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June Peas, French Style

A preserved pea dish cooked with butter, salt, lettuce yolk, sugar, and onions, then processed at 135°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,293 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

June Peas, French Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Wash the peas in cold water.

  2. Cook the peas for one hour with little water in a steam enamel kettle with a tight-fitting cover.

  3. Add butter, salt, yolk of lettuce, sugar, and whole onions.

Can and process

  1. Can the mixture with the juice and process for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts at 135°F.

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.

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

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

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

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

  3. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the main body of the dish and give it its tender, soft texture when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the savory flavors.
Whole onions
Contribute savory aroma and flavor as they soften during cooking.

The step that matters

Process for the stated time for your jar size. Processing time must match the jar size, pints at 20 minutes or quarts at 25 minutes, because heat must penetrate fully into the jar contents. Too short a time can leave harmful microorganisms alive, which risks spoilage and food safety.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, peas, lettuce, sugar):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, peas, lettuce, sugar. 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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