Black peas, also called parched peas or dapple peas, are cooked purple podded peas . They are a traditional Lancashire dish usually served with lashings of malt vinegar, and traditionally on or around Bonfire Night . The dish is popular in Bury, Preston, Rochdale, Oldham, Wigan, Bolton, Atherton, Tyldesley Leigh and Heywood. The dried peas are soaked overnight and simmered to produce a type of mushy pea.
The peas are field peas, left to dry on the plant, as distinct from garden peas, picked green for fresh consumption. The Carlin pea, a different variety prepared in similar ways and also eaten in the north of England, dates back to the 12th century. It is said that Martin Frobisher buried caches of these peas on Baffin Island in the 1570s to sustain his expedition while seeking the Northwest Passage.