slurry at the dinner table.
But it's totally normal to put a bit of mash, then add some peas to one fork.
Or a bit of meat then a bit of roast potato etc.
No one really cares tho. No etiquette police will swoop down or anything. You might just get a few eyerolls, maybe a tut.
posted by chrispy108 at 10:29 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Mushy peas are mushed beans, they aren't peas
Mushy peas are absolutely peas. Specifically they are marrowfat peas, which are starchier than garden peas.
The specific point being, if you ask a random British person how they eat peas, you might encounter someone for whom mushy peas are the default. But mushy peas are mostly a working class Northern thing, so mushy-pea-eaters are unlikely to overlap in any way with people who give even half a shit about about the weird fork rule.
posted by quacks like a duck at 11:03 AM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Mushy peas are absolutely peas. Specifically they are marrowfat peas, which are starchier than garden peas.
The specific point being, if you ask a random British person how they eat peas, you might encounter someone for whom mushy peas are the default. But mushy peas are mostly a working class Northern thing, so mushy-pea-eaters are unlikely to overlap in any way with people who give even half a shit about about the weird fork rule.
posted by quacks like a duck at 11:03 AM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
Ah. TIL. was always told they were a different thing to start with.
But I don't think they're the default per say? No one has mushy peas with a roast do they?
Different things for different meals. They aren't created to be peas but easier to eat.
posted by chrispy108 at 11:10 AM on September 18, 2023
But I don't think they're the default per say? No one has mushy peas with a roast do they?
Different things for different meals. They aren't created to be peas but easier to eat.
posted by chrispy108 at 11:10 AM on September 18, 2023
If you were at any point invited to a dinner where it was appropriate to observe these kind of rules no one would bat an eye if you did not.
Weeellll...if you were already possessed of the appropriate status/sufficiently likeable. God help you if you're an outsider.
posted by praemunire at 11:16 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Weeellll...if you were already possessed of the appropriate status/sufficiently likeable. God help you if you're an outsider.
posted by praemunire at 11:16 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
We were taught peas on back of fork growing up even though it was ridiculous and we were very working class. I have no idea why. I took to pronging and scooping as soon as I grew old enough to realise that you only really need a fork for most food. Smooshing and multifood binding is the only sane response to an uncaring universe that demanded we defy the laws of physics if we wanted to eat a small vegetable.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 11:23 AM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 11:23 AM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
God help you if you're an outsider.
Fifty-odd years of living in the UK and I've never experienced this. But then, I don't often get invited to dinner by the landed gentry, so maybe that's why.
posted by pipeski at 11:28 AM on September 18, 2023
Fifty-odd years of living in the UK and I've never experienced this. But then, I don't often get invited to dinner by the landed gentry, so maybe that's why.
posted by pipeski at 11:28 AM on September 18, 2023
Fifty-odd years of living in the UK and I've never experienced this.
It was a cliche I was not expecting to find confirmed myself...and yet.
posted by praemunire at 11:35 AM on September 18, 2023
It was a cliche I was not expecting to find confirmed myself...and yet.
posted by praemunire at 11:35 AM on September 18, 2023
Some time long ago, I read an article/essay by a famous British food writer where they mentioned the mixing on the fork thing. Their contention was that other peoples had completely misunderstood British food, because it was meant to be eaten in little complex mouthfuls, not separate bites of meat, potatoes, green veg and gravy.
As everyone has said, the etiquette police have gone home and they don't bother anyone anymore. But obviously older people like me still eat with the fork always in the left hand and never use it like a spoon (I make an exception for pasta, which was a huge etiquette challenge for my parents' generation). And I have to admit that the American style of cutting everything up first and then eating it with your fork in the right hand is a bit jarring to me. But I never comment, that would be very rude. My granddad had a way of repeating anecdotes that he felt had important educational value. Some were about why we did not keep kosher, they were really weird, because we never identified as Jews, so we had no idea what he was talking about. Others were about making everyone feel welcome and never judged, and he was a master at that, so we could see what he meant in his practice.
My dad was top military brass, and as part of his education, he had learnt table manners fit for state dinners. So my mother's side of the family was always joking about the strictly enforced posh manners he had taught us children. Like here's a thing: you were not supposed to cut your whole new potatoes with a knife. You cut them with your fork, in your left hand. Then you were allowed to mash just the one bite discreetly (not the whole potato, are you insane?), and use it as the foundation for your little bite of everything. My grandmother mashed all her potatoes into the gravy and then used the fork as a spoon in her left hand, and it was radical, and a clear indicator of her working-class background, but it was seen as an endearing eccentricity.
That doesn't mean life was relaxed at my maternal grandparents' house. We always dressed for dinner, and sat politely at the table until everyone had finished eating and talking, which could be hours of sitting on a narrow chair or bench with a stiff back to prevent us from slouching. Those were the days! I haven't exposed my own children to anything even close to this regime, but my dad felt I was doing them a disservice and was quite angry about it.
BTW, with cakes, everything is different. It is more elegant to eat your cake with a fork than with a spoon, and that fork can be in your right hand. Insisting on using your left hand for eating with a cake-fork is Mrs. Bucket territory, and one of those things that really stresses people out if they are unfamiliar with the rules. Ice-creams, mousses and other soft puddings are eaten with the spoon in whatever hand suits you best.
posted by mumimor at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
As everyone has said, the etiquette police have gone home and they don't bother anyone anymore. But obviously older people like me still eat with the fork always in the left hand and never use it like a spoon (I make an exception for pasta, which was a huge etiquette challenge for my parents' generation). And I have to admit that the American style of cutting everything up first and then eating it with your fork in the right hand is a bit jarring to me. But I never comment, that would be very rude. My granddad had a way of repeating anecdotes that he felt had important educational value. Some were about why we did not keep kosher, they were really weird, because we never identified as Jews, so we had no idea what he was talking about. Others were about making everyone feel welcome and never judged, and he was a master at that, so we could see what he meant in his practice.
My dad was top military brass, and as part of his education, he had learnt table manners fit for state dinners. So my mother's side of the family was always joking about the strictly enforced posh manners he had taught us children. Like here's a thing: you were not supposed to cut your whole new potatoes with a knife. You cut them with your fork, in your left hand. Then you were allowed to mash just the one bite discreetly (not the whole potato, are you insane?), and use it as the foundation for your little bite of everything. My grandmother mashed all her potatoes into the gravy and then used the fork as a spoon in her left hand, and it was radical, and a clear indicator of her working-class background, but it was seen as an endearing eccentricity.
That doesn't mean life was relaxed at my maternal grandparents' house. We always dressed for dinner, and sat politely at the table until everyone had finished eating and talking, which could be hours of sitting on a narrow chair or bench with a stiff back to prevent us from slouching. Those were the days! I haven't exposed my own children to anything even close to this regime, but my dad felt I was doing them a disservice and was quite angry about it.
BTW, with cakes, everything is different. It is more elegant to eat your cake with a fork than with a spoon, and that fork can be in your right hand. Insisting on using your left hand for eating with a cake-fork is Mrs. Bucket territory, and one of those things that really stresses people out if they are unfamiliar with the rules. Ice-creams, mousses and other soft puddings are eaten with the spoon in whatever hand suits you best.
posted by mumimor at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: What a fascinating thread this is!
Mumimor, Americans mostly don't cut up all our food and then eat the pieces. That would be considered vulgar unless you were an actual small child or had a mobility issue which made it easier to do all the cutting at once or were feeding an invalid. Although really, why not? Why not cut up all your food at once? Seems like it would get colder more quickly but that would be the only major drawback.
I should say that I started wondering about this because people on the internet were arguing about whether it was rude of Americans to eat in the American fashion when traveling in Europe and the UK (which seems like a stupid concern to me since there's not a large enough difference to inconvenience anyone at the table - it's not like one culture eats with their toes and the other doesn't or something)
Then I started looking at guides for American businesspeople in the UK and and was reminded about the thing with the peas and realized that I'd never gotten it sorted out.
I will say that Americans are definitely told on these our internets that they use their forks in an incorrect and offensive way and that materials for American businesspeople definitely stress eating the peas without scooping, even though I assume that most Americans in the UK are not transacting business with Jacob Rees-Mogg or the queen.
On another note, hot peas with vinegar sounds pretty tasty and looking it (them?) up has prompted me to read Dubliners, which is much more fun and less difficult than I had been led to believe .
posted by Frowner at 11:59 AM on September 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
Mumimor, Americans mostly don't cut up all our food and then eat the pieces. That would be considered vulgar unless you were an actual small child or had a mobility issue which made it easier to do all the cutting at once or were feeding an invalid. Although really, why not? Why not cut up all your food at once? Seems like it would get colder more quickly but that would be the only major drawback.
I should say that I started wondering about this because people on the internet were arguing about whether it was rude of Americans to eat in the American fashion when traveling in Europe and the UK (which seems like a stupid concern to me since there's not a large enough difference to inconvenience anyone at the table - it's not like one culture eats with their toes and the other doesn't or something)
Then I started looking at guides for American businesspeople in the UK and and was reminded about the thing with the peas and realized that I'd never gotten it sorted out.
I will say that Americans are definitely told on these our internets that they use their forks in an incorrect and offensive way and that materials for American businesspeople definitely stress eating the peas without scooping, even though I assume that most Americans in the UK are not transacting business with Jacob Rees-Mogg or the queen.
On another note, hot peas with vinegar sounds pretty tasty and looking it (them?) up has prompted me to read Dubliners, which is much more fun and less difficult than I had been led to believe .
posted by Frowner at 11:59 AM on September 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
But I don't think they're the default per say? No one has mushy peas with a roast do they?
Yes, for a subset of British people mushy peas are the default and might be eaten with a roast, with a pie, with chips, etc.
For the rest of us, garden peas are the default.
The beans you're thinking about might be baked beans. They are also a common working class vegetable and can be found with a pie, with chips, with a full English breakfast, on toast as a snack, on a jacket potato, etc etc. Not at all the same thing as mushy peas.
posted by quacks like a duck at 12:05 PM on September 18, 2023
Yes, for a subset of British people mushy peas are the default and might be eaten with a roast, with a pie, with chips, etc.
For the rest of us, garden peas are the default.
The beans you're thinking about might be baked beans. They are also a common working class vegetable and can be found with a pie, with chips, with a full English breakfast, on toast as a snack, on a jacket potato, etc etc. Not at all the same thing as mushy peas.
posted by quacks like a duck at 12:05 PM on September 18, 2023
I grew up in both a very middle class household and frequently visiting and sometimes eating with very upper class people. My parents taught me 'proper' table manners because while it is Not Done to comment on the table manners of others, it does not mean people aren't Noticing*.
Peas are indeed to be stuck to the back of the fork, as Jane the Brown and muminor say. You take a little piece of meat or whatever, a little scoop of mash and then you adhere your peas to the end of that, in my experience. There is no delicate balancing as it is all too likely to go wrong. If you have excess peas they are to be speared with tines down.
Only the uncouth and Americans eat with tines up (as my American grandmother, who was very invested in appearing British) taught me. Eating with tines up, the fork in the left hand or putting your elbows in the table got you banished to eat in kitchen in Granny's house.
*Honestly, 99% of these rules are ridiculous and I hate them, but there totally is a segment of upper class assholes who will think the less of you for not knowing them.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 12:21 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Peas are indeed to be stuck to the back of the fork, as Jane the Brown and muminor say. You take a little piece of meat or whatever, a little scoop of mash and then you adhere your peas to the end of that, in my experience. There is no delicate balancing as it is all too likely to go wrong. If you have excess peas they are to be speared with tines down.
Only the uncouth and Americans eat with tines up (as my American grandmother, who was very invested in appearing British) taught me. Eating with tines up, the fork in the left hand or putting your elbows in the table got you banished to eat in kitchen in Granny's house.
*Honestly, 99% of these rules are ridiculous and I hate them, but there totally is a segment of upper class assholes who will think the less of you for not knowing them.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 12:21 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
On Americans cutting up all their meat at once:
In the US, I was taught that you never cut up all your meat first, like you're cutting it up for the dog. Cut one bite at a time, eat, then cut another. I've never been able to convince my spouse of this, and it does look jarringly juvenile, cutting it all up at once. Similarly, I was taught that you tear off a bit of bread, butter it, eat it, then butter another bit; you don't cut your roll in half and then butter the entire cut surface, like you're making a sandwich. This was not to look fancy, it was just part of being civilized.
posted by metonym at 12:25 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
In the US, I was taught that you never cut up all your meat first, like you're cutting it up for the dog. Cut one bite at a time, eat, then cut another. I've never been able to convince my spouse of this, and it does look jarringly juvenile, cutting it all up at once. Similarly, I was taught that you tear off a bit of bread, butter it, eat it, then butter another bit; you don't cut your roll in half and then butter the entire cut surface, like you're making a sandwich. This was not to look fancy, it was just part of being civilized.
posted by metonym at 12:25 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm British, I've definitely not confused mushy peas and baked beans 😂
I'm from down south, but have lived in Yorkshire for a decade. I've never seen mushy peas with a roast in any pub or carvery in that time.
Anyway, I read a few posts as suggesting that mushy peas are just normal peas mushed to make them easier to eat, which I dispute as they're a different thing/flavour, even if they might sub in some circumstances for some people.
posted by chrispy108 at 12:28 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm from down south, but have lived in Yorkshire for a decade. I've never seen mushy peas with a roast in any pub or carvery in that time.
Anyway, I read a few posts as suggesting that mushy peas are just normal peas mushed to make them easier to eat, which I dispute as they're a different thing/flavour, even if they might sub in some circumstances for some people.
posted by chrispy108 at 12:28 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
The basic rule here is very simple. A gentleman always eats peas with a fork .. never, ever, with a knife.
This is one of those social customs that comes up again and again in Victorian novels, starting with Thackeray's Book of Snobs (1848):
I once knew a man who, dining in my company at the Europa coffee-house, (opposite the Grand Opera, and, as everybody knows, the only decent place for dining at Naples), ate peas with the assistance of his knife. He was a person with whose society I was greatly pleased at first .. but I had never before seen him with a dish of peas, and his conduct in regard to them caused me the deepest pain.
How did this disgusting habit come about? Thackeray suggests it comes from the English use of a two-pronged fork instead of the Continental four-pronged fork:
He acquired it at a country school, where they cultivated peas, and only used two-pronged forks, and it was only by living on the continent, where the usage of the four-prong is general, that he lost the horrible custom.
This explains the scene in Mrs Gaskell's Cranford (1853), where the ladies are served a delicious dish of peas, but -- oh horror! -- only have a two-pronged fork to eat them with:
When the ducks and green peas came, we looked at each other in dismay; we had only two-pronged, black-handled forks. It is true the steel was as bright as silver; but what were we to do? Miss Matty picked up her peas, one by one, on the point of the prongs .. Miss Pole sighed over her delicate young peas as she left them on one side of her plate untasted, for they would drop between the prongs. I looked at my host: the peas were going wholesale into his capacious mouth, shovelled up by his large, round-ended knife.
And it also comes into Gilbert & Sullivan's The Sorcerer (1877), where John Wellington Wells tries to fend off the unwanted attentions of Lady Sangazure by telling her about all the awful vulgar things he does:
Mr W. Hate me! I drop my H's – 'ave through life!
Lady S. Love me! I'll drop them too!
Mr. W. Hate me! I always eat peas with a knife!
Lady S. Love me! I'll eat like you!
Now, the point is (and I can't stress this enough): this is supposed to be a joke. Thackeray is satirizing social snobbery. Mrs Gaskell is making fun of people who would rather leave their peas on the side of the plate than eat them with a knife. Everybody knows this is a stupid custom. But they still do it, because, as Thackeray says: 'society having ordained certain customs, men are bound to obey the law of society'.
I think that tells you something quite important about the English. We laugh at ourselves. English humour has always had a strong vein of self-deprecating irony. Even a figure as ridiculous as Jacob Rees-Mogg knows he is ridiculous and draws attention to his own ridiculousness in a kind of knowing self-mocking way. But in the end, we conform. We obey the rules even though we make fun of them. Or as Bertrand Russell says in Power (1938): 'There may, for aught I know, be admirable reasons for eating peas with a knife, but the hypnotic effect of early persuasion has made me completely incapable of appreciating them.'
posted by verstegan at 12:34 PM on September 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
This is one of those social customs that comes up again and again in Victorian novels, starting with Thackeray's Book of Snobs (1848):
I once knew a man who, dining in my company at the Europa coffee-house, (opposite the Grand Opera, and, as everybody knows, the only decent place for dining at Naples), ate peas with the assistance of his knife. He was a person with whose society I was greatly pleased at first .. but I had never before seen him with a dish of peas, and his conduct in regard to them caused me the deepest pain.
How did this disgusting habit come about? Thackeray suggests it comes from the English use of a two-pronged fork instead of the Continental four-pronged fork:
He acquired it at a country school, where they cultivated peas, and only used two-pronged forks, and it was only by living on the continent, where the usage of the four-prong is general, that he lost the horrible custom.
This explains the scene in Mrs Gaskell's Cranford (1853), where the ladies are served a delicious dish of peas, but -- oh horror! -- only have a two-pronged fork to eat them with:
When the ducks and green peas came, we looked at each other in dismay; we had only two-pronged, black-handled forks. It is true the steel was as bright as silver; but what were we to do? Miss Matty picked up her peas, one by one, on the point of the prongs .. Miss Pole sighed over her delicate young peas as she left them on one side of her plate untasted, for they would drop between the prongs. I looked at my host: the peas were going wholesale into his capacious mouth, shovelled up by his large, round-ended knife.
And it also comes into Gilbert & Sullivan's The Sorcerer (1877), where John Wellington Wells tries to fend off the unwanted attentions of Lady Sangazure by telling her about all the awful vulgar things he does:
Mr W. Hate me! I drop my H's – 'ave through life!
Lady S. Love me! I'll drop them too!
Mr. W. Hate me! I always eat peas with a knife!
Lady S. Love me! I'll eat like you!
Now, the point is (and I can't stress this enough): this is supposed to be a joke. Thackeray is satirizing social snobbery. Mrs Gaskell is making fun of people who would rather leave their peas on the side of the plate than eat them with a knife. Everybody knows this is a stupid custom. But they still do it, because, as Thackeray says: 'society having ordained certain customs, men are bound to obey the law of society'.
I think that tells you something quite important about the English. We laugh at ourselves. English humour has always had a strong vein of self-deprecating irony. Even a figure as ridiculous as Jacob Rees-Mogg knows he is ridiculous and draws attention to his own ridiculousness in a kind of knowing self-mocking way. But in the end, we conform. We obey the rules even though we make fun of them. Or as Bertrand Russell says in Power (1938): 'There may, for aught I know, be admirable reasons for eating peas with a knife, but the hypnotic effect of early persuasion has made me completely incapable of appreciating them.'
posted by verstegan at 12:34 PM on September 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
“I’m from Metafilter and I can overthink a fork full of peas.”
posted by adamrice at 12:34 PM on September 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by adamrice at 12:34 PM on September 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
On a more serious note, disgust is a conservative emotion, and teaching children to be disgusted by other table manners and foodstuffs is a very efficient way of forming their values and politics and upholding colonialist mindsets even today.
posted by mumimor at 1:12 PM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 1:12 PM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Geez, I'd never eat if I had to keep my fork in my left hand. I'm nearly useless with it. Can't hold a pencil correctly with it. And when I was living in Korea, eating ramen was always fraught. I could never get my right and left hands to work together.
posted by kathrynm at 1:34 PM on September 18, 2023
posted by kathrynm at 1:34 PM on September 18, 2023
I think the closest US equivalent to UK/ Ireland mushy peas would have been unthinned Campbell's green pea soup, which they stopped making 3 years ago. Their split pea has pork and other vegetables.
I had a copy of the rooster crows, which includes "I eat my peas with honey". The title says the collection is American, but I know most of it originated in the British isles and possibly West Africa.
posted by brujita at 2:01 PM on September 18, 2023
I had a copy of the rooster crows, which includes "I eat my peas with honey". The title says the collection is American, but I know most of it originated in the British isles and possibly West Africa.
posted by brujita at 2:01 PM on September 18, 2023
If we're allowed to wander a bit... I was taught that when eating bread and butter in a restaurant, one tears off a small piece of the bread (or roll) and butters that one bit; one does not butter the entire slice or roll. But in an episode of Father Brown I watched recently, Lady Felicia buttered the slices of bread and handed them out to her dining companions! It was a meal in a kitchen with some rather rough characters, but Mrs McCarthy was right there.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:20 PM on September 18, 2023
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:20 PM on September 18, 2023
I was taught that when eating bread and butter in a restaurant, one tears off a small piece of the bread (or roll) and butters that one bit; one does not butter the entire slice or roll. But in an episode of Father Brown I watched recently, Lady Felicia buttered the slices of bread and handed them out to her dining companions! It was a meal in a kitchen with some rather rough characters, but Mrs McCarthy was right there.
Those are completely different situations, with different rules. If the bread and butter accompanies a meal like dinner or supper, you do the tearing and buttering. If the bread and butter is the meal, or it is part of tea, you have buttered slices. Easy.
posted by mumimor at 2:28 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Those are completely different situations, with different rules. If the bread and butter accompanies a meal like dinner or supper, you do the tearing and buttering. If the bread and butter is the meal, or it is part of tea, you have buttered slices. Easy.
posted by mumimor at 2:28 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
And obviously, you have buttered toast for breakfast.
posted by mumimor at 2:31 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mumimor at 2:31 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Peas are indeed to be stuck to the back of the fork, as Jane the Brown and muminor say. You take a little piece of meat or whatever, a little scoop of mash and then you adhere your peas to the end of that, in my experience.
I think it's kind of interesting, because in the US, peas and mashed potatoes are not upper class foods, and it's pretty rare they would be served together in a proper dining experience. Peas mixed with cut up boiled carrots are for small children and on kids' menus.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:31 PM on September 18, 2023
I think it's kind of interesting, because in the US, peas and mashed potatoes are not upper class foods, and it's pretty rare they would be served together in a proper dining experience. Peas mixed with cut up boiled carrots are for small children and on kids' menus.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:31 PM on September 18, 2023
Growing up in New Zealand in the '60s and '70s (ie more British than Britain), I was always taught to never turn my fork so the tines face up (so American and vulgar!) but to squish the peas onto the back of the fork. I've long since decided that's fucking stupid and scoop them up using the fork like a spoon. I still never (well, almost never) allow my arms to extend over the table beyond my wrists and am sure to align my knife and fork correctly whenever I put them down on the plate.
Mushy peas are definitely a thing, most assuredly not beans but actual peas and, here in Australia, most often consumed as part of a 'pie & peas' where mushy peas are either slopped on top of a cooked meat pie (try eating that with your hands and staying clean) or, more correctly, the top of the pie cut off and peas inserted, then the top placed back on (even harder to eat with hands, because taking the top off makes it lose any structural rigidity). Not to be confused with a 'pie floater', being a meat pie floating in a bowl of thick pea soup.
posted by dg at 3:54 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mushy peas are definitely a thing, most assuredly not beans but actual peas and, here in Australia, most often consumed as part of a 'pie & peas' where mushy peas are either slopped on top of a cooked meat pie (try eating that with your hands and staying clean) or, more correctly, the top of the pie cut off and peas inserted, then the top placed back on (even harder to eat with hands, because taking the top off makes it lose any structural rigidity). Not to be confused with a 'pie floater', being a meat pie floating in a bowl of thick pea soup.
posted by dg at 3:54 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I eat peas with a spoon. Nothing else makes any sense.
posted by Windopaene at 5:01 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 5:01 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
My wife and her sisters were raised by a painfully middle class woman who aspired to live as if it were still the 1950s, and along with being habituated to many other utterly bonkers outdated English class signifiers, they can all eat their peas off the back of a fork without thinking about it. It mostly involves using the other items of food to hold them on, as others have said. They don't care that peasants like myself just shovel the things in like everyone else who grew up normal in the late 20th century, though, and most of the last generation who did really bother about it are now dead.
Any American concerned that their pea-eating technique may upset the sort of British person who cares about that kind of thing can rest assured that you will have already deeply offended their delicate sensibilities multiple times before you even get near a table simply by being American, and you are best advised to do what the rest of us non-U types do, and stop worrying about their ridiculous, antiquated bullshit.
posted by tomsk at 1:08 AM on September 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
Any American concerned that their pea-eating technique may upset the sort of British person who cares about that kind of thing can rest assured that you will have already deeply offended their delicate sensibilities multiple times before you even get near a table simply by being American, and you are best advised to do what the rest of us non-U types do, and stop worrying about their ridiculous, antiquated bullshit.
posted by tomsk at 1:08 AM on September 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: Thank you everyone for a terrific thread! I have the basic answer to my question but also so much more various and in-depth information than I could possibly have anticipated. This is really the kind of thing I come here for.
posted by Frowner at 10:36 AM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 10:36 AM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think it's kind of interesting, because in the US, peas and mashed potatoes are not upper class foods, and it's pretty rare they would be served together in a proper dining experience.
I think the assumption that upper class people only have "proper dining experiences" is not true (I'm not even sure what that is exactly). Upper class people eat all kinds of things. And I don't think anyone in this thread is saying peas and mashed potatoes is "upper class"- only that a particular way of eating maybe is/was.
Not so long ago, peas and mashed potatoes certainly were regular menu options for Americans, even for fancy restaurants; they are still fairly common sides for roast lamb, as springtime and lamb and peas go together. I have numerous old cookbooks with peas and mashed potatoes in the suggested menus, and vintage restaurant menus would often have a VEGETABLES section, with New or French peas being popular, as well as a POTATOES section. I suspect peas aren't as popular as they used to be in the US because canned peas fell out of favor; and fresh peas have a short season, compared to something like green beans. Green beans are easier to prepare if you don't have time to shell peas, in fact I would say fresh peas are more of a luxury item than the average vegetable. The season is short, they aren't grown everywhere, and they need to be shelled. There's no reason why they can't be fancy and served with pommes puree.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:21 PM on September 19, 2023
I think the assumption that upper class people only have "proper dining experiences" is not true (I'm not even sure what that is exactly). Upper class people eat all kinds of things. And I don't think anyone in this thread is saying peas and mashed potatoes is "upper class"- only that a particular way of eating maybe is/was.
Not so long ago, peas and mashed potatoes certainly were regular menu options for Americans, even for fancy restaurants; they are still fairly common sides for roast lamb, as springtime and lamb and peas go together. I have numerous old cookbooks with peas and mashed potatoes in the suggested menus, and vintage restaurant menus would often have a VEGETABLES section, with New or French peas being popular, as well as a POTATOES section. I suspect peas aren't as popular as they used to be in the US because canned peas fell out of favor; and fresh peas have a short season, compared to something like green beans. Green beans are easier to prepare if you don't have time to shell peas, in fact I would say fresh peas are more of a luxury item than the average vegetable. The season is short, they aren't grown everywhere, and they need to be shelled. There's no reason why they can't be fancy and served with pommes puree.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:21 PM on September 19, 2023
peaple in this thread are taking the peas
posted by lalochezia at 6:49 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 6:49 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think the assumption that upper class people only have "proper dining experiences" is not true (I'm not even sure what that is exactly). Upper class people eat all kinds of things. And I don't think anyone in this thread is saying peas and mashed potatoes is "upper class"- only that a particular way of eating maybe is/was.
You have a good point, but I'd add that while you don't see mashed potatoes/pommes puree a lot at typical fine dining restaurants today, it was once popular. And it is probably still served at posh home dinners in the UK to this day. Because it is delicious and luxurious.
And obviously, fresh peas in season are a true luxury. They are at their best when picked the same morning, and you need someone to de-pod them.
posted by mumimor at 6:59 AM on September 20, 2023
You have a good point, but I'd add that while you don't see mashed potatoes/pommes puree a lot at typical fine dining restaurants today, it was once popular. And it is probably still served at posh home dinners in the UK to this day. Because it is delicious and luxurious.
And obviously, fresh peas in season are a true luxury. They are at their best when picked the same morning, and you need someone to de-pod them.
posted by mumimor at 6:59 AM on September 20, 2023
Some schoolyard graffiti near my home once inspired me to write a poem about mushy peas. Here it is.
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Chalked up on the playground wall,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Free advice for one and all,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Silent farts, I think it means,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
(Also powered by sprouts and beans),
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Noiseless burst of noxious air,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
No-one knows who left it there,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Bobby's planning further fun,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Brewing up another one,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Smugly, he lets loose the next,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Foul air spreading from his kecks,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Birds fall choking from the skies,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Stench so bad it burns your eyes,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Passers-by drop to their knees,
Meanwhile, Bobby, back at home, re-
Loads his tum with mushy peas.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:34 PM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Chalked up on the playground wall,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Free advice for one and all,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Silent farts, I think it means,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
(Also powered by sprouts and beans),
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Noiseless burst of noxious air,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
No-one knows who left it there,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Bobby's planning further fun,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Brewing up another one,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Smugly, he lets loose the next,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Foul air spreading from his kecks,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Birds fall choking from the skies,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Stench so bad it burns your eyes,
"Mushy peas for ninja stealth farts",
Passers-by drop to their knees,
Meanwhile, Bobby, back at home, re-
Loads his tum with mushy peas.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:34 PM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Marguerite Henry's Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin--set in Colonial Pennsylvania--includes a scene with "I eat my peas with honey"
posted by brujita at 6:32 AM on September 21, 2023
posted by brujita at 6:32 AM on September 21, 2023
« Older High-energy, chaotic music videos | What utensil do you use to eat salads and if it's... Newer »
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by The Bellman at 8:45 AM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]