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Peas, Green, Puree of

A puree made from boiled green peas, seasoned with salt, pepper, and stock or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Peas, Green, Puree of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peas

  1. Boil enough water to cover the peas.

  2. Add the peas, salt, and sugar; cook until soft.

  3. Drain the peas in a colander and press through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the pea pulp with stock or butter, and add pepper and salt.

  2. Stir over heat until very hot and serve immediately.

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. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Peas + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,109 recipes
  5. Peas + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

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

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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

Green peas
Form the main body of the puree once cooked and pressed into a smooth pulp.
Stock or white sauce
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the pulp into a smooth, spoonable texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the finished puree.

The step that matters

Press the peas through a fine sieve. Pressing the cooked peas removes skins and fibres, which is what makes the puree smooth rather than grainy. Peas cooked until soft break down more easily, so pressing them while still warm gives the finest texture.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sauce, 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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