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Green Peas

A stew of green peas, lettuce, onion, parsley, and diced ham, thickened with flour, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Green Peas

Why it works: Lettuce and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,483 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Shell and wash the peas.

  2. Put the peas in cold water to cook.

  3. When nearly done, add coarse sea salt.

  4. When tender, remove the peas with a little cooking liquid.

Make the stew

  1. In a stew-pan, combine the peas, lettuce, onion, parsley, and ham.

  2. Cover and cook over gentle heat, shaking occasionally.

  3. Add water if necessary to prevent burning.

  4. Once the peas are tender, remove the ham and onion.

  5. Mix the flour with butter and cream.

  6. Stir the flour mixture into the peas.

  7. Simmer gently for 3–4 minutes.

  8. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green peas
Form the body of the stew and give it its main texture and sweet flavour.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so the stew becomes smooth and lightly body-rich.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and smoother finish.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, softening the stew's finish.
Ham
Contributes savoury, salty flavour as it cooks into the stew.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour mixture into the peas. Flour clumps if added raw or unevenly; mixing it first with butter and cream and stirring it in gradually lets starch disperse and thicken smoothly rather than forming lumps.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, onion, parsley, ham, flour, butter, cream):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, onion, parsley, ham, flour, butter, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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