Why it works: Lettuce and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,409 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the soup base
In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the lettuce, parsley, onions, sugar, cucumbers, salt, and pepper.
Stir often and cook for 1 hour.
Add the peas and simmer
Meanwhile, boil the older peas in 1 gallon of water until tender.
Pass the boiled peas through a sieve back into the cooking water.
Add the pea mixture to the pot with the other ingredients.
Simmer for 1½ hours.
Remove the onions if desired before serving.
Optionally, dip in a sprig of mint before serving.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Lettuce + cucumbertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,409 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Cucumber + peastop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together629 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Lettuce + peastop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,483 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the soup.
- Older peas
- Thicken the soup as they break down and release starch when boiled and sieved.
- Lettuce
- Adds body and a soft, tender vegetable texture as it cooks down.
- Onions
- Build savoury depth and sweetness as they soften slowly in the pot.
- Sugar
- Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the vegetables.
The step that matters
Sieving the boiled peas. Passing the peas through a sieve breaks them into a smooth purée that thickens the soup evenly. Leaving them whole or skipping the sieve gives a thinner, lumpier result.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, parsley, sugar, cucumber, butter, peas, pepper):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Cauliflowerbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, parsley, sugar, cucumber, butter, peas, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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