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Puree of Green Peas

A smooth puree made from boiled green peas, flavored with butter, herbs, and sautéed onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Puree of Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the peas and place them in a stew-pan.

  2. Cover the peas with water, add salt, pepper, butter, laurel or peach leaves, and mint.

Cook and strain

  1. Stew slowly, moisten with warm water or broth if necessary, and stir frequently to prevent sticking.

  2. When the mixture reaches a marmalade consistency, strain it.

Add the onion and serve

  1. Chop the onion finely and fry it in butter.

  2. Mix the fried onion with the strained puree before serving.

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 + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Laurel + minttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + laureltop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Pepper + minttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Laurel + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,335 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 strained.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the puree and to the fried onion.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma when fried in butter before mixing in.

The step that matters

Stir frequently while stewing. Peas are starchy and sugary, so they can scorch and stick to the bottom of the pan as the mixture thickens. Stirring often and adding warm water or broth when it looks dry keeps the texture even and prevents a burnt taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, pepper, butter, laurel, mint):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, pepper, butter, laurel, mint. 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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