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Puree of Peas

A smooth puree of marrowfat peas thickened with butter, flour, and milk, seasoned with sugar, salt, and white pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Puree of Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Drain peas and add cold water and sugar; cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

  2. Rub peas through a puree strainer.

Make the puree

  1. In a saucepan, thicken the pulp with butter and flour cooked together, being careful not to scorch.

  2. Scald the milk with the onion, then remove the onion and add the milk to the pea mixture.

  3. Season with salt and white pepper.

  4. Add the hot cream and whisk until thoroughly blended.

  5. If not served immediately, keep hot over hot water.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Marrowfat peas
Form the main body and flavour of the puree once cooked and strained.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and cooks with flour to help thicken the pulp.
Flour
Thickens the pea pulp when cooked together with butter into a roux.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the puree to a smooth, creamy texture.
Hot cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the finished puree a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking the butter and flour thickener. Flour must be cooked with the butter long enough to lose its raw taste and thicken properly, while staying off high heat so it does not scorch on the pan base, which would give a burnt flavour and dark specks.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, butter, sugar, flour, milk, onion, cream. 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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