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To Stew Peas for a Dish

A pea stew made with butter, onion, cabbage lettuce, ham essence, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 622 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Peas for a Dish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a stewpan, combine the peas, butter, onion, lettuce, and salt.

  2. Cover the pan and place it over moderate heat, sweating the peas until half cooked.

Thicken and finish

  1. Thicken the mixture with flour and water.

  2. Stir in the essence of ham, season with cayenne pepper, and add sugar if desired.

  3. Let the peas stew gently until tender, ensuring they do not burn.

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. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peas
Form the body of the stew and provide the main flavour and tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the vegetables soften in the pan.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens with the peas.
Cabbage lettuce
Adds bulk and moisture, wilting down into the stew as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a body-rich, spoonable stew.
Essence of ham
Adds concentrated savoury, smoky meaty flavour to the stew.

The step that matters

Let the peas stew gently until tender. Gentle heat softens the peas evenly while the flour-thickened liquid stays smooth. Higher heat can scorch the bottom of the pan and turn the stew bitter or catch on the base before the peas are tender.

Swap the peas

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, cabbage, lettuce, flour, ham, pepper. 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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