Name: To Fiew Peas with Lettuces
Ingredients: 2 cups shelled peas; 1 head of lettuce, sliced; 2 tablespoons fresh butter; ½ cup good gravy; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 2 tablespoons flour; 1 tablespoon fresh mint, shredded

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 Fiew Peas with Lettuces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

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

Make the soup

In a frying pan, combine the peas and lettuce with gravy, pepper, and salt.
Thicken the mixture with flour and butter, then stir in the shredded mint.
Serve hot 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: Form the main body of the soup and provide its sweet, vegetal flavor.
Lettuce: Softens into the mixture, adding bulk and a mild, tender texture.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the frying and thickening.
Gravy: Supplies savory liquid and depth of flavor to the soup.
Flour: Thickens the liquid into a smoother, more body-rich consistency with the butter.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked into the fat and liquid so it swells and thickens evenly; added raw or unevenly it 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 Fiew Peas with Lettuces