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Pea Puree

A smooth pea puree served with fried bacon and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,460 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pea Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Pick over and wash the peas.

  2. Soak the peas overnight or for several hours in cold water.

  3. Boil the peas in 3 pints of fresh cold water until dissolved, scraping the sides of the kettle.

  4. When soft, rub the peas through a strainer, adding boiling water or soup stock as needed.

  5. Season and beat the puree until smooth.

Make the bacon and onion topping

  1. In a frying pan, cook the bacon cut into small cubes until light yellow.

  2. Add the diced onion to the bacon and continue cooking until brown.

Serve

  1. Serve the puree like mashed potatoes, pouring the bacon and onion over it before serving.

  2. Add croutons if desired.

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

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

  2. Peas + white peppertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. White pepper + oniontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Peas + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + oniontop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,747 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Dried peas
Form the bulk of the puree, breaking down into a thick, smooth body when boiled and strained.
Bacon or other fat
Adds fat and savory flavor, and its rendered fat carries flavor into the topping.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it browns in the bacon fat.

The step that matters

Rub the peas through a strainer while soft. Peas must be fully softened before straining; undercooked peas stay grainy and won't pass into a smooth puree, and the puree needs boiling water or stock added as needed to keep it loose.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, sugar, onion. 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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