Once inordinately expensive and considered a great luxury, peas have become one of the best loved of all vegetables. Endless varieties have been developed, especially in England where the climate suits them to perfection.

Gardeners make a distinction between two types of garden pea, the larger marrow fat, which is wrinkled when dried, and the varieties that remain smooth when dried. The former is much sweeter and is the one most often frozen. The reason for the disappearance of many varieties of green pea is, of course, the ubiquitous frozen pea more expensive to be sure, but a great time saver. 

Garden Peas respond to all sorts of treatment, in England they are preferred plain, boiled and bathed in butter, although some cooks like to add a small sprig of fresh mint. In Italy peas are often mixed with fine shreds of raw ham, or with rice. In countries such as France where vegetables are habitually served in a light coating of béchamel sauce, peas, too, are given this treatment. They are often mixed with carrots. 

Contrary to popular belief, petites poi’s are small not because they are immature but because they are a dwarf variety. These are the peas canned in vast quantities by the French and Belgians, and they are excellent tiny, dull green and very sweet, quite unlike most other canned peas. The fat, ugly canned peas, swimming in green dye, that are sold in Britain are best avoided altogether.

Petites are peas cooked in a lettuce lined saucepan with a little sugar, some tiny silver onions, a lump of butter and only as much water as clings to the lettuce leaves after washing. Cooked in this way, the peas turn a delicate yellowish colour and have a most delicious flavour, even larger peas on the mealy side become melting and young tasting. Really solid older peas are best for fresh green pea soup or purees.

As their name suggests, mange tout peas, which are also called snow peas and sugar peas, are eaten pods and all. There are many varieties, all bred with the minimum of thin, tough membrane that lines the pod of the common green pea, so both the large, flat mange tout pod with immature seeds and the smaller, darker kind make tender eating, provided they are very young. If they have strings at the sides, these should be removed in the kitchen during topping and tailing.  Mange tout peas taste best when they are very briefly boiled or steamed. 

When cooked, they should still have a little bite to them, and they are best served perfectly plain with enough butter to coat each pod. Very young mange tout are salads, and all mange tout peas Good In are also excellent when stir fried. Like the mange tout, the sugar snap Pea has an edible pod, but it is eaten after the peas inside have matured and swollen. As a result, the pod is lumpy rather than flat. Asparagus peas, not a relation of the asparagus but of the cow pea, and in fact not a true pea at all, are rarely seen these days. They have winged pods which, like the mange tout, are eaten as well as the seed, but they are only good when they are very young and 5 cm/2 in long or less.