On Food and Cooking

Pea The pea has been cultivated for around
9,000 years and spread quite early from the
Middle East to the Mediterranean, India, and
China. It’s a cool-climate legume that grows
during the wet Mediterranean winter and in
the spring of temperate countries. It was an
important protein source in Europe in the
Middle Ages and later, as the old children’s
rhyme attests: “Pease porridge hot, Pease
porridge cold, Pease porridge in the pot, Nine
days old.” Today, two main varieties are
cultivated: a starchy, smooth-coated one that
gives us dried and split peas, and a wrinkly
type with a higher sugar content, which is
usually eaten when immature as a green
vegetable. Peas are unusual among legumes in
retaining some green chlorophyll in their dry
cotyledons; their characteristic flavor comes
from a compound related to the aroma
compound in green peppers (a methoxy-
isobutyl pyrazine).