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French Peas

A buttery green peas dish thickened with a flour‑butter roux and garnished with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

French Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the peas

  1. Put some fresh green peas into a saucepan with a lump of butter, a little salt and a small quantity of water, cover and boil over a quick fire until tender.

  2. Knead one ounce of butter with some flour; put it in with the peas, stir them till thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Add four ounces of butter broken in little pieces, one-half teaspoonful of sugar and a small quantity of grated nutmeg.

  2. Turn the peas out onto a dish, garnish with sippets of fried bread, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1008Calories
56 gProtein
24 gFat
143 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Olive1 large (4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Landmarks Club. 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh green peas (in the method)
Form the main body of the dish, cooked until tender in a little water.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished peas.
Flour (in the method)
Kneaded with butter to thicken the cooking liquid into a sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the kneaded butter and flour. Flour thickens only when stirred into hot liquid and given time to cook; added cold or unstirred it clumps and leaves a raw floury taste and uneven texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, pepper, bread, egg, chicken, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, pepper, bread, egg, chicken, tomato. 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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