Ceramic kitchen knife?

I was brought up in Oldham and that is what they called them there. Further North, they call them parched peas for some reason.

Like everything in Blackpool :-(

Dave

You should probably read this:

Cheers for that - they dissapeared from the web as well - now they are back!

Dried peas could indeed be turned into mushy peas, only if you continued to boil them. My wife's recollection of them was to use them before they got mushy and incorporate them in another dish. Once a pea has left the pod for more than a couple of minutes, I hate them.

To clarify our local dish.

Dried peas could be steeped and boiled until they were very similar in consistency to fresh peas, though I am lead to believe that they were very inferior in taste.

Mushy peas could be made from the same raw material, by continuing to boil them.

Parched peas are the same thing as mushy peas. Both mushy and parched peas can be made from either black or green peas and are very popular in the local fish and chip shops..

Dave

Damascus steel?

-- Richard

Again, no. Although such "watered silk" patterns are commonly described as such, and the pattern itself has become known as "Damascene", the _true_ Damascus sword steel was quite different. Rather than laminations, it had a structure that looks more fibrous -- like wrought iron, on a much finer scale.

Interesting that you mentioned BLACK peas. I was once upon a time at University with a fellow student from either Blackburn or Bolton - sadly I cannot now recall which - who insisted he could get black peas from his local chippy and went on to prove the point. Can you still get black peas in that region?