[Sca-cooks] pease porridge?

[Pat]

Bear, 
As usual, I bow to your sholarship.  Would it be safe to use field peas in a recipe from Forme of Cury?  What about frozen petit pois?  Are these the same petit pois grown in the 1400's in France?  After all, Petit Pois is simply French for Little Pea.
I've always believed (wrongly, I guess) that field peas were simply a blander variety of black eyed peas.  
My family goes a long way back in the Southeastern US, the original Immigrant was one Isaac du Bosc, sometime in the 1600's.  They were rich French Hugenots, related to the famous Hugenot Preacher Pierre du Bosc.  At one point they owned whopping portions of the SC lowlands and many slaves.  Common family knowledge was that the blackeyed peas came over with the slaves from Africa.  
 
Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
The field pea is Pisum sativum var. arvense and is of Eurasian origin. 
Black-eyed peas and cowpeas are Vigna unguiculata and are believed to be of 
African origin.

The European "white" pea appears to be a variety of field pea.

The garden pea is Pisum sativum sativum and it's been around a long time. 
Petite pois, a dwarf version of the garden pea, was being eaten in France 
during the 14th Century.

The navy pea and the white pea you mention together are better known as the 
navy bean or white pea bean. The are members of Phaseolus and are of New 
World origin.

If you attempt to use Gerard or any of the early taxonimists to determine 
what modern peas were in use then, you will have problems. What were once 
classified as a number of different species have been have been rolled into 
Pisum sativum (for example, P. majus and P. minus are considered high bush 
and low bush variants).

Bear


Pat Griffin
Lady Anne du Bosc
known as Mordonna the Cook
Shire of Thorngill, Meridies
Mundanely, Millbrook, AL