Leseur peas!!!?????!!!

Okay, a couple of weeks ago I had started a thread regarding frozen peas. While I am the first to admit that nothing is like shelling a pea and cooking it right then and there that is not always possible. I am a huge fan of the frozen product.
For the most part, you don't have to do anything with it except defrost them. They maintain their colour and the flavour is perfect.

Several posters suggested that leseur was a superiour product to the frozen variety. I recall canned peas from my childhood, but don't believe we ever partook in the silver can, black print variety of leseur - the baby pea.

How can I critique something I have not tried? Enough people posted about these canned peas that I had to see for myself.



Lou was immediately skeptical. Incredulous may even be a better word. I've never produced a can of any kind of vegetable in the years we've been together. It's always been fresh or frozen, and usually, it's fresh. I explained the thread I had started. I reiterated the subsequent posts. I explained my reasoning behind the experiment. I opened the can.



The expletives began cascading off my tongue. Forgive me, those who love this product. Indulge me, please. What I saw when I opened the can was not a pea of a lovely shade of emerald green. They were grayish green and pitifully overcooked. The only difference between a can of 1970 garden variety green giant and these leseur peas was the size of the pea. They tasted exactly like the canned peas Marianne cajoled into my disappointed mouth when I was 8.

I wish I had a package of frozen peas so I could do a photo comparison. So, having tried these, I can honestly say, if you cannot get fresh and shell them yourself, nothing beats a frozen pea.

THe only good pea is a raw pea! LOVE raw peas.
But if I have to eat them cooked, I prefer... Le Sueur peas.
(affectionately called LE SEWER here, haha)

Just don't much care for lightly cooked peas; if I have to cook them
i like them "grayish green and overcooked".

The Le Sueur look just like any other canned pea I've ever seen.

I'll pass.

Thanks for the heads up, VB!

Lee

i've got my veggie-preferences although i chose my battles & this is 1 of my go-to veggie items if i'm being lazy; too simple to argue on a weeknite, too, if a significant other in on your dinner roster that evening! despite le sauer's mostly grayish & moreover homily nature at least a majority of tots accept them as nourishment! i'm aiming toward being of a positive nature, here.

My mother used to love these tiny peas, and always felt very privileged when she bought them. With enough butter, they are actually pretty tasty. But they don't taste anything like fresh peas, and the color is disappointing. Having said that. my hubby, who grew up on a farm in Idaho, loves canned peas, canned beans and even canned spinach. Oh dear. In his family, buying canned goods from the store, as opposed to eating stuff you "put up" yourself, was a sign of affluence and therefore, a luxury. All depends on your perspective.

They ARE canned peas, so of course they aren't going to look or taste like a frozen pea.
They are still my favourite when it comes to canned, though I do prefer frozen-- very much so.

The expletives began cascading off my tongue. Forgive me, those who love this product. Indulge me, please. What I saw when I opened the can was not a pea of a lovely shade of emerald green. They were grayish green and pitifully overcooked. The only difference between a can of 1970 garden variety green giant and these leseur peas was the size of the pea. They tasted exactly like the canned peas Marianne cajoled into my disappointed mouth when I was 8.

Click to expand...

QSis said:

The Le Sueur look just like any other canned pea I've ever seen.

I'll pass.

Thanks for the heads up, VB!

Lee

Click to expand...

+1 on that!

Eat Army canned peas one time and you will think Leseuer peas are manna from heaven

LOL! This is interesting because I have never eaten peas in my life. I used to pick them out of the frozen chicken pot pies in my childhood. I hated the way they looked and smelled, but they were always of the canned variety.

I am going to buy some fresh or frozen and give them a try now.

I wasn't gonna chime in here because I still have flashbacks of food snobbery over canned/boxed items from some other forum…..but what the heck, we're family here.

Growing up, my Mom wasn't much of a cook (although my grandmother and grandfather were outstanding cooks). Nearly everything came from a box or can, but God Bless her, she made sure we had food every day.

I don't think that I have ever had fresh peas, and can't recall ever seeing them in any market I've been in. We grew up eating canned peas, and I still eat them today. I remember having TV dinners with peas in them (which Vera spoke of in another thread), and I recall how bright green they were. So green I thought them irradiated!

Also, they were really firm which made me think they were more raw than cooked. They actually kind of popped in your mouth when you ate them.

Is that how fresh peas are supposed to be?

I'll be on the lookout for fresh peas at the Farmer's Market and will definitely get a bag of frozen soon.

Fresh peas are all different sizes and shapes, though mostly round. When you cook them they are very much like the frozen variety, yet slightly firmer and sweeter.

>>can't recall ever seeing them in any market

methinks it unusual to find fresh sugar snap peas in something like a supermarket - the snow pea (eaten pod & all) is common - but they are not like the sugar snaps.

farmers market / roadside stands are the best source - do make sure the pods still drip (almost) when you snap one - 'old' peas start to dry out, the pods turn to leather - (a) shelling is a bear and (b) the taste is gone - lotta work, not much reward.

last year I got a bumper crop in the garden - we blanched/froze the extra and that lasted us through Christmas. this year it went from cold/wet to blazing heat and just zapped the peas - think I got two major pickings before they croaked. hopefully a late planting for fall will do better.

we buy frozen peas - canned not so much except for the tiny ones for specific recipes. the frozen texture is better than canned but again depending on the recipe those 'traits' may not be critical. fresh out of the garden is really good, we can spot the difference between store frozen and home-fresh frozen but that may be more a factor of variety - commercial operations want a variety that is ready for picking 'all at once' but in the home garden I like the extended harvest.

>>food snobbery over canned/boxed
heehee. try condensed mushroom soup - that'll raise some hackles [g]

Chowderman, a sugar snap pea is not the same as traditional green peas; although both have peas in the shell. Sugar snaps don't have to be shelled. Those can be consumed shell and all.

Once a while ago, I found fresh peas in the market. I do really like the frozen ones and try to keep them around.

For me, peas and corn are favorites that seem to be best frozen.

I haven't bought canned in a long time.

I eat my peas with honey
I've done it all my life.
They do taste kind of funny,
But it keeps them on my knife.

(That is the first thing I remember reading and remembering.. )

>>sugar snap pea is not the same

ah yes, you're right. brain failure here . . .

I think it's the snap peas you need to remove the fiberous thread thingy.

You definitely have to remove the 'thingy' from snow peas.

Yeah, I couldn't remember what ones. I forgot once (even though I knew it had to be done, just forgot) and it sucked.

Count me as another person that obhors canned peas. I don't care if they are a high-quality product, they're still canned. Blech!

Peas, corn, and broccoli I will buy frozen. Hominy and green beans I buy canned. Go figure.....