Name: Lettuce, Stewed, with Green Peas
Ingredients: 2 cabbage lettuces; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 quart young, freshly-shelled green peas; 1 egg-sized piece of butter, rolled in flour; ⅛ pint good stock; pepper to taste; pounded sugar to taste

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 ↓

Lettuce, Stewed, with Green Peas

Ingredients

2 cabbage lettuces
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
1 quart young, freshly-shelled green peas
1 egg-sized piece of butter, rolled in flour
⅛ pint good stock
pepper to taste
pounded sugar to taste

Directions

Prepare the lettuce

Wash the lettuces carefully and remove the stalks and outer decayed leaves.
Sprinkle the salt over the lettuces and let them soak in cold water for 2 hours. Drain the lettuces and cut them into slices.

Stew

In a saucepan, combine the sliced lettuces, green peas, butter, stock, pepper, and sugar.
Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for 30 minutes until the peas are soft.

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.

Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together622 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + peastop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,293 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lettuce + flourtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,236 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage lettuces: Form the bulk of the dish and wilt into a soft, tender body as they stew.
Green peas: Add sweetness and a soft, starchy texture as they cook through.
Butter: Adds richness and body to the stewing liquid.
Stock: Provides the cooking liquid that gently braises the lettuce and peas.

Swap the peas

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

Chestnutfits better
Almondfits better
Beansfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, lettuce, egg, butter, flour, pepper, sugar. 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.