Name: To Steiv Peas with Lettuces
Ingredients: 2 cups shelled peas; 2 cups sliced lettuces; 2 tablespoons fresh butter; ¼ cup good gravy; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 2 tablespoons flour; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon shredded mint

Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

To Steiv Peas with Lettuces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the peas in salted water until tender, then drain them.
Fry the sliced lettuces in fresh butter until softened.

Make the soup

In a pan, combine the peas and lettuces with gravy, pepper, and salt.
Thicken the mixture with flour and butter, then add shredded mint.
Serve in a soup dish.

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.

Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Peas + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Lettuce + minttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together569 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + minttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,372 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

Shelled peas: Provide the main body and sweet, vegetable flavour of the soup.
Sliced lettuces: Soften in butter to add moisture and a mild, tender vegetable base.
Flour: Thickens the liquid with butter, giving the soup a smoother, fuller body.
Good gravy: Adds savoury depth and liquid to the mixture.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked into the butter and liquid so it swells and thickens evenly; adding it raw or unevenly can leave lumps or a pasty taste.

Swap the mint

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

Tarragonfits better
Capersfits better
Parsleyfits better
Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, lettuce, butter, pepper, flour. 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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To Steiv Peas with Lettuces